Fresh Lasagna Noodles

Today, my husband would like lasagna. I always made lasagna weekly for my family. I had not grown up tasting lasagna until i met my husband. His mom gave me her recipe. I have over the years doctored it up to my liking.

When we left Cape Town last month, we flew to Johannesburg and stayed overnight awaiting a standby flight. We met a great guy named Moe, who helped us get a room at the guest house he was staying at. He was the first American sounding person I had run into in 3 weeks and his Texan drawl was music to my ears. I have a problem hearing people to begin with, and then when you add an Afrikaans accent on top...well, i just about have to sit on a person's lap to understand what they are saying. I could understand and hear  my new friend Moe just fine. Not only was he from Texas, he also loves to cook Italian food. He highly recommended an Italian restaurant a  hop and a skip away from the guest house.We ate there later that evening and was looking forward to trying the lasagna. I am sad to say it was not very good...very little tomato sauce and too much cheese.  I woke up the next morning with bad stomach pains which lasted over a week. I have not been real anxious to try lasagna again. After 6 weeks I think I am ready.

I make my own noodles sometimes, if I have the time. I have tried different versions of noodles and find this one to be the most consistent. It was published by Cuisinart. I find it easy to make. 

1  CUP FLOUR

1  CUP CAKE FLOUR

2 LARGE EGGS

½ TS SALT

3 TBS HEAVY CREAM

TO MAKE THE DOUGH, PROCESS ALL THE INGREDIENTS WITH THE METAL BLADE OF A FOOD PROCESSOR UNTIL THE MIXTURE RESEMBLES COARSE MEAL BUT HOLDS TOGETHER WHEN PINCHED BETWEEN TWO FINGERS, ABOUT 20 SECONDS. IF THE MIXTURE DOES NOT HOLD TOGETHER, ADD MORE HEAVY CREAM BY THE TEASPOON, PULSING 4 TIMES AFTER EACH ADDITION.


To roll and cut the dough by machine
Boil water in a large pot. Keep at a simmer until ready to put noodles in. Press the dough into a compact ball, cut it into 4 pieces and place them in a plastic food storage bag. Flatten one piece of the dough into a 1 inch thick rectangle. Keep the remaining dough in the plastic bag. Adjust the rollers of a pasta machine to the widest setting. Pass the dough through once, then fold it into thirds, rotate it a quarter turn, and pass it through again.
Below is the second video I made today. In the first video everything was going very smoothly until I put the dough in the machine and the attachment decided to flip over and spew the dough everywhere. That was quite a sight. So here is the retake with no mishaps.

Reduce the machine setting by one. Pass the dough through unfolded. Repeat, passing dough through unfolded. Repeat, passing the dough through without folding, 3 times on each setting until the pasta is the desired thickness. As the pieces get longer and longer, you will have to stop and cut the pieces of noodles to shorten them. Otherwise they will become unmanageable. Once they are complete, you can decide how you want to cut them to fit your size pan. Lay each piece on a flat surface sprinkled with flour or cornmeal. I use my cupboard doors open. I lay a towel on each cupboard edge and then I drape the noodles over the towel. When you have rolled all of the dough, return water to boil and place the noodles in the water. Only cook for a couple of minutes since they are already soft. Transfer noodles to a colander and drain water. Makes about 3/4 pound. Continue with preparing and layering the lasagna...Directions follow below.

     In the picture below is an example of spinach fettuccine noodles that I made at another time. They are hanging over 2 broom handles suspended by the chairs. You can also see some of the noodles laying over  the chair. My son, Joshua was helping me with this. When we made these noodles I did not have my   kitchen-aid attachment and we were using a hand crank pasta machine. This was very time consuming, but we still had a good time working together. I sure do miss him and his new, lovely, bride, Anne.

You will need a kitchenaid mixer with pasta attachments ( roller attachment)

Following is my recipe for lasagna.

Rita’s Lasagna

1 lb ground beef

½ lb ground turkey

1 onions chopped finely

3-4 garlic cloves chopped

1-2 jars of prego sauce

Fresh Basil and Oregano

8 oz of cottage cheese

Parmesan cheese

16 oz shredded cheese mozzarella and sharp cheddar each

Lasagna noodles

1.    Grease a 9x 13 pan.

2.    If using store bought noodles, boil water and add 9 to 12 lasagna noodles for 10 minutes. Drain and run under cold water to stop the noodles from cooking.

3.    Brown beef and turkey .

4.    Drain grease. Remove meat from pan and set aside

5.    Sauge onion until tender. At least minute add garlic and sauté for one more minute.

6.    Add the meat back into the veggies.

7.    Add prego sauce and fresh basil and oregano, salt and pepper to taste

8.    Cover and cook for 15 minutes on low.

9.    Place a 2 -3 T of sauce on bottom of pan and smear across pan.

10.  Layer 3 noodles side by side on bottom of pan. Pour sauce on top of noodles.

11.  Drop cottage cheese by the tablespoons on top of sauce. 9 T in all.

12.  Spread by handfuls the cheeses  on top.

13.  Repeat the layers again starting with the noodles and ending with cheeses. You will have a total of 3 layers.

14.  Cover with tin foil.  Place lasagna on a cookie sheet and place in oven at 350 for 45  minutes.

15.  Remove from oven and let stand for 20 minutes to let lasagna set.

16.  Serve with garlic bread and salad.