Meat Lasagna

updated from archives

Every time I open the pantry, I'm accosted by two lingering boxes of lasagna noodles that have been sitting at eye level for the last two years.  I have not made lasagna since then--perhaps it's because I'm still a little traumatized by all the prepping and cooking that went on that week. But if I'm to be successful in clearing out the entire pantry, I had better start making some lasagna.

In other news, I'm still working through moderating all the unpublished comments and the hundreds of emails in my blog email. So if you've left a comment on this blog and are wondering where it is or if you've sent me an email and I have not replied, please bear with me. Thank you for your patience! I do love your emails and comments. If you make something from the blog, I wanna hear about it! Even if you didn't like it. Also let me know if recipes are unclear, I'm in the process of updating many older recipes.

Some notes: Lasagna can be time-consuming but the sauce can be made in advance to save some day the day of. If using boil noodles, only cook them about 75% of the way, undercook them by about 3 - 4 minutes. They will finish cooking in the oven.

Meat Lasagna
serves 6 - 8

Meat Sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 pound of ground beef or 50-50 mix of ground beef and italian sausage, casings removed (I prefer this combo but it depends on what I have)
1 medium onion chopped fine
6 medium garlic cloves minced or pressed through a garlic press
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
28 ounce can tomato puree
28 ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 teaspoon salt

Lasasgna
15 ounce ricotta cheese, preferably whole-milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 cup coarsely chopped basil
1 pound shredded mozzerella cheese
2 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated (about 1 cup)
12 no-boil noodles

Making the sauce
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the ground meat and cook, breaking up the pieces, until browned. Transfer the ground beef to a bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of the fat back to the Dutch oven and turn the heat down to medium. Drain and discard the rest of the fat.

Add the chopped onions and cook until translucent while scraping up the brown bits. Add the black pepper and garlic and cook until the garlic is fragrant, about 30 seconds. Return the meat back to the sauce, add the drained diced tomatoes, tomato puree, and salt. Simmer for 1 hour.

Assemble the lasagna
If using chilled, premade sauce, let it sit out at room temperature for 20 - 30 minutes prior to using but you do not need to do this if you do not intend on baking the lasagna right away.

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Add the ricotta, cream, egg, salt, and pepper to the bowl of a food processor. Puree until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and mix in the chopped basil.

Mix the grated Parmesan and shredded mozzerella in a separate bowl and set aside.

Smear the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with 1/4 cup of tomato sauce (avoiding large chunks of meat). Place 3 noodles on the bottom of the dish. Drop 3 tablespoons of the ricotta mixture in one tablespoon dollops along each noodle. Roughly spread the cheese mixture out on each noodle with the back of the spoon. Evenly sprinkle 1 cup of the grated mozzerella and parmesan mixture on top of the ricotta mixture. Then cover each noodle with 1/2 cup of meat sauce. Apply another layer of noodle and repeat the ricotta, mozzerella, meat sauce, and finally noodle again twice more. In the last ricotta layer, use up the remaining ricotta mixture.

Place the final layer of lasagna noodles on and cover with the remaining meat sauce. Then spread the remaining mozzerella mixture evenly over the top.

A cross-section of the lasagna will look like this:

Remaining mozz/parm
Remaining meat sauce
Noodle layer 3
Meat Sauce
Mozz/Parm
Ricotta
Noodle layer 2
Meat Sauce
Mozz/Parm
Ricotta
Noodle layer 1
1/4 cup sauce without meat
However, for a more photogenic lasagna with separate cheese and meat sauce layers, you can do something like this. Up to you, fresh lasagna never slices neatly anyway.

Remaining mozz/parm
Remaining meat sauce
Noodle layer 3
2x Meat Sauce
Noodle layer 2
2x Mozz/Parm
2x Ricotta
Noodle layer 1
1/4 cup sauce without meat

Bake uncovered at 400 degrees on the middle rack for 30 minutes. Depending on the oven, the top may brown faster than anticipated, if this happens, loosely cover the lasagna with a piece of foil and continue baking. Let it sit for 10 minutes at room temperature prior to slicing and serving.

