One of the great things about winter is comfort food. There are many wonderful comfort foods, one is lasagne – noodles layered with meat or roasted veggies, covered in saucy, cheesy goodness.
However, sometimes it’s too much work to make, so figuring out a way to get all the flavors and saucy, cheesy goodness into a dish that is much easier to make was high on my list.
First, let’s talk a little bit about the spelling, is it lasagna or lasagne? I always thought that when spelled with an “e” that was the Italian (and everyone else in Europe) way of spelling it and when ending in an “a”, it was the American way of spelling it. A quick google search gave me the answer and I was partially correct, but there is more to it.
Lasagne is plural and lasagna is singular and the name of the noodles. Americans use the word lasagna to refer to the dish in total. Basically, Americans are using the wrong word when referencing is dish – we don’t just get one noodle when we eat a serving of lasagna. However you spell it, it’s a wonderful winter comfort food.
So, let’s make lasagne much simpler. You can use whatever filling you desire. If you only want meat or vegetables, use just that. I like both, but sometimes I only want vegetables. This version gives me a little of both.
Start by gathering and preparing all of your ingredients. You can replace the ground beef with ground turkey, a ground meat substitute, or Italian sausage. If you use sausage, you will want to omit the fennel and probably crushed red pepper flakes.
Yes, my ground beef in this picture is frozen, but that was ok, just put it in your pan, on low heat to start defrosting it, scraping off the meat around the outside as it thaws.
Once your meat is brown, add the vegetables and seasonings and saute for a couple minutes to get them mostly cooked.
While browning the meat and cooking the vegetables, boil your pasta to al dente according to the package instructions. When done, drain and set aside until needed. Do not toss pasta with oil to prevent it from sticking, all this does is prevent the sauce from sticking to and flavoring your noodles.
When cooking pasta – bring your water to a boil before adding salt to the water. Salt can pock mark pans, so if you add the salt before the water is boiling, it will sit on the bottom of the pan creating marks in your pan. Also, don’t add oil to your boiling water – again, all this does is cover your noodles and create a barrier so the sauce cannot flavor the noodles. To keep them from sticking while cooking, keep your water at a rolling boil and stir frequently.
So now we are ready to put this all together. My saute pan was not big enough to mix in, so I grabbed a bowl and mixed it in that. Add your meat mixture, pasta, tomatoes and sauce, and cheese and stir to combine. If your noodles stuck while waiting to get put into the dish, don’t worry, the sauce will “unstick” them.
Once combined, put in a casserole dish that you sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Top with the bread crumbs and more Parmesan cheese. Cover and put it in your preheated oven and bake for about 30 minutes until all bubbly hot.
Time to sit and enjoy all the saucy, cheesy, flavorful goodnes of lasagne with a nice slice of garlicky cheese toast!
Deconstructed Lasagne
Equipment
- Medium Stock Pot
- Large saute pan
- 4-quart Casserole Dish
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef extra lean
- 4 cups mushrooms sliced
- ½ cup yellow onions diced
- 1 each bell peppers diced
- 15 oz can tomato sauce
- 15 oz can diced tomatoes
- 2 cups rotini pasta dry
- 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
- 2 tsp garlic fresh, minced
- ½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- ½ tsp fennel seeds
- 2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
- ½ c Parmesan cheese grated
- Topping
- 1/3 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
- ½ cup parmesan grated
Instructions
- Gather and prep all ingredients. Crush pepper flakes and fennel seeds using a mortar and pestle.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large sauté pan, start browning the ground beef. When almost done add the onions, mushrooms, bell pepper, and seasonings. Sauté for about 5 minutes.
- While sautéing meat and veggies, cook pasta to al dente according to package directions. Drain and set aside until needed.
- In the saute pan or a bowl, combine the meat mixture, tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, pasta, and cheese.
- Spray a 4 (to 6)-quart casserole dish with cooking spray and add pasta mixture. Top with bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. Cover and bake for 30 minutes until bubbly.
- Enjoy!