Lasagne

Submitted by QueenBee49444

"Friends beg to be invited to dinner when they hear I'm cooking lasagne. Over the years I have changed my recipe to make it as healthy as possible. My mom gave the recipe to me years ago and since then has asked me to make lasagne because my turns out better than hers! The "secret" ingredients of sugar and baking soda cut the acid flavor out of the tomatoes. You may want to add them gradually & taste test as some tomatoes are more acidic (is that a word?) than others. To save time, garlic and onion powder may be substituted for the minced garic & chopped onion. If time allows, refrigerate lasagne for a day before cooking. This allows the sauce to seep through the noodles. If lasagne is refrigerated, bake an additional 10-20 minutes. I have heard you don't have to boil the noodles if lasagne is prepared a day or more ahead of time. I've never been daring enough to do this. Please let me know if you try it."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 30mins
• Ingredients: 18
• Yields: 12 lasagne squares
• Serves: 6-10

ingredients

• 9 whole wheat lasagna noodles
• 1 lb lean ground chicken (can substitute ground turkey or ground beef)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 pints stewed tomatoes
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste

• Spices

• 1 tablespoon parsley
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1⁄2 teaspoon basil
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon rosemary
• 1⁄2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper

• Secret ingredients

• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (up to a Tablespoon for acid tasting tomatoes)

• Additional layer ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) container low fat cottage cheese
• 3 cups mozzarella cheese
• parmesan cheese

directions

1. Brown ground meat in large dutch oven or 6 quart pan. Add chopped onion and minced garlic. Once meat is brown and the onion & garlic are translucent stir in stewed tomatoes and tomato paste.
2. Cook lasagne noodles according to package instructions. (I always add an exra noodle or two.).
3. While noodles are boiling, add spices to meat mixture. Continue cooking until meat sauce is thick, stir often.
4. Add sugar to meat sauce, Stirr well.
5. Remove meat sauce from heat and carefully stir in baking soda.
6. Prepare a 9 x 13 pan by lightly spraying pan with cooking spray and spread a thin layer of meat sauce on bottom of pan.
7. Lay three noodles side by side on top of meat sauce.
8. Spread 1/3 of cottage cheese on top of noodles.
9. Sprinkle one cup motzerella cheese over cottage cheese.
10. Spread 1/3 of meat sauce over motzerella cheese.
11. Lightly sprinkle parm cheese over meat sauce.
12. Repeat last 5 steps 2 more times.
13. Bake in pre-heated 350 degree over for 30 minutes or until bubbly. Let set 5-10 minutes before serving.

Reviews

[fullhousequeen]

This was the best lasagne I think that I have ever tasted. Our family loved it. I used beef instead of chicken. I had fresh tomatoes in the freezer that I cooked down to be the tomatoes and tomato paste, so I didn't need to try the sugar and baking soda trick. Thank you for the recipe. Even a dairy free version of this is good. I just mashed up firm tofu in place of cheeses. Oh, and I forgot the parmesan. It was fantastic without it. Definitely going in the family cookbook.

 

[Mellowpuff]

This was a good version of Lasagne. I particularly liked how easy it was & that i didn't need to make a white sauce!! I made the recipe as is, with extra garlic, lots of mushrooms to bulk up the sauce & layered thin slices of eggplant on the top with breadcrumbs (no parmesan). I'll do the same next time. A word on the baking soda - I'm also in the habit of adding baking soda to tomato based dishes: lasagne, meatballs, spaghetti sauce etc. it takes the sour, acidic taste away that you sometimes get with so many tomatoes. so add it in slowly, but don't be warned off!! in this recipe i added a tsp & the lasagne turned out great! Thanks for posting this (^-^)

 

[Pneuma]

Made this but with just a bit of baking soda, approx. 1/4 tsp. Didn't want to risk it after some of the reviews I read. I used a big pan so I knew 9 lasagna pasta wouldn't be enough so I added more and ended up with 2 layers of noodles and 3 layers of sauce(considering the bottom). I was so tempted to put a mozzarella topping but I stuck to the recipe using parmesan. It's also a 1st for me to used a pre-prepared stewed tomatoes instead of doing it directly while beef is cooking.It's all good. In fact, the lasagna came out so delicious that we enjoyed having this for the holidays with DH getting 2 huge slices in a matter of minutes.I'm so glad I made this. Thank you! Made for Fall PAC baby 2008.

 

[dpacholl]

When I made this I made a couple of changes - I added a container of ricotta cheese and left out the baking soda. Next time I will increase the tomatoes as the sauce was somewhat insufficient. Otherwise this lasagne was pretty good - my husband even liked it when normally he does not.

 

[TLu1089]

This is a great variation of lasagne. I usually don't make it because DH doesn't care much for ricotta. We had guests over and they asked to take the leftovers home since they knew we were going out of town. I think that says it all! DH made homemade whole wheat noodles and I only used 1 tsp of baking soda. Thanks, will definitely make this again. Reviewed for pac SPRING 2008