Lasagna - A Christmas Meal in Progress (photos)

We will have a house full of family this next week, beginning sometime around 2:00 am tonight when the son from Pennsylvania gets here. The wife (MHNBPF) allowed me (with close supervision) to make her famous lasagna recipe for storage in the freezer until Christmas eve, when both sons and their families will be here for our traditional Noel family meal of lasagna. As strange as it sounds, it is the requested holiday meal by both sons. At the moment the dish is complete, just not baked. I'll add more photos to the post after we pull the prepped dish from the freezer and bake it off.

Hopefully this will feed ten. To make the meat sauce, you'll need:

2 1/4 pounds ground beef
12 ounces (5 links)of Italian Sausage - edited to add - I remove the casing for lasagna
1 Large onion (diced)
1 Large bell pepper (diced)
4 cloves garlic (minced)
1 Tablespoon black pepper
1 large can diced tomatoes
2 cans tomato sauce
2 cans tomato paste
3 Tablespoons Oregano
2 Tablespoons Basil
1 Tablespoon Thyme
2 Tablespoons olive oil
A splash of red wine
12 ounces of mushrooms
Salt



Other needed stuff

Lasagna noodles
Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese
10 ounces chopped spinach
1 1/2 cups Cottage or Romano cheese
1 egg (only one)



Brown the hamburger and Italian sausage with black pepper and a little salt.



As it browns, add onion, bell pepper and garlic;





Remove the meat and set aside. Then sauté the mushrooms in a little olive oil.



and deglaze the pan with a splash of red wine.



in a suitable pan, add the large can of diced tomatoes, meat, mushroom, two cans of tomato sauce, two cans of tomato paste, 2 cups of water, 2 Tablespoons of finely chopped basil, 3 Tablespoons of oregano and a Tablespoon of Thyme. Simmer for two hours on low heat.



Our lasagna pan will hold four layers of four noodles per layer.



The noodles are cooked in salted water at a steady boil (for about 10 minutes), then quenched in cool water.





There are three cheeses in our lasagna

mozzarella,



cottage, which is mixed with drained chopped spinach and an egg and Parmesan.





Time to build the dish.

Spray the pan with pam and then add a light layer of sauce.





The first noodle layer goes on top of the sauce.





Next a thicker layer of sauce.



mozzarella, then parmesan





and the spinach, cottage cheese and egg mixture.



This process is repeated until all four layers of noodles are stacked.











Then a final layer of sauce, mozzarella and parmesan.



This prepped dish will not be baked off for three days. As I type this, it is in the freezer awaiting the oven on Christmas eve.

More later. By the way, this dish preps up ahead really nicely. We have done this before. As long as you protect the contents from drying, you can freeze an uncooked lasagna for several weeks. It also freezes well after you bake it off as long as you protect it from drying out.

edited to add - although we will thaw ours for a full day in the refrigerator before cooking it, you can cook frozen lasagna from frozen if you seal the dish tightly with foil and add a little water. It will take longer, but we usually use a thermometer when we cook it to make certain the inside is hot, even if we thaw it in the refrigerator for a day or two before cooking it. From frozen, I'd cook it for an hour and a half sealed with foil at and oven temp of 350. The internal temp should be 225 or above because that makes certain the cheese has melted and after resting, the "block" will set up nicely. I like mine bubbly when it comes out of the oven, so moisture is important when cooking lasagna that has been frozen. Add maybe a quarter cup of water over the top before it goes into the oven and maybe also drizzle a little melted butter over the top.