Lasagna is a crowd pleaser.  Everyone I cook for loves lasagna, especially when the weather keeps you inside the house.  There is something really comforting about staying indoors and cooking when it is cold and raining. The kitchen is nice and warm and the smell of tomato sauce, cheese, garlic and basil will make your mouth water.  I also like lasagna because it is easy to make—especially if you follow my recipe using no boil noodles. This is also a great way to incorporate bits and pieces of leftover veggies from the fridge. Lasagna freezes well so you can easily have a pan of lasagna stowed in the freezer  for a quick and delicious dinner—really impressive when guests show up for an impromptu dinner or if you are too tired to cook.

Learning to segment an orange in the stanford dorms

The secret to dressing up a simple dinner is in the accompaniments.   Make a terrific garlic bread with a homemade garlic butter (see my recipe below), have your guests wash and prep salad greens, make a simple vinaigrette and you will have a 3 star dinner in no time flat! I recently taught another cooking class at the Stanford dorms in Palo Alto. That was the menu we made, plus Panna Cotta for dessert.  The students loved the results.

I like to use the lasagna recipe from America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.  Technically, it’s a flawless recipe and it’s easy to add vegetables, meat or herbs to it to change it up.

Variations:

Spinach and Shitake Mushroom

Italian Sausage and Summer Squash

Roasted Red Pepper and Swiss Chard

Cheese Lasagna

Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated Family Classics

Tomato Sauce:

3 Tbsp. Olive Oil

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 (28oz) can of crushed or diced tomatoes

1 (14oz) can of Tomato Sauce

3 Tbsp. minces fresh basil or 3 tsp. dried

¼ tsp sugar

Salt

1. Heat the oil and saute the garlic in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring often until fragrant, but not browned, about 2 minutes.  Stir in the crushed tomatoes and the tomato sauce. Bring to a simmer and cook until slightly thickened, 15 to 20 minutes.
2. Stir in the basil and sugar. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

*If you don’t have time to make the tomato sauce you can use a 32oz jar of high quality marinara.

*For a meat sauce, brown 1 pound of ground beef to the garlic before adding the tomatoes.

Serving up lasagne

Lasagna

9×13” baking dish

9 ‘no boil’ lasagna noodles

1 (15oz) container of ricotta cheese

½ cup of grated parmesan cheese

¼ cup of chopped basil or 4 tsp. dried

2 eggs

1 clove of garlic, minced
½ tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

1# of mozzarella, shredded (not fresh mozzarella)

1. Combine the eggs, ricotta, ¼ cup of the parmesan, garlic, basil, salt and pepper.
2. Assemble the lasagna: Spread a scant ½ cup of sauce on the bottom of the baking dish.  Place three lasagna noodles evenly spaced across the pan. Top each noodle with 3 Tbsp. of the cheese mixture and spread evenly over the noodle.  Sprinkle shredded mozzarella over the cheese-noodle layer.  Spread ½ cup of pasta sauce over the noodles. Repeat two more times, finishing the lasagna off with a layer of sauce and cheese, topping it off with the remaining parmesan. *At this point you can wrap and freeze the lasagna for 1 month. To cook, place the frozen covered lasagna in a 350F oven for 90 minutes. Uncover for the last 15 minutes of cook time.
3. Cook the lasagna covered with greased foil for 35 minutes. (Greasing the foil keeps the cheese from sticking.)  After 35 minutes, remove the foil and continue cooking for 10 minutes.
4. It’s easiest to serve and cut if you let the lasagna rest for 20 minutes or so.

Phoebe’s roasted garlic bread

Preheat oven to 350F

1 loaf of Italian style bread, pugliese or Batard

Roast 1 head of garlic, mash and set aside

¼ c softened butter

1/4c. Parmesan cheese, grated

2 Tablespoons of chopped parsley or 2 tsp. dried

Salt and Pepper to taste

Combine the garlic, butter, parmesan and parsley. Cut the bread crosswise into slices, leaving the slices hinged to the bottom crust.  Using a knife spread the roasted garlic butter between the slices.  Wrap in foil and place in the oven to heat.  Heat for about 15 minutes.