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Prep Time: 60 Minutes Cook Time: 3 Minutes |
Ready In: 63 Minutes Servings: 9 |
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Each serving is about 13.5 grams of fat vs. around 22.5 to 23 grams of fat for the original version. This is delicious, though - I took out just the right amount of fat to leave in the flavor. Ingredients:
15 whole wheat lasagna noodles |
1 3/4 lbs ground beef (get top round steaks, and tell the butcher to trim off the fat and ground it up for you) |
8 ounces sargento reduced-fat mozzarella cheese, shredded (the only reason i mention sargento is because it boasts 4.5 grams of fat per serving as opposed to 5) |
4 ounces reduced-fat parmesan cheese, grated (the only kind i have seen is kraft) |
4 ounces part-skim ricotta cheese |
4 ounces fat-free ricotta cheese |
1 (28 ounce) can tomatoes |
2 (16 ounce) cans tomato sauce |
2 cups onions, chopped |
1/4 bulb of garlic, minced |
1 tablespoon oregano |
1 -2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil |
1 roll paper towels |
aluminum foil |
1 lasagna noodle, pan for this recipe, i used a 10 . 5 x 10 . 5 x 2 . 5 (the pan must be 2.5-inch high but the length and width is negotiable, you just might have to adjust) |
Directions:
1. Heat the oil in a skillet - when the oil is hot, add the chopped onions and cook about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in a rather large pot (big enough to hold all your ingredients), start heating your tomatoes and sauce. Make sure you crush your tomoatoes. Add your heaping tablespoon of organo. Then, add the minced garlic, cook a couple minutes more. Then, add the beef - try to seperate it as much as possible with your hands (into little chunks so it cooks). Cook for a few minutes, until it looks like half of it is cooked, or at least browned. Now, add it to your tomato mixture. Mix it all up, bring to a boil, then simmer for 2 1/2 hours. I always stir (so nothing gets stuck to the bottom) every 20 - 30 minutes.
2. After about 1 1/2 hours, start your lasagna noodle water boiling. Add salt to your water, but not oil. After about 2 hours, start your noodles boiling, and boil according to the directions on the box. Preheat oven to 350. While noodles are boiling (make sure you stir them so they don't stick), stretch out your paper towels over some counter space - 2 1/2 feet of space will do. Double up on your paper towels. When the noodels are ready, pour out the hot water and fill with cold, this will stop the noodles from cooking and willenable you to reach in and grab them without burning yourself! Lie the noodles down on the paper towels and cover them with more paper towels. They should only sit in the paper towels for about 5 minutes or else the towels will stick to them (if that happens just take a wet paper towels and rub off the paper that is stuck). Now, take your ricotta cheeses and mix them up in a bowl (honestly I cheat and throw a tad more in of the skim milk ricotta than the fat free). Now, take your lasagna pan. Take a little bit of sauce and coat the bottom of the pan with it. Now you are going to layer the noodles on the bottom of your pan. This keeps all the juices and sauce and cheeses from going anywhere but the lasagna. Directions: take three noodles and lie them down vertically in the pan (you will have to cut the noddles so they fit). Now, take another noodle (which will be placed horizontally), start at the bottom left, place horizontally (left to right) on the left hand corner, lift up the bottom of the middle vertical noodle, lay the horizontal one under it, and set the vertical noodle on top of it, and lay the rest of the horizontal noodle down on the right lower corner of the pan (again you will have to trim it to make it fit). The next horizontal noodle will start on the left middle and will be placed on top, then go under the middle-noodle, and on top of the right-middle noodle.
3. Whew! Once that is accomplished, take half of your ricotta mixture and spread it over your noodles. Then, take half of the mozzerella mixture and put on top of ricotta. Then take a half of the parmesan and sprinkle all over. Now take a ladel to your sauce and generously cover your cheeses. It's best to use your hands since you want it even and you don't want to mess up your cheeses. You should use just about half your sauce.
4. Take three noodles and line them up either vertically or horizontally over the sauce. No need to layer this time.
5. Repeat the cheeses and sauce.
6. Repeat the layering process to top off your lasagna. This will make its presentation very pretty! Take a glob of sauce and spread over the top noodles - you don't need that much, just a litle bit to make sure the noodles don't dry out.
7. Coever the pan fully with aluminum foil, and place in the over for 50 minutes. Let stand for about 15 minutes and enjoy!
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