Receta Lazy Man's Lasagna with Turkey Sausage
At our house, we seem to have gone into high Christmas gear this week. So I have decided to feature posts from now until the big day that minimize your time in the kitchen and maximize the flavor you get out of some terrific recipes all that come together in under an hour at most. The first is a Lasagne recipe that knocked me out. I have to confess to having been a terrible Lasagna snob. I think true
lasagna is rich in béchamel sauce, with a ragu that’s been melding flavors for
hours in an all-afternoon of cooking and reducing and tasting. My kitchen
has been draped with crinkle-edged lasagna noodles parboiled on the stove more
times than I can remember. And I still make lasagna that way. Not
for me the Americanized versions that I’d been subjected to at some long-ago
student dinners. The version I found most awful was the one with cottage
cheese. But I was craving a baked pasta dish when I came across a recipe
in Bon Appetit that gave a prep time of 45 minutes and then baked for another
45. This sounded very do-able on a weeknight. But believe it or
not, I managed to cut the time down to a little over an hour! And this
lasagna, while hardly authentic Italian, is absolutely terrific. It’s so
cook. It’s so good, it would convince a girl to marry the guy who made
it. And since this recipe is for 4 servings, you won’t be left
eating a huge pan of lasagna until Spring. Served with a green salad,
it’s a dinner not to be forgotten.
Okay.
I hope I’ve convinced you to make this or at the very least send it to your son
–the one you’re never sure is eating right. I guarantee he can make it.
The first thing you need is the best Marinara sauce you can buy. I chose
Trader Joe’s which is a very meat-y tomato-based Marinara sauce. I then
took a little over a pound of turkey sausage, removed it from its casings and
added it directly to the Marinara sauce. While it cooked away, the no-boil
lasagna noodles were bathing in a bowl of warm water, softening up and
absorbing some liquid. These flat postcard sized noodles should replace
those much thicker, crinkle-edged noodles in your pantry. The No-Boil
noodles are heads and tails above the traditional ones you likely grew up
with. While the newly-formed ‘turkey bolognese’ bubbles away, three
cheeses are combined with 2 tablespoons of dried oregano. Please don’t go
all diet-y and try to use low fat cheeses. I don’t think they work as well.
With turkey practically fat-free, You need some in this dish. Whole milk
ricotta is a creamy delight. It’s paired with whole milk shredded
mozzarella—you can even cheat here and buy the pre-shredded bags of the
stuff. Finally freshly grated parmesan is added. From there, it’s
just a matter of layering the ingredients and topping the whole thing off with
shredded mozzarella and parmesan. Into the oven, from which it emerges 45 minutes or so later puffed up
and beautifully browned. My, is it good! Here’s the recipe:
Recipe for Lazy Man’s Lasagna with Turkey Sausage Bolognese.
Prep Time 30 minutes. Total Time 1
hr. 15 minutes.
4 servings in an 8 x 8 x 2 pyrex
dish. Can be doubled in 13 x 9 x 2 pyrex
or baking dish.
- 1 pound
- Sweet or Spicy Italian turkey sausages, casings removed
- 1 28
- oz. Jarred or Canned Marinara sauce
- 2 tablespoons
- chopped fresh or dried oregano
- 1 8-ounce
- container whole-milk ricotta cheese
- 3 cups
- (packed) coarsely grated whole- milk mozzarella cheese (8 ounces) divided in
- two
- 1 1/4
- cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided
- 8 6 1/2 x 3
- 1/4-inch no-boil lasagna noodles
Place noodles in large bowl; cover with hot water.
Soak until pliable, separating occasionally, about 30 minutes.
Heat the Marinara sauce in a large nonstick
skillet over medium-high heat. Add the
bits of sausage directly to the marinara sauce; sauté until sausage is cooked
through, breaking into pieces, 8 to 10 minutes. Add wine; boil 1 minute. Reduce
heat; simmer until sauce thickens, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and
pepper.
Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.
Combine all the ricotta, half the mozzarella, 1
cup Parmesan, 2 tablespoons of oregano in medium bowl; stir to blend. Season
with pepper.
Spread 1 cup sauce over bottom of 8 x 8 x 2-inch
glass baking dish. Cover with 2 noodles, arranging crosswise. Drop 1/4 of
cheese mixture over by tablespoonfuls; spread out. Top with 1 cup sauce, then 2 more noodles and 1/3 of remaining cheese mixture. Repeat 2 more times with 1 cup
sauce, 2 noodles, and 1/2 of cheese mixture. Spread any remaining sauce over.
Sprinkle with the rest of the shredded Mozzarella and the remaining 1/4 cup
Parmesan.
Bake lasagna uncovered until heated through and
puffed, about 50 minutes. Let stand 10 to 15 minutes and serve.