Friday, September 14, 2007

Bon Appetit-Go Italian!

As you can tell, the weather has been slowly but surely getting colder. The transition from summer to fall in Purdue has been an answer to my prayers, at least for me. That's because as the days get colder, we start craving warm and comfortable foods and that is always a good thing.

Now what better way is there to go with comfort food than to go italian? The ultimate comfort food is lasagna! Something about the meatiness and the contrast between the saucy marinara and the creamy ricotta cheese tells me you can't go wrong. Well the thing is, making lasagna isn't the easiest thing the world. I had to go through 5 boxes of noodles, many bottles of marinara sauce and a trillion dirty dishes to come up with a recipie that is fool proof. This recipie that I came up with has a little bit of everything from the best lasagna recipies that I've come across. The reason why I've done this is because every lasagna recipie that I've made had some defects that I wanted to fix, so I just accumulated the best in each one to come up with one recipie that I am sure everyone with love. The turkey meat gives the lasagna a meaty bite and the rolls of the lasagna are a modern twist to the more traditional style.

Lasagna:
15oz ricotta cheese
10oz frozen chopped spinach
1 cup grated parmesan
1/2 lb of ground turkey meat
1 large egg beaten
4 cups marinara sauce
12 uncooked lasagna noodles
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1-2 tblsp on olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
1. Add dry noodles to boiling water on high heat. Salt the water to your preference. Boil the noodles untill just tender and lay the noodles out on an oiled baking sheet to preven sticking.
2. In a sauce pan over medium heat, cook the ground turkey meat in olive oil until all the pinkness is gone.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the ricotta, beaten egg, turkey meat, spinach, salt, pepper, and half of the mozzarella.
4. Spread about 2 tablespoons of the mixture onto each noodle and roll each up. Put the seam side down on a buttered 13-by-9-by-2-inch glass baking dish. Spoon the marinara sauce onto the rolled noodles.
5. Sprinkle the remaining amount of mozzarella and bake for 45 minutes.
6. BON APPETIT!



2 comments:

Anon said...

If I had a kitchenette on my floor and the money to get all the ingredients, I know I would definately be whipping up some lasagna for dinner tonight. It just sounds good, not to mention that Italian food overall has to be my favorite. I think it is just how the flavors that go into Italian dishes just mixes together to create something out of this world. Have you heard of the Italian restaurant in Downtown Lafayette? I am curious what they serve and the price tag that accompanies their dishes.

Insignificant Wrangler said...

I think you are talking about LaScala, and its quite pricey. I'm not a big fan.