Recipes that are simple and delicious.
My family is a big fan of lasagna, I mean who isn’t? I have made many attempts at putting a little twist on the classic, and this one is no exception. The temperature has dropped in Wisconsin, and we are settling in for the hibernation […]
At the season’s end of our last farmer’s market, I decided to load up on a variety of squash. I’ll admit that I am not too big of a squash lover, but I did it for my wife, as she is the one that likes […]
This quark cheese could not have come at a better time. My colleague had sent me a text stating he was bringing in 12 ounces of quark cheese and it was all mine. He had recently worked at a farm to table dinner and a lot of food was leftover for the taking, and one of them being quark cheese. It was awesome quark cheese at that and from Clock Shadow Creamery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They make awesome cheese curds, so I was excited to try their quark cheese.
When I took the cheese home, I gave it a taste, and it was confirmed how awesome it was. The quark cheese was soft, a bit tangy, and reminded me a bit of ricotta cheese in texture. That’s when I knew what I was going to do with it, and what a better way to use up a lot of my tomato sauce that I have been freezing from an abundance of tomatoes from my garden. What’s better is my kids did not know I was putting in this cheese, so it was a new experience to a meal they already love, lasagna.
Let’s get started.
Ingredients:
Start by cooking your ground chuck. Once cooked and drained, return back to the stove on medium-low heat, and add in your tomato sauce, garlic, shallots, and bell pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes until the vegetable soften, and the sauce is cooked through. Once cooked through, set aside.
To a mixing bowl, add the quark cheese, eggs, black pepper, and parmesan cheese. Mix until everything is blended through.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
To a baking dish, lightly spray with cooking spray.
Now time for assembly. Ladle about a cup of meat sauce on the bottom of the baking dish, and evenly spread out.
Top with 3 sheets of the lasagna shells. Add dollops of the quark cheese mixture on top of the pasta. Ladle a bit more sauce, top with pasta, cheese mixture, pasta, cheese mixture, meat sauce, pasta, and finish with covering entirely with the meat sauce. Add the fresh mozzarella on top of the meat sauce, then cover with aluminum foil, and place into the preheated oven for 35 minutes.
After 35 minutes, remove, take off the foil, and return back to the oven to get the cheese nice and bubbly. Remove, and let it cool for about 5-10 minutes (I know that is the hardest part).
Now you are ready to serve. Slice into squares, shower with more parmesan cheese if desired, or shower with some chili flakes.
The end result, and I don’t say this because I made this recipe with quark cheese, was spectacular. It had everything you love about a great lasagna, but there was something about the quark that really made it special. So if you have never tried quark cheese, do so, and if you have plenty to spare give this recipe a shot. I hope you enjoy!
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My daughter recently had her first communion, and I cannot tell you how excited she was about it. My wife and daughter planned for weeks for the event, and that left me with planning the food and drink for the post communion party. I thought […]
I recently found myself eating lasagna for dinner, and breakfast, and lunch the following the day. I thought I was going nuts because, well, I am in love with lasagna. To me, it just screams comfort food. An all-in-one dish that has layers of noodles, cheese, sauce, and meat? Come on, you know you are there with me. Now sure, I had plenty of other options when it came to breakfast, and lunch, but I kept going back to the lasagna. In the past I have never been a big fan of the leftover, especially if something has been sitting in the refrigerator for a couple of days, but a couple of years ago, that whole idea of a leftover changed.
My wife actually turned me on to this recipe when we first started dating, and it is one that I have tweaked a bit in terms of spices, but left the majority of the ingredients the same. Oh, I also add an extra layer of pasta. This lasagna uses a part-skim ricotta cheese, and when combined with all of the wonderful ingredients that make up a lasagna, this one is pretty hard to beat.
Let’s get started.
Ingredients:
Start by making the sauce. To a large sauce pan, add in the tomato sauce, salt, garlic, pepper, and chili flakes.
Cook the ground chuck. Break it up as it cooks, into a nice fine crumble. Once cooked, drain any fat from the meat. Add the meat to the sauce, and give that a good stir. Cover and cook on low for one hour. Towards the end of the cooking process of the sauce, toss in the basil, and give a stir.
While the sauce cooks, cook the noodles as directed on the box, however cook just before al dente. Strain and set aside.
While the pasta cooks, make the ricotta filling. To a mixing bowl, add the ricotta cheese, the egg, parsley, oregano, dry basil, and half of the parmesan cheese. Give that a good stir.
Now the fun stuff, the layering. On the bottom of a lasagna pan, add a nice big ladle of the sauce. Lift and move the sauce on the bottom of the pan to make a nice, even and light coating.
Add your noodles to cover the bottom of the pan, slightly overlapping each sheet.
Spread a nice, light coating of the ricotta cheese.
Sprinkle some of the cheese on top.
Cover with more of the sauce.
Repeat with the lasagna sheets.
Add more ricotta, and add more shredded cheese.
Add more sauce.
Add more pasta sheets.
Add more ricotta cheese.
Add more sauce.
Top with the remaining shredded cheese to completely cover the top. Add some more grated parmesan cheese.
Spray a sheet of aluminum foil with a bit of cooking spray.
Preheat the oven for 350 degrees and cook, covered (cooking spray down on cheese side) for roughly 45-60 minutes. Once you are near done, remove the cover and either place under the broiler for a couple of minutes to get the top layer of cheese nice and bubbly, or continue to cook in the oven, uncovered at 350 degrees for 5-10 minutes.
When the lasagna is finished cooking, remove it from the oven, and let it rest for about 10 minutes. Trust me, it will still be really hot, however the resting allows everything to come together instead of falling apart when you cut into it.
That’s the tough part. Once you are ready, cut a nice big square, and if you like it spicy, like me, sprinkle some red chili flakes on top.
I’m a corner piece kind of guy, so I always try to get that piece. The result is just amazing. You know what I am talking about. Layers of pasta surround by cheese, and meat, with an awesome sauce. My mouth is watering now just thinking about it.
So that’s my lasagna recipe. What’s your favorite type of lasagna?
