So remember that delicious pizza I had at Cate's wedding? The one I wanted to recreate? Well I decided to give it a shot the other night. Only I was starving and not really in the mood to wait very long for dinner, so I was a bit rushed and the balsamic reduction totally slipped my mind. I'm a saucy kind of girl though, so I had to make sauce! I'd done a little research over the weekend and decided that a simple tomato sauce would be the best way to make sure the fresh tomatoes and basil would be the star, so I settled on tomato sauce with onion and butter. I'd never made this sauce before, because I have given my heart to an oven-roasted tomato sauce (which I'll have to write about separately), but after reading about the simplicity of this one on Smitten Kitchen, and knowing that butter makes everything taste better, I decided it would certainly be delicious. I sliced my leftover Italian bread in half horizontally, layered a bit of sauce on each side, and sprinkled a light amount of mozzarella over that. I cut a bunch of beautiful cherry tomatoes that I had gotten at the farmer's market in half, dressed them with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper, and then mixed in chopped fresh basil. I laid that over the mozarella and then added a bit more cheese for a bubbly finish. The result? A really delicious french bread pizza base, but there was something amiss with the tomatoes. They were pretty sweet to begin with, so I think a bit more salt and plenty of additional herbs would have really helped enhance their flavor. I was satisfied with the outcome, nevertheless, but I was left with a batch of tomato sauce and a lot of remaining basil and cheese. SO I MADE LASAGNA! (In case you're wondering, lasagna in Chinese is 千層麵, literally "thousand-layer noodles".)
I just happened to have a box of lasagna noodles in my cupboard and about 8 oz. of ground chicken left over from that Chinese recipe I made over the weekend. So I diced half of a white onion and put that in a hot pan with a tablespoon or so of olive oil and the ground chicken. I added a sprinkling of salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. Meanwhile, I cooked my lasagna noodles according to the package for about 12 minutes. I let the meat brown and the onions cook down, and then I added in the tomato sauce. I let the sauce warm through and then got ready to prepare my lasagna. Mer gave me two beautiful Le Creuset baking dishes last year for my birthday in cobalt (which, I sadly discovered, has been discontinued -- I feel lucky to have gotten these two beauties!), so I used the 1-qt. rectangular baking dish for this, and it was the perfect size! I layered a small amount of just tomato sauce on the bottom of the pan and then put down three lasagna noodles, making sure to overlap them a bit. I then spread some of the meat and sauce mixture on top along with a scattering of chopped basil and a sprinkling of cheese. I layered three more noodles on top of that and followed with the sauce, basil, and cheese. After adding the last layer of noodles, I added the rest of the sauce and basil followed by a more generous amount of cheese. I then baked it at 350 degrees for about half an hour. I allowed it to cool for another 15 minutes or so just to let everything solidify a bit. And I couldn't believe how delicious it was! The sauce really shines through and the basil provides a brightness and freshness to the dish. The ground chicken was seasoned well and provided a hearty component to the dish without making it seem heavy. I just finished the helping I brought with me for lunch today, and it was just as tasty, if not more so, today. Not bad for my first recipe, not bad at all!
Nicki's Lasagna
1-qt. baking dish
1 tbsp of oil
1 half of a white onion, diced
8 oz. ground chicken
salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Italian season to taste
*tomato, onion, butter sauce
a bunch of fresh basil, chopped
16 oz. bag of shredded Mozarella cheese
12 lasagna noodles
*The tomato, onion, butter sauce can be made ahead of time. Simply pour a 28-oz can of San Marzano whole tomatoes into a sauce pan and add 5 tablespoons of butter, and a yellow onion peeled and halved. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for about 45 minutes. Discard the onion and be sure to break up large chunks of tomatoes. Season with salt to taste.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Bring a large pot of water seasoned with salt to a boil and add lasagna noodles one at a time until they soften into the water. Add a bit of oil to prevent sticking and cooking until tender, about 12 minutes.
Add about 1 tbsp of oil to a heated pan, and once hot, add diced onion and ground chicken. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning (I didn't measure the amounts, but I just sort of sprinkled each spice over the mixture until everything was covered). When chicken has browned and onions are tender, add the tomato, onion, butter sauce. Warm through while preparing noodles.
Add a bit of the plain tomato sauce to the bottom of your baking dish. Line the pan with three noodles, making sure to overlap them slightly. Add about 1/3 of the meat and sauce mixture on top, then top with some of the fresh basil and a sprinkling of cheese. Repeat twice. The top layer should have a bit less sauce a larger amount of cheese. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the cheese is brown and bubbly.
Remove from the oven and allow to sit for 15 minutes before serving.
No comments:
Post a Comment