If planning ahead, the lasagna can be kept in the fridge for 2 days. If freezing, wrap the dish tightly with plastic wrap, then wrap tightly with foil, and finally wrap tightly once more with plastic wrap. Thaw in the fridge for 24 - 48 hours. Make sure the center of the lasagna is not frozen prior to baking. After defrosting, let the lasagna sit at room temperature for an hour prior to baking.

Gently remove the foil when unwrapping because it can be used during baking. Gently drape the foil over the lasagna and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes then uncover and continue baking until the sauce is bubbly and cheese is spotty brown, approximately 25 - 35 more minutes.

Hearty Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

(updated from archives)

I grew up on spaghetti with Ragu. Not the lowercase italicized ragu, but the capital R followed by a copyright sign Ragu. And it was Hunt’s more often than not since it was cheaper. As a child, I always wanted the meat flavor thinking that it sounded better than plain tomato. Then one day, I thought it was odd that there wasn’t actually any meat in the sauce. Upon further inspection, the sauce was merely “flavored with meat.” Gross.

When Steven and I first started dating (now nearly a decade ago, crazy right?), he made some spaghetti for me with his mom’s homemade meat sauce. The sauce had actual pieces of real meat, onions, chunks of tomatoes, and oh my god are those herbs?

This is also how Steven introduced me to cheese. Like many Chinese people, my family was very suspicious of cheese. Stinky tofu? Bring it on! Fermenting milk? Nooo thank you. But Steven eventually won me over with a little freshly grated parmesan on my pasta.

When I started cooking, I first learned how to brown meat and chop and saute an onion. I doctored up jarred spaghetti sauce with ground beef and onions. Then I bought my first jar of herbs, Spice Island Italian Herb Blend, and added some of that. I eventually switched the jarred, overly salty stuff to plain tomato sauce. Over the years, I added more and more ingredients like diced tomatoes and some red wine, and finally topped it off with some fresh basil. This recipe has come a long way.

Hearty Meat Sauce
2 Tablespoon olive oil
1 pound lean ground beef or mix of ground beef with Italian sausage
1 large onion, chopped fine
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press
1/4 cup red wine
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
14 ounce can tomato puree
14 ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Pasta of your choice
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped or chiffonade
1/2 cup grated parmesan for serving

Heat a tablespoon olive oil in a large saute pan or Dutch oven and brown the ground beef. Drain the fat through a fine mesh sieve and set aside.

Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the pot and heat over medium heat until shimmering. Add the onions and 1/2 tsp of salt and cook until softened. If the bottom of the pan is turning too brown, add a little bit of water and scrape up the bits as you go. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the wine to deglaze the pan and cook until the wine is completely gone. Add the tomato puree, drained diced tomatoes, pepper, and oregano.

Cook the sauce at a gentle simmer over low heat, partially uncovered for 2 - 3 hours or until the sauce is thicken and ground beef is tender.

Cook spaghetti according to package instructions

Serve over pasta, topped with basil and parmesan or use in lasagna

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Carbonara is Steven's most requested dish. It's one of the few recipes on this blog that I make regularly, so I'm a little embarrassed I haven't updated the recipe since 2007. The ingredient list has stayed the same in the last four years but I added the trick of tempering the eggs with boiling pasta water before adding it to the pasta. On the rare occasion, I get a little fancy but I always go back to the original recipe of 5 ingredients, 6 if you include salt for pasta water. Traditionally you would use pancetta or guanicale, but let's face it, that stuff is expensive and I'm a poor student. Because this recipe is so simple, there are a few things I feel strongly about. First, I don't believe in adding cream; I think it's like cheating. But I unfortunately don't know anyone Italian who can back me up. Second, use freshly ground pepper; this is non-negotiable.

