Hello again and welcome to another edition of Cooking with Big Skeezy. Today I’m going to walk you through a very easy lasagna recipe. The prep is minimal and the payoff is amazing! Let’s get started:
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 pound ground turkey
- Dried Onions
- Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
- Cayenne Pepper
- Paprika
- Dried Rosemary
- Dried Thyme
- 1 (32 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
- 32 ounces cottage cheese
- 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 teaspoons dried parsley
- salt to taste
- ground black pepper to taste
- 9 lasagna noodles
- 1/2 cup water
- Irish Whiskey (for drinking while cooking)
- Wine (for drinking while eating)
Start by pouring yourself a neat glass of whiskey. Sip and enjoy. As that warms your throat, put the ground turkey in a large skillet (you’ll be adding sauce later so make sure it has room) and begin to cook over medium heat. At this point I added the Lawry’s, onions, paprika, rosemary, thyme, and cayenne pepper so it can all cook together with the ground turkey. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Have some more whiskey. You’ve earned it. In a large-ish bowl, combine the cottage cheese, eggs, two cups of the mozzarella cheese, parsley, half of the grated parmesan, salt and ground black pepper. Mix it thoroughly so it looks like this when you’re done:
Once the meat has finished cooking, drain it and add the sauce to it. Let that simmer on low heat for about five minutes. Have some whiskey while you wait.
Now comes the fun part – assembly. Grab yourself a 9×13 baking dish and evenly spread about 3/4 cup of the meat sauce on the bottom. Put three uncooked lasagna noodles on top of that. Now put 1 3/4 cup of the cheese mixture and 1/4 cup of the meat sauce on top of those noodles. Put three more noodles down. Add the cheese and meat sauce again. You’ll do this a couple of times until you reach the top. When you’ve hit the top place the three crowning noodles on top of the dish, now full of meat and cheesy goodness. Cover those noodles with the remaining sauce and the last cup of mozzarella cheese, as well as what you have left of the grated parmesan. Take that wee cup of water and pour it evenly into the corners – it’s going to help cook those noodles. When you’re done it should look something like this:
Cover it with foil and bake it for 45 minutes. At the 45 minute mark, remove the foil and cook it for another 10 minutes. Make sure you keep drinking your whiskey, too, lest you dehydrate. Remove the lasagna from the oven and let it stand for ten minutes before serving.
You can use the baking time to prepare a salad and some garlic bread (which you will use the broiler to finish off – it’s also nice to broil the top of the lasagna as well).
This is the point of the post where I’d show you a picture of the finished product. Unfortunately, we were so damned hungry that we dove into it before I got a picture but here’s how it all came together on my plate:
I know it’s mostly salad but that’s all because of the Big Skeezy Challenge, really. In fact, the only reason I made lasagna that night was because a friend of ours requested it and then decided to sleep instead of joining us. Thanks, “Raphi”!
I can tell you a few things about this recipe. It’s easy, it’s delicious and it tastes great cold the next morning.
