Yes, We Cook!

After several days of cooking and making new dishes I had a number of items left over.  As I did not want to see the food go to waste I decided to make a dish mainly with the items I had leftover. The result is what I am calling “Kitchen Scrap Lasagna”

½ lb chicken breast tenders sliced paper thin
½ lb ground pork
½ lb ground beef
½ yellow onion
1 green onion sliced, diced and chopped (essentially to the consistency of dried oregano)
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 oz)
2 cans tomato sauce (15 oz)
1 can tomato paste (the wee little 6 oz type)
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon basil
2 tablespoons parsley
6 oz of Parmesan Cheese
2 cups of cottage cheese (small curd)
8 oz shredded mozzarella
12 lasagna noodles

Here we go:

1- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, also bring a large pot of water to a boil. When water is boiling add salt (1 teaspoon) and 12 lasagna noodles.  Cook for 9 mins or until noodles are “al dente” Remove and set pasta aside (all of this is going on when you are doing the other steps, btw)

2- Place 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan, heat and add chicken, pork and beef.  Cook and stir over medium heat for 3 mins.

3- Add yellow onions, garlic oregano and basil, stir and cook for 3 more mins.

4- Remove from heat, drain oil

5- Put meat back into the pan and over the flame, mix in the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and paste

6- Simmer over a low heat for 30 minutes while stirring to prevent burning

7- While your sauce is simmering, mix together your cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese and parsley

8- With your sauce ready, in a 9 by 13 oven safe dish spread a coat of sauce.  Then lay down 3 noodles side by side – do not cross..  Add a coat of the cheese mixture, followed by sauce. Repeat once.  Note that I said to make 12 noodles… I only use 9.  In case some stick while cooking it always makes sense to have some extra on hand.  After you lay your last 3 noodles top with sauce, followed by shredded mozzarella cheese.

9- Bake for 45 mins to an hour (depending on how brown you want your mozzarella)

The dish lasagna going in…

Our dish going into the oven

And coming out, all brown and ready to eat..

Oh, the baked goodness!

I know you are going to get tired of hearing it but this was outstanding.  Truly.  How good do you ask?  I ate 1/3 of this pan by myself in one sitting. I have never made lasagna before, let alone just throw things together and and think it would turn out to be an edible lasagna. 

A few things to note – I enjoy things a bit more “baked”, hence the darker cheese on top, as I experience a number of flavors that wouldn’t be there otherwise.  Obviosuly you will want to bake to your taste. 

Also, I do not care for Ricotta cheese AND I had cottage cheese left over so I simply used that.  And yes, you’ll be happy to know that cottage cheese has a lower fat content!

The dish takes a bit of time to prep and bake but the payoff is worth the effort.  In total you can expect about 12 servings from a pan of this size.

Oh, and on a side note… I think I may have found the perfect pasta sauce recipe in this creation. 

Hot and ready to eat!

Have fun!

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4. Good Ole Spaghetti and Meatballs
5. Food experiment – "Indian" Tacos