This recipe is one of our staples during medical school, because I can make this in less than 30, maybe even 20 minutes. I like to cook with ratios because it makes recipes easy to scale up or down. This recipe is no different and can be easily adjusted.



Spaghetti alla Carbonara
Approximately 4 ounces or 4 slices of thick-cut bacon, sliced into 1/4 inch wide strips or equivalent amount of pancetta or guanciale, chopped
2 eggs, beaten
2 ounces finely grated parmesan, parmigiano, or pecorino romano
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper (I go up to 1 teaspoon)
8 ounces spaghetti

Cook bacon in a skillet over medium heat until it is crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a piece of paper towel.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta. Salt it generously, it should taste like sea water. Cook spaghetti according to package instructions, until it is al dente.

Temper the eggs like making a custard. With one hand beat the eggs and with the other slowly drizzle approximately 1/4 cup of hot pasta water with a measuring scoop or cup into the egg mixture. Set aside.

Before draining the pasta, set aside about half a cup of the boiling pasta water to loosen the pasta if needed.

You'll have to move fast at this point. When the pasta is al dente, drain the pasta then return the pasta back into the hot pot. Keep the pot off heat. The residual heat in the pot and pasta will thicken the sauce. Add the drained bacon, ground pepper, pasta and with one hand, stir the pasta while pouring in the tempered egg mixture.

Keep stirring to mix the cheese and egg evenly and the sauce will be thickened and silky smooth. Add a bit of the pasta water if needed.

Optional: top with extra freshly ground pepper and grated cheese before serving.

March 2007

Chicken Adobo

update from April 2007

When I first made chicken adobo 4 years ago, I was a little apprehensive about the seemingly large amount of vinegar the recipe called for. However, the vinegar mellows with cooking and the sauce is amazing over freshly steamed rice. I prefer a 1:1 ratio of soy to vinegar. I reach for a milder vinegar like rice, white wine, or cider vinegar. I personally find plain white vinegar is too monotonous and abrasive. You can marinate the chicken as long as you want but this is rarely something I plan that far in advance. I usually throw all the ingredients together in a pot and let it sit for about an hour (sometimes I skip this part entirely if I feel particularly lazy).

Chicken Adobo
approximately 2 pounds of dark meat chicken (thighs and drumsticks)
1/2 cup soy sauce (low sodium preferably)
1/2 cup rice or cider vinegar
1 cup of water
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
5 garlic cloves, smashed with the side of a knife
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
Optional: small yellow onion, thickly sliced

Optional step: Combine everything in a large bowl and marinate for 1 hour, up to overnight.

Bring everything up to a boil then lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Turn the chicken halfway through the cooking process.

Remove the chicken and bring the sauce back to a boil and continue to boil the sauce until it reduces by about half to a slightly thickened syrup.

Optional: When I'm not lazy or starving, I've broiled the chicken (skin side up for a few minutes) in the oven to go the extra mile. You have to keep an eye on it because it will go from crispy to burnt in a minute under the broiler. I have heard of people throwing adobo on the grill but I personally have not tried this. I imagine if the chicken is super tender it may fall through the grates. Consider yourself warned and don't blame me if this happens. Broiling/grilling is not necessary, the chicken is perfectly delicious without this final step.

Serve the chicken over rice and spoon the sauce on top.

(cooked with onions)

Unagi Sushi Rice Bowl

from the archives

I bought some adorable bento boxes over Christmas break.

When Steven and I go out to sushi, we always have to get something with unagi. Steven usually goes for the unagi rice bowl, unagi fillet over a bed of steamy rice served in a handsome, black lacquered box – simple, refined, and elegant. Whereas I love the truly ostentatious, completely over-the-top rolls with unagi, avocado, deep fried soft shell crab, you name it, preferably with some sort of vegetable antenna sticking out.

As a compromise, with these sushi bowls aka lazy sushi, Steven gets his unagi on rice and I get to add a bunch of extras to jazz things up. It has to have avocado because I heart avocado and the textural contrast between the creamy avocado, soft unagi, and crunchy cucumber, and crisp nori is amazing. It’s perfect for when we get a sushi craving but I’m too lazy to stand there rolling sushi, especially when my rolling skills leave much to be desired.


