Homemade Lasagna

Last week my daughter and I made homemade Lasagna.  My grandson Josh is joining the Marines and his recruiter and his wife came for dinner.  I think my daughter was originally going to make ravioli but decided they were really time consuming, which they are.  I made the dough the day before and then about 45 minutes before she was ready to start I took it out to rest on the counter.  I had made a larger batch than I usually do and we had more than enough noodles.  As a mater of fact we had some left over and I made Lasagna Roll Ups and put them in the freezer for a future quick dinner.  The recipe we used for the Lasagna was based on Michael Simon from the Iron Chef.  It's funny I never really liked him until I saw him on Paula Deens show one day.  I don't care for her,  mainly because of all the Y'all stuff and that southern twang, makes me crazy.  Wonder maybe it could be because I am a Northerner??  Hmmmm food for thought I guess.  Well anyway back to Micheal, on her show he was doing his Mom's Lasagna and homemade sauce.  My daughter used a sauce from Rachel Ray (can ya tell me both like the Food network Channel?)  I have made Lasagna for many, many years and it always was much better the next day because it didn't fall apart when you cut it.  Mine was always sooooooooooooooooo juicy.  Michael's is not.  First he does not add as much sauce to each layer and the alternates what he puts in it.  When I had made it I always put the Ricotta, meat, mozzarella and sauce on each layer.....But he did a layer of noodles then ricotta, some sauce, layer of noodles, layer of meat,  layer of noodles, layer of mozzarella, layer of noodles, etc. I think we did three layers with sauce.  So that's what we did.  But we did put a bit of sauce on the very bottom before the first layer of noodles.  Didn't want them sticking.  Also the meat was a mixture of Italian Sweet Sausage and ground beef.  YUM!   We topped the top layer with provolone slices and mozzarella cheese with sauce.
Here are the homemade lasagna noodles

 Dough:
5 room temp. eggs
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups bread flour
3/4 cup semolina flour
1 tsp salt
extra olive oil (about 2 tsp)
water
You can make this several different ways.  Put it all in a stand mixer and mix until you dough comes together.  Put it all in a food processor and mix until it forms a ball.  Or put the flour and salt on the counter and make a well inside and put the eggs in the center and slowly with a fork mix the eggs into the flour, when incorporated start kneading until you have your dough together.   When it's ready, whichever way you do it, make it into a large ball and cover with plastic and let it rest or 30 minutes.  You can also put this into the refrigerator until the next day, but be sure to take out at least 45 minutes and let rest on the counter until you're ready to roll it out.
I use my pasta machine (now with the motor) to roll out my pasta.  My daughter did all the rolling and cutting, as shown above.
Put a large pot of water on the stove, bring to a boil and add salt after it starts to boil, add you pasta, DON'T overcrowd, and boil until the pasta floats to the top, take out immediately and place in a large bowl of ice water.  This will stop the cooking, you don't want your pasta overdone...ick!
Ricotta filling:
1 large container ricotta
1 egg
3 TBL fresh chopped parsely
salt/pepper
1/4 cup grated parmasen cheese
1/4 cup fontina cheese
Mix all above ingredients, set aside.
Sauce adapted from Rachel Ray:
  3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 3 turns of the pan
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/3 cup  chicken stock or white wine, eyeball it(she uses white wine)
2 cans fire roasted tomatoes plus 1 can crushed tomatoes (recommended: San Marzano)
Several leaves basil, torn or chopped, a handful
2 tablespoons  butter, cut into small pieces

Directions

Heat a medium sauce pot over medium-low heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil,  garlic, and red pepper and let them cook 5 minutes, garlic will be soft and light golden. Remove garlic. Add stock or wine and stir 30 seconds, add tomatoes and combine. Season the suace with salt, to taste, then stir basil in and reduce heat to low.

Printable Recipe

Now doesn't this look yummy.  Give it a try.  Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful day and Remember to Find the Time to Do ALL the things You love.

Donna