They Call Me Mama Lena (really, I just made that up.)



Picture Courtesy of http://www.fauxmartha.blogspot.com/

So yesterday I got this email response from my friend Beth (the one on the far left in the picture):

Thanks Lisa! I will have to check it out. (I told her about LaGrolla in St. Paul) And, I am definitely going to get the gel polish! (If a salon offers you a gel manicure, DO IT!) If you have your recipes from Lasagna night typed up Harry and I would love them. He asked me if you made those all or if they were from a restaurant! (I am BLUSHING ten shades of pinky-red!) 

So I responded and I thought, hmmmm??? I wonder if my blog friends would like a good lasagna recipe.  Sorry, no pictures though - BOO Mama Lena!  My response MIGHT be long-winded but I personally believe I must SHARE where I tweak recipes and add in exactly what I used when possible.  Keep in mind when I make lasagna it takes a MINIMUM of three hours to do it right - all the chopping and cooking and assembly, then baking!  So it is definitely a Saturday or Sunday project.

damn, now I am hungry

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Tell Harry THANK YOU for the compliment. Lasagna and fettucini alfredo are Terry's two favorite things -so I have prided myself on perfecting fettucini alfredo and lasagna, just call me Mama Lena - the Norwegian-Itallian chef.


I use my laptop in the kitchen so I don't write any recipes down any more. I just save them on website recipe boxes or my favorites in my browser. Here are the absolute best lasagna recipes out there I have found - and I have tried about 20!

For the version of this we had at the cabin I added a 15 oz can of tomato sauce to the recipe and tripled the goat cheese. I normally add the tomato sauce but not the extra goat cheese - I think its to "dry" without the extra sauce. I also use just one container of the sweet itallian turkey sausage links from Jennie-O I think it works best with the sharpness of the goat cheese, although I have used hot itallian turkey sausage and pork sausage before when it was what I had in the freezer. (p.s. the extra goat cheese was FANTASTIC and that amount at Costco was the same price as the four ounce package at Cub or Target.)

Ina's Turkey Lasagna

For the one with bolognese sauce I added 15 oz can of tomato sauce only because I was freezing it - and I use 8 pounds of canned tomato in dice form instead of fresh for quality control - that is about 9 cans of 14 oz diced - I used the organic Del Monte ones you can get on coupon at Costco every so often - I always buy two or three cases of them.

I find that the sauce is A LOT - that one recipe made TWO lasagnas and left over for making bolognese - but I only did two layers of pasta and three layers of sauce in each pan. I don't have a lasagna pan that would fit as many layers as Alex suggests. When I made one lasagna last time the bonus was the leftover bolognese - it made GREAT "sloppy joes" later in the week.

Also I cook the carrot, onion and celery for quite a while over medium-low heat. I like them really soft and carmelized. She says five minutes, I do about 15.

And YES it takes a CUP of olive oil. The first time I freaked out about that cup - but it takes that much.

Alex's Old School Lasagna with Bolognese

Bon Apetit!
Lisa