Welcome to Worldly Recipes, a new segment of RebeccaWanderlusting where I explore my love for cooking! I’ve always loved working with food, and since I have a degree in Culinary Arts, technically I know what I’m doing. However, sometimes my ideas in the kitchen fall flat as a pancakes (just like the pineapple upside down cake I made for my sister’s birthday!) Since we’ve moved into this new apartment (back in April, 2015), I’ve been cooking more and more, so I decided to share some of my favorite dishes here! I can combine my adventures out in the world with my adventures, or misadventures, in the kitchen. The first recipe I want to share is my take on Lasagna, a dish created in Naples, Italy. I didn’t really have a recipe to go on, so I kind of made it up as I went along. But that’s part of the fun of cooking, right? Right! The lasagna turned out really well and made some delicious left overs! Full disclosure, I made far too many lasagna noodles and a huge mess, but overall, everything went great! So without further ado, here is my lasagna recipe:
- Lasagna Noodles – I used Prince brand, the kind you boil, not the kind you can just bake. I made the whole box, which turned out to be too much. I only used nine noodles in total for a 13”x9” dish
- 1 large can of tomato sauce (29oz)
- 1 can of diced tomatoes (14oz)
- ½ a green pepper, diced medium
- 1 small onion, diced medium
- 6oz white Mushrooms, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- Two cups of spinach
- 1lb of ground turkey
- Grated Parmesan Cheese to taste – I used Mama Francesca’s
- 16oz shredded Mozzarella Cheese
- 9oz Goat Cheese – I used La Bonne Vie brand
- ½ cup of red wine – I used Menage a Trois Red Blend
- Oregano to taste
- Dash’s Garlic and herb to taste
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil
Once you have all your ingredients, here’s what you do with them:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit
- Put on a large pot of water to boil for the noodles, add a dash of salt to the water
- Pour yourself a glass of wine because you deserve it (not the ½ cup in the recipe, you’ll need that later)
- Medium chop the onion, mushrooms, and green pepper
- Finely chop the garlic
- In a large sauce pan, sweat the onion, green pepper and garlic in olive oil for five minutes, or until the onions are translucent
- Add the can of diced tomatoes and the mushrooms and let the mix simmer for a couple minutes
- Add the tomato sauce into the mix and set to low heat
- Season with salt, pepper, and oregano
- Add ½ cup of wine into the sauce and stir well
- Cook the ground turkey in a little bit of olive oil
- Season the turkey with Mrs. Dash’s seasoning, Oregano, and salt and pepper
- Once the water for the noodles is boiling, add in nine lasagna noodles
- Drain the grease from the turkey meat, if there is any
- Once the noodles are cooked, lay them out on a sheet pan with tin foil on it so they don’t stick together
- Put a layer of your sauce on the bottom of a 13×9” pan
- Cover with a layer of lasagna noodles
- Add turkey, spinach, and goat cheese (use a fork or your hands to separate the goat cheese)
- Then sprinkle a generous amount of mozzarella cheese and a dry parmesan cheese to taste
- Cover with another layer of sauce and noodles
- Add one more layer of turkey, spinach, the cheeses, and sauce
- Add the last layer of noodles, and cover with sauce
- Sprinkle the rest of the mozzarella on top and more Parmesan to taste
- Cook the lasagna for 25 minutes, or until the center is nice and piping hot
And voila! A delicious dinner for six… or two with leftover for the next few days.
I hope you’ll forgive my first attempt at recipe sharing. I made it through the whole cooking process and then realized I didn’t take any pictures, so the next one will have a ton, I promise. If you are able to try this recipe, please let me know how it goes!