Wow look at this ooolllddddd picture from June 07. Hopefully my photography has improved since then.

If you live close to an Asian grocery store, like 99 Ranch, you can find unagi precooked and vacuumed sealed in the frozen section. You can microwave, bake, or boil the unagi directly in the bag to heat it up. A 7 oz. fillet will usually make around 3 servings. If you don't have eel, you can use crab or shrimp.

Unagi Sushi Rice Bowl
7 oz. unagi fillet cooked according to package instructions
1 large egg, beaten
Cucumber slices
Avocado slices
Nori, cut into thin slivers (I used kitchen shears)
2 tsp toasted white sesame seeds
Kabayaki Sauce (recipe follows)
Sushi Rice (recipe follows)

Usually unagi is fully cooked so you just need to warm it up in the oven. Prepare it to package instructions, mine said to bake it in a 400ºF oven for about 10 minutes.

Beat the egg with a pinch of salt. Heat about a teaspoon of oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Pour in the beaten egg and swirl the pan to cover the pan evenly with a thin sheet of egg. When the egg looks almost set, shake the thin egg sheet onto a large plate then flip the egg into the skillet again to cook the second side. The entire process will take about 2 minutes because the egg will cook really quickly. Julienne the egg into thin strips.

Add a portion of sushi rice in a bowl then top with egg strips, cucumber slices, avocado slices, nori slivers, and unagi. Drizzle with kabayaki sauce to taste and sprinkle with sesame seeds.


Unagi Kabayaki Sauce
1/4 C soy sauce
1/4 C mirin
1 Tbsp white sugar

Add the mixture to a small saucepan and simmer gently until slightly thickened, be careful to not burn the soy sauce.

Sushi Rice
2 C short grain or sushi rice
2 C water
1/4 C rice vinegar
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

I usually cook rice in the rice cooker so I honestly have no idea how to cook it on the stovetop.

Dissolve the vinegar, sugar, and salt either in a saucepan over low heat or microwave for 30 seconds until the solution is warm and whisk to dissolve.

When the rice is finished cooking, pour the vinegar mixture over the rice and use a rice paddle or spatula to gently fold the rice. Don’t smash the rice. Let the rice cool until it is body temperature.

Mizuna and Minced Chicken Stir Fry

Steven and I recently signed up for a local CSA. CSAs are growing increasingly popular and I bet many of you are already familiar with the concept but we just learned about them a few weeks ago (man I feel so behind the times). CSA or Community Supported Agriculture is a program where you establish a relationship with a local farm and you receive a weekly, biweekly, or monthly box of produce that the farm grows. It's a great way to 1. eat locally and support local farms, 2. eat seasonally, 3. eat more fruits and veggies (because okay, let's be honest, who gets their 5-a-day, not me...) and 4. try fruits and veggies that you've never tried before. The great thing about our CSA is the variety and flexibility. Everything in our box is organic. Some items come from the main farm, other items come from other farms in Washington State, and some come from outside of the region to give subscribers a little variety. We can make substitutions, pickup either weekly or biweekly, or cancel or put our subscription on hold at anytime.



Last week our box contained:
2 Russet potatoes
1 bunch Carrots
1 Leek
.75 lb Zucchini
.75 lb Shallots
2 Hass avocados
4 Valencia oranges
2 Tommy Atkins mangos
2 Lemons
1 Romaine lettuce
1 bunch Mizuna
.34 lb Spring Mix

Organic carrots taste so much better than the giant supermarket carrots and Bunny was happy that the carrots came with green leafy tops attached, which he quickly nommed away.

After looking at our produce list for the week, Steven asked me what mizuna was. I wouldn’t have had a clue if he had asked me the day before, but it just so happened that I had just read a post about mizuna on Susan's blog, