What's your favorite homemade sauce to use in lasagna?
- Thread starter cheezz
- Start date
I did this recently
I like to make a sausage meat sauce. I prefer the hot italian sausage which also gives the sauce a little kick. I make a lot of sausage and some of the sausage I will slice and fully cover a layer. You could do the same with mild which would be more common. But everyone in my house likes "hot" stuff.
When I'm really into making a sauce I will start it first thing in the morning and spend all day on it slowly breaking down the tomatoes, onions and peppers and add layers of seasoning throughout the day. I'll even roast the peppers and remove the outer skin which isn't nice in a sauce. One of these epic sauces often starts with leftover beef that inspires me but almost always includes pork sausage. And if I'm really inspired I'll add homemade meatballs.
My recent attempt I was pressed for time so it involved an immersion blender and supplementing my "homemade" sauce with some jar stuff. I also really like adding the red pepper tomatoe bisque / soup like you can get at Costco or Trader Joes.
I like to make a sausage meat sauce. I prefer the hot italian sausage which also gives the sauce a little kick. I make a lot of sausage and some of the sausage I will slice and fully cover a layer. You could do the same with mild which would be more common. But everyone in my house likes "hot" stuff.
When I'm really into making a sauce I will start it first thing in the morning and spend all day on it slowly breaking down the tomatoes, onions and peppers and add layers of seasoning throughout the day. I'll even roast the peppers and remove the outer skin which isn't nice in a sauce. One of these epic sauces often starts with leftover beef that inspires me but almost always includes pork sausage. And if I'm really inspired I'll add homemade meatballs.
My recent attempt I was pressed for time so it involved an immersion blender and supplementing my "homemade" sauce with some jar stuff. I also really like adding the red pepper tomatoe bisque / soup like you can get at Costco or Trader Joes.
I'm a big fan of Charlie's Beschamel sauce/lasagne
Great commentary along with the recipe:
RIP.....
http://eat.at/swap/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=1&msgid=253603
Great commentary along with the recipe:
RIP.....
http://eat.at/swap/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=1&msgid=253603
Joe, Sandra and I enjoy this rec: Wild Mushroom and three Cheese lasagne
http://eat.at/swap/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=1&msgid=23155
http://eat.at/swap/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=1&msgid=23155
Today's Times proclaims Marcella Hazan's bolognese sauce
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoons butter plus 1 tablespoon for tossing the pasta
½ cup chopped onion
â…” cup chopped celery
â…” cup chopped carrot
¾ pound ground beef chuck (or you can use 1 part pork to 2 parts beef)
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1 cup whole milk
Whole nutmeg
1 cup dry white wine
1 ½ cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice
1 ¼ to 1 ½ pounds pasta
Freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese at the table
Email Grocery List
PREPARATION
Put the oil, butter and chopped onion in the pot and turn the heat on to medium. Cook and stir the onion until it has become translucent, then add the chopped celery and carrot. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring vegetables to coat them well.
Add ground beef, a large pinch of salt and a few grindings of pepper. Crumble the meat with a fork, stir well and cook until the beef has lost its raw, red color.
Add milk and let it simmer gently, stirring frequently, until it has bubbled away completely. Add a tiny grating -- about 1/8 teaspoon -- of nutmeg, and stir.
Add the wine, let it simmer until it has evaporated, then add the tomatoes and stir thoroughly to coat all ingredients well. When the tomatoes begin to bubble, turn the heat down so that the sauce cooks at the laziest of simmers, with just an intermittent bubble breaking through to the surface. Cook, uncovered, for 3 hours or more, stirring from time to time. While the sauce is cooking, you are likely to find that it begins to dry out and the fat separates from the meat. To keep it from sticking, add 1/2 cup of water whenever necessary. At the end, however, no water at all must be left and the fat must separate from the sauce. Taste and correct for salt.
Toss with cooked drained pasta, adding the tablespoon of butter, and serve with freshly grated Parmesan on the side.
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoons butter plus 1 tablespoon for tossing the pasta
½ cup chopped onion
â…” cup chopped celery
â…” cup chopped carrot
¾ pound ground beef chuck (or you can use 1 part pork to 2 parts beef)
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1 cup whole milk
Whole nutmeg
1 cup dry white wine
1 ½ cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice
1 ¼ to 1 ½ pounds pasta
Freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese at the table
Email Grocery List
PREPARATION
Put the oil, butter and chopped onion in the pot and turn the heat on to medium. Cook and stir the onion until it has become translucent, then add the chopped celery and carrot. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring vegetables to coat them well.
Add ground beef, a large pinch of salt and a few grindings of pepper. Crumble the meat with a fork, stir well and cook until the beef has lost its raw, red color.
Add milk and let it simmer gently, stirring frequently, until it has bubbled away completely. Add a tiny grating -- about 1/8 teaspoon -- of nutmeg, and stir.
Add the wine, let it simmer until it has evaporated, then add the tomatoes and stir thoroughly to coat all ingredients well. When the tomatoes begin to bubble, turn the heat down so that the sauce cooks at the laziest of simmers, with just an intermittent bubble breaking through to the surface. Cook, uncovered, for 3 hours or more, stirring from time to time. While the sauce is cooking, you are likely to find that it begins to dry out and the fat separates from the meat. To keep it from sticking, add 1/2 cup of water whenever necessary. At the end, however, no water at all must be left and the fat must separate from the sauce. Taste and correct for salt.
Toss with cooked drained pasta, adding the tablespoon of butter, and serve with freshly grated Parmesan on the side.
I make a big batch of my spaghetti sauce and make lasagne with the leftovers. . .
Lately it is made in a smaller amount with Trader Joe's lasagna noodle sheets. I put a little more water in the sauce so that I can use the noodle sheets without cooking them before, and make a cheesey bechamel by adding good parmesan to a two-cup batch of white sauce (1/2 cup), then layer all with some mozzarella.
I like reading about other lasagnas but I don't want to usually make them unless for a special occaision.
Lately it is made in a smaller amount with Trader Joe's lasagna noodle sheets. I put a little more water in the sauce so that I can use the noodle sheets without cooking them before, and make a cheesey bechamel by adding good parmesan to a two-cup batch of white sauce (1/2 cup), then layer all with some mozzarella.
I like reading about other lasagnas but I don't want to usually make them unless for a special occaision.
I have a core for sauce and then build around that with what is available
This is how I learned : via observation, not a written recipe and then have adapted and experimented over the years for my own preferences. At the time I thought my dad was a bit of an irreverent jerk for saying that his sauce was better than my grandmother's. But it WAS really good and one thing that I did take from that was his going off recipe and making it his own. More than anything that I make in the kitchen, "Sauce" my grandmother called it "gravy" is an important experience for me. It is memories and connection and my own contribution to it, to share with my family. None of my kids have shown interest in making sauce but I bet in the future they will remember all the times I got up early and spent all day on one, and then give it a try themselves...
I'll use what is available for meats and vegetables. Generally use mild peppers including bell peppers but will use others. I have gone to the wild side and made a hot pepper (Italian) sauce but this is an exception.
Do you remember the scene in Goodfellas where he is slicing the garlic with a razor blade? In that scene the onion guy is told and then told again, not to use too many onions. I laugh at that as I feel like this is some eternal debate and I'm on the "lots of onions" side. I use a lot of onions proportionally but not for texture. They'll be all but unnoticeable by time I'm done with them. Generally I tend to have a very high proportion of onions and peppers but not big chunks. I want them broken down and saucy and I think you get a lot of flavor that way. Tomato is the base but for me, the sauce gets better the higher the proportion of peppers. If I want more texture like a chunky sauce I'll add additional tomato, onion and peppers later in the process specifically for this purpose using the Goldilocks Principle, to cook long enough to get properly pleasant for a sauce. (Just Right) Not too mushy but not too firm to be crunchy.
Spices again you can customize your core to your own tastes. But for me this is generally basil forward and again probably use more black pepper than most with some oregano and garlic in the background. For an all day sauce the oregano and garlic will be added early and not re-seasoned in later layers. If I'm adding meatballs, oregano will be more prominent in them, again with black pepper.
This is how I learned : via observation, not a written recipe and then have adapted and experimented over the years for my own preferences. At the time I thought my dad was a bit of an irreverent jerk for saying that his sauce was better than my grandmother's. But it WAS really good and one thing that I did take from that was his going off recipe and making it his own. More than anything that I make in the kitchen, "Sauce" my grandmother called it "gravy" is an important experience for me. It is memories and connection and my own contribution to it, to share with my family. None of my kids have shown interest in making sauce but I bet in the future they will remember all the times I got up early and spent all day on one, and then give it a try themselves...
I'll use what is available for meats and vegetables. Generally use mild peppers including bell peppers but will use others. I have gone to the wild side and made a hot pepper (Italian) sauce but this is an exception.
Do you remember the scene in Goodfellas where he is slicing the garlic with a razor blade? In that scene the onion guy is told and then told again, not to use too many onions. I laugh at that as I feel like this is some eternal debate and I'm on the "lots of onions" side. I use a lot of onions proportionally but not for texture. They'll be all but unnoticeable by time I'm done with them. Generally I tend to have a very high proportion of onions and peppers but not big chunks. I want them broken down and saucy and I think you get a lot of flavor that way. Tomato is the base but for me, the sauce gets better the higher the proportion of peppers. If I want more texture like a chunky sauce I'll add additional tomato, onion and peppers later in the process specifically for this purpose using the Goldilocks Principle, to cook long enough to get properly pleasant for a sauce. (Just Right) Not too mushy but not too firm to be crunchy.
Spices again you can customize your core to your own tastes. But for me this is generally basil forward and again probably use more black pepper than most with some oregano and garlic in the background. For an all day sauce the oregano and garlic will be added early and not re-seasoned in later layers. If I'm adding meatballs, oregano will be more prominent in them, again with black pepper.
heather_in_sf
Well-known member
I just printed off a ton of his recipes from that string...