Lasagna For A Crowd Recipes

LASAGNA FOR A CROWD

Steps:

• Brown meat, onion, and green pepper (and mushrooms if desired), adding garlic salt. Drain fat.
• Add tomato sauce and bring to a simmer, cover and cook for at least 1 hour.
• Meanwhile, cook the lasagna noodles in salted water (reserve the cooking liquid) until barely al dente (about 7 minutes) and combine the cottage cheese and mayonnaise in a bowl.
• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Grease a 13X9 pan with butter. Evaluate the sauce, if it has cooked for a long time and lost a lot of liquid, thin it by adding 1/4 cup at a time of cooking liquid from the noodles. Add as much as desired to get the right consistency: thick but spreadable. This will also make your sauce "sticky" so it will coat the noodles.
• Spoon a thin layer of sauce into the bottom of the dish. Layer noodles (overlapping if necessary), 1/2 meat mixture and 1/2 the cheese mixture.
• Cover with the rest of noodles, meat and cheese mixture. Top with shredded mozzarella.
• You can store this in the refrigerator or freezer at this point until ready to heat. Allow extra time for reheating from cold or frozen state. Spray a sheet of foil with cooking spray and cover the lasagna with it. Bake for 1 hour.
• Uncover and continue baking until the cheese is bubbly and browning.

CLASSIC LASAGNA

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the lasagna noodles and olive oil; cook until al dente, 8 to 10 minutes; drain.
• Cook the ground beef and sausage in a large pot over medium heat; drain. Stir in the mushrooms, garlic salt, oregano, thyme, basil, and tomato sauce. Season with salt and pepper; simmer 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, mix together the ricotta cheese, eggs, and Parmesan cheese in a bowl.
• Ladle enough of the meat sauce into a 9x13 inch baking dish to cover the bottom in a thin layer. Form a layer atop the sauce with 3 of the lasagna noodles. Spread about 1/4 of the ricotta cheese mixture over the noodles. Sprinkle about 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese over the ricotta cheese mixture and then ladle about 1/3 of the meat sauce over the mozzarella cheese. Repeat layering twice more, topping with the remaining 1/4 pound of mozzarella cheese.
• Bake in preheated oven 90 minutes. Allow to sit 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

EGGPLANT-MUSHROOM 'LASAGNA' FOR A CROWD

Steps:

• Preheat a broiler. Line a large broiler pan with foil.
• Slice the eggplants one-half-inch thick, discarding the stems and the very bottom slices. Place as many of the slices as fit in a single layer on the broiler pan and broil until lightly browned, turning the slices once to brown both sides. Repeat until all the slices have been browned, then set them aside.
• Heat three tablespoons of the oil in a very large, heavy nonstick skillet over high heat. If you do not have a very large skillet, one that holds about four quarts, use two skillets. Add the mushrooms and stir-fry until they have wilted. Remove them from the pan and place in a bowl.
• Add one tablespoon oil to the pan or pans along with the onions, sweet pepper and garlic. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook vegetables, stirring until soft, about 10 minutes.
• Add the tomatoes to the pan, bring to a simmer and cook until fairly smooth, about 20 minutes. Add the oregano, parsley and fennel and season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix half the tomato sauce with the mushrooms and set the rest aside.
• Melt the butter in a medium-size saucepan. Whisk in the flour then slowly whisk in the milk. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the sauce is thickened and smooth. It will not be a very thick sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper and remove from the heat. Mix in the shredded mozzarella.
• Use one-half tablespoon of oil to grease two baking dishes each about 9 by 13 inches and 2 inches deep. Spread a little of the plain tomato sauce in the bottom of each.
• Place a layer of eggplant in each dish, using a total of one-third of the eggplant. Spread with one-half of the tomato and mushroom mixture, then sprinkle with one-third of the bread crumbs. Spoon on half the mozzarella and white sauce mixture. Then repeat the layers of eggplant, mushrooms with tomato, bread crumbs and mozzarella and white sauce.
• Finally, top each baking dish with a layer of eggplant and spread with a thin layer of the plain tomato sauce. Sprinkle with the remaining bread crumbs, then sprinkle on the Parmesan cheese. Drizzle with the remaining oil. Cover the baking dishes with foil. If the dishes are prepared more than two hours before serving they should be refrigerated.
• Have the baking dishes at room temperature. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the baking dishes in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Uncover the dishes and bake 25 to 30 minutes longer, until the ingredients bubble and the top lightly browns.
• Meanwhile, reheat the remaining tomato sauce.
• When the baking dishes are removed from the oven allow them to stand for five minutes before serving. Serve a dish of the tomato sauce alongside. If you cannot fit both baking dishes in your oven at one time, either bake the second one after the first has come out of the oven or you can bake them an hour or so in advance of serving, cover them with foil when they have come out of the oven, then reheat each at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes before serving.

LASAGNA

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the noodles and a generous pinch of salt and cook for half as long as the package suggests. Drain and float in cold water. (Skip this step if noodles are precooked.)
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, fry the sausage links until cooked through, about 10 minutes. With kitchen scissors, cut the sausage into disks in the pan and continue to fry over low heat until the cut surfaces are crispy, about 20 minutes. Drain off the fat.
• In a medium bowl, stir together the egg, ricotta, and 1/2 cup of the pecorino.
• To assemble the lasagna, spread 1 cup of the tomato sauce in the bottom of a greased 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Drain and pat dry the noodles. Overlap one third of the noodles atop the sauce to cover the pan bottom. Spread all the cooked sausage over the noodles and spoon over another cup of sauce. Lay down the second third of noodles. Evenly dollop all the ricotta mixture on top of the noodles and flatten with the spoon to make an even layer. Top with the remaining noodles to completely cover the cheese. Pour over 1 1/2 to 2 cups sauce to cover. Evenly lay all the mozzarella slices on top. Sprinkle around the remaining 1/4 cup pecorino and drizzle with olive oil.
• Bake uncovered for 40 minutes, or until the lasagna is bubbling all over and lightly golden on top. Let rest for 10 to 15 minutes before slicing. Serve with grated cheese and warmed extra sauce at the table.