Lasagna

My favorite lasagna comes from New Hampshire.  It's made in a cozy kitchen in New London by an amazing lady.  

The cold weather has spurred an early craving for her delicious, cheesy lasagna.  Due to the fact that I now live on the "wrong" coast, I had to try my skills to re-create boyfriend's mother's specialty.  For the purpose of this blog, lets call the lasagna master "D".  

Now, I can make pasta and sauce NO problem, in fact, I think I could even call it my specialty.  So I figured lasagna would be no problem. Right? Wrong!!  I e-mailed D for her recipe.  She sent back  instructions  like I knew what I was doing... Also WRONG!  In fact, because the e-mail didn't say so, I didn't know I needed to cook the noodles before I layered and baked them.  After a little insight from boyfriend, I headed out to the grocery to pick up the necessary supplies.  

My mom made home-made sauce with tomatoes from dad's garden (not something readily available in NH).  I defrosted the sauce and browned turkey.  I combined the meat into the sauce to make an easy meat sauce. Check!

D's e mail said to mix the ricotta cheese with an egg.  I was a little put off by this, so I looked it up.  Turns out everyone mixes an egg with ricotta cheese to make it easier to spread.... okkkk. 

I bought fresh mozzarella and sliced it up.  

I then put down the first layer of tomato sauce

Step #2: the noodles 

I stuck a dollop of ricotta cheese on each side of the noodles  

  

and added a bit of sauce to spread the ricotta cheese out evenly.  

Then, as if laying bricks, I filled in the cracks with mozzarella.

I repeated the layering process until I reached the top of the pan and then added the remaining mozzarella to the top. 

I put the lasagna in the oven to bake for about an hour.

Boyfriend came home from basketball a VERY hungry boy.  He was so anxious to try the lasagna, he refused to let it finish baking, and removed it from the oven after about 45 minutes.  Since everything was cooked before it went into the oven, I didn't see any food safety issues with taking it out early.  

I personally like my lasagna a little crunchier on top and at the edges.  Since this one didn't get to bake the full time, it was a  waterier and more runny that I would have liked.  

As you can see in the picture above, the whole thing was kind of watery.  I'm unsure if it's because of the short baking time or because I used home-made sauce from fresh tomatoes.  I will have to try again the next time I want lasagna.  OR I will hop on an airplane to New Hampshire and have the REAL thing with some REALLY great company!  


Boyfriend and I have to plan our trip back east soon... I definitely cannot make it through winter without lasagna!