Those of you who know me understand that I’m an introvert. However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t have any friends. I highly value my friends, and I’m fortunate that they tend to stick with me.

I graduated from college in the 1970s, and I have stayed close to some of my classmates since that time. We get together in various ways throughout the year. A few months back, we were invited to dinner at our friends Debbie and Val’s home, and it was a delightful evening. Debbie made a delicious dinner of homemade food. I’m sure it was a lot of work. A few nights ago, Debbie, Val, John, and Barb came over to our house for dinner.

Naturally, I wanted to serve them a nice dinner. At the same time, I didn’t want to spend the visit cooking in the kitchen. Most people like lasagna, but there is a big difference between the frozen stuff you can buy at the grocery store vs. the lasagna that you can order at a nice Italian restaurant. Homemade lasagna seemed like a good menu choice.

I could make the lasagna the day before and pop it into the oven when they arrived. I decided to serve the lasagna with some homemade cheddar cheese/onion/herb bread. Julie would make a substantial salad to complete the meal… and, of course, there would be snacks and dessert.

I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com labeled “The World’s Greatest Lasagna” with a 5-star rating. This was not a bargain recipe. However, the 9 x 13 dish served 6 of us that night, then my wife, son, and me the next day. There is still some left over for lunch or two. Also, there are many ways to reduce the cost of this dish if you are being blasted by inflation and the Trump tariff taxes, while keeping it a very acceptable weekday meal. Let’s get into it!

Here is the ingredient list from Allrecipes.com. I did modify a few things, which I’ll explain in the photos below.

Add some cooking oil to a large pot and heat it over medium heat. Add the onions, then the garlic to soften. Then add the ground beef and mild Italian sausage to brown. The only Italian sausage that I could find was in casings. I removed the sausage from the casings for this recipe. The packages of ground meat and sausage were heavier than the amounts listed in the recipe. I used them in their larger amounts; it is OK to be flexible.

Add the various spices and mix them in. Use only one teaspoon of the salt, the rest will be used in the Ricotta cheese mixture.

Chop up some parsley per the ingredient list. Add half to the above mixture.

Add the sugar. This doesn’t make the sauce sweet; it just tames down the acidity of the tomatoes (see next photo).

Add the various tomato products and mix in.

Add the water. I’m more of a cook-by-feel guy, so I’m just using one of the cans to measure the water. You do you!

This is what the sauce should look like at this point.

Bring the sauce to a gentle boil and then cover and turn down the heat to a simmer. Continue to cook the sauce for at least 1.5 hours to blend the flavors.

In a bowl, combine the remaining parsley, Ricotta cheese, 1/2 t of the salt, and egg. I had a bigger tub of ricotta, so I added two eggs. I also added around one teaspoon of Italian seasoning to the mixture.

Boil the lasagna noodles for around 8 minutes. Then drain and rinse in cold water to stop them from continuing to cook.

Start the layering. First cover the bottom of the pan with sauce, then noodles.

Then, a portion of the Ricotta cheese mixture. Portion the Ricotta cheese depending on how many layers you are doing. I was doing three layers.

Then some Mozzarella cheese.

Then some Parmesan cheese.

Continue to build your lasagna, ending with Mozzarella cheese. I did put some additional Parmesan cheese under the Mozzarella, instead of on top of it, for this last layer.

Heat an oven to 350°F (180°C). Cover the lasagna with aluminum foil and bake for around 30 minutes. Then uncover and bake for around 30 minutes more. If you are making a two-layer lasagna, reduce the cooking time to around 25/25 minutes. I used a thermometer to ensure the center of the dish reached at least 160°F (70°C). In my case, I cooked the lasagna for about 35 minutes with the foil off. The extra time was needed because the casserole had been refrigerated before baking.

I don’t know how a dish will turn out unless I have made it several times. This was my first time making lasagna in many years (sans the frozen stuff), so I relied on my wife and friends for their opinions. They all said it was delicious, so I call the lasagna a success.

It was a lot of work, but the second time around it would be much less, since I would know what I was doing. I highly recommend making it the day before for an effortless dinner party. The homemade sauce made it delicious, but you could substitute jar sauce. Additionally, you could use ground beef instead of the ground beef/Italian sausage mixture, or omit the meat for a more economical weekday meal.

Can you believe that we were once young college kids!

Here is a photo to prove it! I’m the guy with the mustache! So young, so young!

Peace,

Mike