Tweak my recipe?

Lasagna

Sauce:

4 very ripe tomatoes (canned if you must)
Tomato paste
mushrooms
onion
garlic
oregano and black pepper/salt
spices to taste

Fry the onions and garlic in olive oil, add the tomato and paste and spices
Add the mushrooms

I usually make meatballs from freshly ground beef (about half a pound).

After lightly frying them – I then mash them up and fry them as you would for sloppy joe’s

I add this to the sauce – cook for another few minutes

Layer lasagna leaves and sauce and top off with mozzarella or cheese of choice

Hubby puts red pepper under the griller and lets the skin burn a bit and peels them, chops them and throws them in the lasagna sauce and he uses a béchamel sauce in a layer as well. I never bother to order lasagna when I go to a restaurant anymore because there is nothing that compares to hubby’s. Oh… he also makes the pasta from scratch. (the pasta maker was one of the best presents I ever bought myself… uhhh.. I mean… HIM! I bought it for HIM, yeah, that is my story and I am sticking to it.)

Home made stuffed jalapenos (not for the faint of heart)

I am allergic to the smell-it gives me asthma, so I have to do this outside on the grill with a fan going.

Split jalapenos in half lengthwise, remove the seeds, and the stem so that the vegetables look like little green boats.

Mix up spiced breadcrumbs and cream cheese into a thick paste.

Fill the jalapeno boats with the breadcrumb mixture.

bake in oven or fry in an oiled skilet until the green part of the vegetable is a dull gray-green and blackened in places.

Eating these things is a bit like russian roulette, because some of these little gems are very mild and yummy, and others are so hot it will blast your head off. Be prepared to eat them fast, because you might not want to share.

ooops, I didn’t play right because I didn’t write a recipe, but I don’t have one. I don’t cook anymore.

I’d add tomato paste, ricotta, sweet Italian turkey sausage, fennel, basil, and parmesan to your mix.

For company I make Shrimp Francesca
I use half olive oil half butter, toss in a few capers, added 2T white wine to the butter, half of the bread crumbs called for, 2 t garlic, medium shrimp. 375 for 8 minutes, under the broiler ‘til browned. Serve it over angel hair pasta. Make sure you have crusty french bread on the side and a salad with basamic vinaigrette.

¼ cup balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons dark brown sugar, optional*
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¾ cup olive oil

I’d make the tomato sauce. Put a little bit in the bottom of the pan. Then a layer of lasagna noodles. Then a layer of spinach (Squeezed dry) seasoned with salt, pepper and a little nutmeg. Then a layer of ricotta cheese mixed with an egg, a layer of noodles, a layer of sauce, a sprinkle of grated Parmesan and a layer of mozzarella, a layer of noodles, a layer of spinach, a layer of ricotta, a layer of noodles, a layer of tomato sauce, a layer of Parmesan and then mozzarella. Cover and cook at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

I mix together shredded mozerella and ricotta, and spread it on the noodles every other layer. But ricotta can be tricky, some brands are sweet, which is disgusting. Polly-O is my favorite, but I have no idea if you can get that brand where you live. I can’t get it where I live except in the Navy commissary, so I only make stuffed shells or lasagna when my parents are in town, because my dad is retired military.

Chicken Captain
1 can tomatoes
Sliced Green pepper
Sliced Mushrooms
Dash nutmeg
Dash cinnamon
Salt to taste
Dash garlic powder
Chicken legs and thighs

I cook it all in a pan top of the stove, best uncovered for at least 10 minutes, because then the tomatoes don’t get acidy, but you have to watch it does not dry out. I usually do cover towards the end. Flip the chicken over a couple times to make sure it cook well.

I serve it with linguine.

@JLeslie Who is the chicken captain, and why is he so yummy?

@jazmina88 My grandma used to make it for Passover sometimes, but she didn’t serve it with pasta. I make it a little more tomato and saucier than she did. It is very similar to cacciatore, but the spices are different. I don’t have measurements for it, but anyone who has made similar dishes can kind of work their way through I figure.

I’ve been putting fresh lemon zest into everything lately. One of my friends had an abundance of Meyer lemons and she gave me a whole bunch. I even took some of the zest and froze it in little 1 Tablespoon measures, so I can pull it out and just pop it into a recipe, usually soup, but it would be great in tomato sauce too.

The other thing that I’ve been using a lot of is different kinds of Asian mushrooms. We have a fairly new Korean market in our town and the schrooms are very inexpensive (compared to say Whole Foods or even Vons or Ralphs) and they have many more varieties than the regular stores. So I might consider adding Bunashimeji Mushrooms, especially because I love the little guy who’s the logo on the package. I’ve also been using a lot of Shiitake Mushrooms and these huge King Oyster Trumpet Mushrooms (which totally remind me of the Chinese dancing mushrooms in Fantasia).

I saw something on one of th cooking shows that suggested that you should sautée your veggies, especially mushrooms first, with olive oil and onions (or maybe shallots would be even better) and garlic before you layer them into your lasagne. It gives them a bigger depth of flavor.

I love ricotta cheese, but a few weeks back, I experimented with low fat cottage cheese. I didn’t want it to be too watery, so I put the cottage cheese into a coffee filter lined net strainer over a pan and let it drain over night, covered with plastic wrap. The cottage cheese gave the lasagne a little bit more of a tangy twang that I really liked.

Cheese, cheese, cheese. Cottage cheese, Romano cheese, Mozzarella cheese, and some Other Cheese. Forget the meat sauce.

We could discuss sauce recipes until the cows come home, but please, lasagna must have ricotta cheese.

@MollyMcGuire YES! That was the Other Cheese I was thinking of!