Lasagna

Lasagna is one of those dishes that I love eating, but always seemed way too complicated to try to make.  I initially looked at the recipe in The Mafia Cookbook, but I thought the recipe looked a little bit strange, so I opened up The Best Recipe to check a few things.  After reading the full page of notes, I ended up going exclusively with the second recipe.  The most surprising thing about the recipe came in the second paragraph of the notes, where they determine that ricotta cheese is the reason most lasagna ends up as "mushy noodles swimming in a sea of red sauce and cheese" and decide to leave it out completely.  My major modification to this recipe was that I used ground buffalo for the meat.  Once I started putting the layers together, I realized I should have flattened the meatballs a little bit more.  I'll probably also use regular noodles next time, instead of no-boil noodles.  The top layer of the no-boil noodles ended up a little crunchy.  I also used a combination of grated Parmesan and shredded Romano to add a little extra flavor.

Lasagna

Ingredients:
    Meatballs:

• 2 slices white sandwich bread (crusts discarded), torn into small pieces
• 1/2 cup buttermilk or 6 Tablespoons plain yogurt thinned with 2 Tablespoons whole milk
• 1 pound ground meat (preferably 3/4 pound ground chuck and 1/4 pound ground pork)
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• Ground black pepper
• About 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil for pan-frying

    Smooth Tomato Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 1 Tablespoon minced fresh basil leaves
• Salt and ground black pepper

• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 pound fresh pasta sheets or 18 dried lasagna noodles
• 1 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1 cup grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese (4 ounces)

Directions:

1. FOR THE MEATBALLS: Combine bread and buttermilk in small bowl, mashing occasionally with fork, until smooth paste forms, about 10 minutes.
2. Place ground meat, cheese, egg yolk, garlic, salt, and pepper to taste in medium bowl.  Add bread-milk mixture and combine until evenly mixed.
3. Heat about 1/4 inch of oil in large skillet.  Take a handful of meat mixture, and, working direcly over skillet, pinch off pieces no larger than a small grape and flatten them slightly.  Cooking in batches to avoid overcrowding, carefully drop them into hot oil.  Fry, turning once, until evenly browned, 3 to 4 minutes.  Use a slotted spoon to transfer meatballs to a paper towel on a platter.



4. FOR THE SAUCE: Heat oil with garlic in medium saucepan over medium heat.  When garlic starts to sizzle, add tomatoes, basil, and salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer until sauce thickens slightly, about 10 minutes.  Stir in meatballs and adjust seasonings.
5. Meanwhile, bring 6 quarts of water to a boil in a large soup kettle.  Add 1 Tablespoon salt.  If cooking fresh pasta, cook three or four noodles at a time until al dente.  Gently retrieve them with a large slotted spoon and transfer them to a bowl of ice-cold water for thirty seconds.  Then drain the noodles and lay them out on kitchen towels for up to one hour.  Repeat the process with three or four more noodles and a fresh bowl of ice-cold water.  If cooking dried pasta, add all noodles at once and boil until al dente.  Drain and soak noodles for 30 seconds in a bowl of ice-cold water, drain them again, and lay them out on kitchen towels for up to one hour.
6. Grease a 13 by 9-inch pan with cooking spray.  Smear several Tablespoons of tomato sauce (without meatballs) across pan bottom.  Line pan with a layer of pasta, making sure that noodles touch but do not overlap.  (If using fresh noodles, cut them to fit with a pair of scissors.)  Spread 3/4 cup of tomato sauce and meatballs evenly over pasta.  Sprinkle evenly with 2/3 cup mozzarella and 2 1/2 Tablespoons Parmesan.  Repeat layering of pasta, tomato sauce and meatballs, and cheeses four more times.  For the sixth and final layer, cover pasta with remaining 1 cup mozzarella and sprinkle with remaining 3 1/2 Tablespoons Parmesan.  (Assembled lasagna can now be wrapped with plastic and refrigerated overnight or wrapped in plastic and aluminum foil and frozen for up to 1 month.)
   

   

   

   

   

7. Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 400 degrees.  Bake until cheese on top turns golden brown in spots and sauce is bubbling, 20 to 20 minutes (25 to 35 minutes for chilled lasagna).  Remove pan from oven and let lasagna rest for 5 minutes.  Cut and serve.

Notes:

From the cookbook: "We tested no-boil dried lasagna noodles and found that they made a credible lasagna with some modifications to our recipe.  These precooked and dried noodles need to be cooked with extra liquid so they rehydrate and soften in the oven.  This means layering them with a liquidy sauce and covering the pan with foil to trap steam.  Our recipe can be adapted to use no-boil noodles by stirring 1/2 cup water into our smooth tomato sauce before adding the meatballs, covering the pan with foil and baking as directed with foil for 25 minutes, and then uncovering the pan and baking until the cheese turns golden brown in spots, 10 to 15 minutes more."