I have always felt a strong connection to Garfield. Yes, the orange striped cat. I’m not sure if it’s that we both have big eyes or hate Monday’s, or possibly, it’s our undying love for lasagna. Yep, thats it! I mean, that cat knew how to eat! Pasta is good, who doesn’t like pasta? But lasagna, lasagna is a whole other entity. It’s ranks among the greatest inventions ever to come out of Italy. And this recipe ranks above all recipes. Trust me when I say, “Garfield would marry this lasagna and have its babies.” And the truth is, I don’t blame him.
*warning: not suitable for vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians, gluten free people, and the lactose intolerant. Sorry :-(.
Ingredients:
1 lb. Ground beef
1 lb. Italian sausage
1 package of Lasagna noodles
2 c. Mozzarella cheese
3 cans (28 oz) Crushed tomato sauce
4 Slices stale bread
6 Hard boiled eggs
1 Egg
grated Parmesan cheese
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Begin by adding a small amount of olive oil to a large pot. When the oil is ready add the sausages and fry until they are brown. Once the sausages are browned, add the tomato sauce. Keep the tomato sauce on low heat.
While the sauce simmers, submerge 4 pieces of stale bread in water. Once the bread is soaked, squeeze out all the excess water and place them in a large mixing bowl. Add the 1 pound of ground beef, 1 egg and thoroughly mix. Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste. Form medium sized balls with the ground beef mixture. In a frying pan, coated with vegetable oil, fry the meat balls until they are browned on both sides. When they are finished cooking, place all the meatballs into the sauce. Allow the sauce to simmer for 1 to 2 hours.
As the sauce simmers, hard boil 6 eggs. After the eggs are cooked, allow the eggs to cool. Roughly chop the eggs and set aside to use later.
After 2 hours your sauce is ready and the meatballs and sausage are ready to be removed. Remove the meatballs and sausage from the sauce. Roughly chop the meat. Then, boil water to cook the lasagna noodles. Once the water is boiling, add the noodles and cook for about 10 minutes. Once the noodles are cooked, remove the pot from the stove and add cool water to it so that the noodles will be cool enough to handle.
Use a large baking pan to assemble the lasagna (Depending on how large the pan, will determine how many layers your lasagna will have). Begin by ladling a small amount of sauce on to the bottom of the pan. Follow the sauce with a layer of noodles. Next, layer the chopped meats, hard boiled eggs, mozzarella, and parmesan cheese. Once the first layer is down, ladle more sauce on top and begin the next layer. Continue until you are out of noodles or reach the top of your pan.
Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Bake the Lasagna for about 35 minutes and enjoy.