Who doesn’t like lasagna? That font of cheesy meaty goodness? You? Then skip this thread. All others, brace for another #CookingForLieutenants thread later.
2. Ingredients:
1 # ground beef
1 box of Barilla lasagna noodles
Marinara sauce (recipe in the quoted tweet below)
1 cup chicken stock
1 15oz container of ricotta
1 cup grated Parmesan
1 bag of pre-grated mozzarella
2 eggs
2a. My standard disclaimer. I’m happy & grateful if you’re following, but by no means is this an entry into the haute cuisine in which I’ve spent most of my hospitality career. Almost every single one of these threads features a meal I cooked for my kids, age 11 & 8.
3. You can substitute a jar of sauce if you’re pressed for time. After all, this is ultimately a thread for folks who don’t have a ton of time or even mental bandwidth for deeply involved meal prep. #CookingForLieutenants has been & remains a judgment free zone.
4. Brown the meat in a skillet or pan. Make sure to season it with S & P just past what you might normally enjoy, because that seasoning will spread to unseasoned noodles later. Add your tomato sauce, whether you made it from scratch or just poured it from a jar.
5. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to low. Add stock to make it a bit soupy (more on this later). Ask your in-house taste tester to check on the seasoning.
6. Mix together the ricotta, egg, & Parmesan until smooth & uniform. Add salt & herbs - in this case, a dried mix of rosemary, thyme, & basil. Refrigerate until needed.
7. Cover the bottom of your oven pan with sauce, then layer *dry* noodles on top. Remember how you made the sauce soupy earlier? That excess liquid will be absorbed by the dry noodles during cooking.
8. Top with your cold ricotta-egg mix, another layer of sauce, then more noodles. For extra cheese, add a layer of shredded mozzarella.
9. By the time you’re out of sauce, noodles, & cheese, you should be at or close to the top of the oven pan. Top the whole thing with your remaining Parmesan & mozzarella. Put the pan, uncovered, into a preheated 350°F oven. Bake for 50 minutes.
10. Remove from the oven & let it rest for 10 minutes.
11. Plate, then make sure that fiercer critics than @pete_wells or @SamSifton approve.
12. Reward yourself with an adult beverage for warding off juvenile starvation after a grueling day of online classes.
13. Here endeth the lesson. Be excellent to each other.
14. #CookingForLieutenants is dismissed.
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