Lasagne

Comfort food...mmmmm

This is a recipe from the New York Times Cookbook and it's so yummy.

1/2 pound Italian sausage
1/2 cup of water

1 lb. ground beef
2 beaten eggs
4 Tbsp chopped parsley
salt and freshly ground pepper 1/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs

1 Tbsp + 1/4 cup grated Parmagiano cheese

5 cups tomato sauce preferably homemade (see below)
1 lb. ricotta cheese
3 9 x 13 sheets fresh pasta dough cut for Lasagne
- OR -
9 wide Lasagne noodles

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb grated mozzarella cheese


Firstly, I recommend always using the good stuff -- full fat ricotta (not that low fat stuff), high quality meat, and real parmagiano and mozzarella cheese. You can get by with ingredients like the pre-shredded mozzarella, but it won't taste as good -- trust me.

Prick the suasages all over witha fork and place ina frying pan with the water. Cover and bring to a boil, cooking for 10 minutes. Uncover, prick the sausages all over again and then cook til the water evaporates, turning the sausages brownb. Drain on paper towels.

Combine the ground beef, 1 Tbsp of beaten eggs, 2 Tbsp of Parsley, salt, pepper, 1 Tbsp of Parmagiano cheese and breadcrumbs in a bowl.Mix well and form 2 inch meatballs.

Brown the meatballs on all sides in the same skillet as the sausage.

Add the meatballs and sausage to the tomato sauce and simmer for 1 hour.

In a bowl, combine the ricotta and remaining eggs and parsley.

Remove the sausages fromt he tomato sauce and slice into thin rounds. Remove the meatballs and cut into quarters then slice into thin pieces.

Preheat over to 350F.

Cook the lasagne in boiling salted water until barely tender. Rinse in cold water to stop cooking. and toss with olive oilt o keep from sticking.

In a 9 x 13 glass baking dish assemble the following layers:
- a thin layer of tomato sauce
- one layer of lasagne noodles
- all the ricotta mixture
- one layer of lasagne noodles
- half the mozzarella
- sausage and meatball slices
- enough tomato sauce to cover
- another layer of lasagne noodles
- more mozzarella and parmagiano cheese sprinkled on top.

Cover the baking dish tightly with tinfoil and bake for 45 minutes.
Uncover and cook another 15 minutes.

Remove from over and let stand for 30 minutes before cutting.

This recipe can be nicely frozen when it's assembled and covered with foil. To heat, leave wrapped, do not defrost, butrather baked from the frozen state for 2 1/2 hours at 350F.

TOMATO SAUCE
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onions
2 minced garlic cloves
2 cups canned crushed tomatoes (San Marzanos are yummy)
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp chopped basil
1 tspsalt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp dried oregano
Freshly ground pepper


Heat the oil and saute onions til lightly brown. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Add the remaining ingredients, stirring well, and then alllow to simmer for 30 minutes.

Avgolemono soup - major comfort food!

This recipe came from someplace online, but the cook who posted it said:
"I'm 34 and have been making this since I could stand up on the stool in my Yia Yia's kitchen (my grandmother who is now 80 yrs. old). This recipe will make a perfectly balanced salty, rich, filling, comforting soup."

Eric just can't get enough of the stuff. For added fun, shred a bit of cooked chicken breast and chop some carrots and veggies into it. I also add a little bit more orzo than called for because I love orzo so much....

Soupa Avgolemono:
8 c. homemade chix stock,
1 c.orzo,
4 eggs/ separated,
juice of 3 lemons,
fresh ground black pepper.

Boil broth, add orzo and simmer until tender 20 min. Whip whites until medium peaks, add yolks beating continuously, add juice, beating.

Temper eggs with 2 c. broth, adding in constant slow stream while continuing to beat furiously so you do not curdle the eggs. Add egg mixture back to remaining broth and serve. When reheating, do not re-boil - heat slowly until very warm or you may curdle the eggs. Garnish with thinly sliced lemon.

I sometimes add more than juice of 3 lemons, as the sourness is the best part of the taste! You should taste lemon, richness of eggs, salt of chicken, and starch of rice, in that order and you've made it perfectly.

You can also add thin pieces of shredded chicken meat (pull off bone in strips), although classic recipes don't include chicken, vegetables, garlic or any of the ingredients many reviewers added to "fix" this recipe. Try mine and you'll be hooked for life!

For that dry hacking cough

I've found out that the homeopathic sites are pretty dead on about thyme. With Eric coughing and hacking from a Christmas cold, and no help at all from the codeine laced drugs he got at the doctor's, we decided to turn to the Old Ways.

Fresh thyme apparently contains the chemical that is extracted for pertussin in cough medication and it has the property of calming those annoying spasmodic coughs that trail for days at the end of a cold. Wemixed it with some lemon zest and made it into a quite tasty tea that worked like a charm, stilling the nighttime coughing fits.

Lemon Thyme Tea

2 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme
1 tsp lemon zest
2 cups hot boiling water

Let the thyme and lemon zest steep in the water for several minutes, then strain it out and drink the tea.

I sewed dosages of it into coffee filters to make teabags we could carry with us.