My grandma and my mother's friend Julie make homemade Lasagna. My mom always made the frozen kind which is better than no lasagna but nothing beats homemade. EVER! My mom took a cooking class and told me about this vegetable lasagna she learned how to make but with squash and a cream sauce. Since I like both, meat and vegetable lasagna, I decided to make a half and half. It turned out excellent!
First I started some sauce which had, one onion, half a red, green, and yellow pepper, one garlic clove, a pinch of red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper all sautéed. Once the bell pepper is soft of the onion is transparent, I add the tomato paste with a little bit of water. I keep that simmering. I throw in some sliced eggplant and zucchini with a little bit of salt in the oven. They cook differently if you don't cook them first. I like the taste and the texture when they are cooked in the oven first. I also cook the ground beef with some diced tomatoes with salt and pepper.
After all those are done. I start layering with the ricotta cheese, mozzarella, and pasta that I have previously soaked in boiling water. (just dipped in not completely cooked)
My layers go like this but you can switch them up if you'd like.
a little bit of sauce on the bottom of the pan
pasta(nothing overlapped)
the eggplant and zucchini(these I do overlap a little.. or a lot)
A little bit of sauce
Another layer of pasta
a little bit more sauce
a layer of ricotta
a layer of pasta
a layer of sauce
the ground beef
layer of pasta
last layer of sauce, so put whatever is left
then the mozzarella to top it all off
as you can see in my picture its FULL!!
with a little bit of wine and homemade bread, its a success in my house!!
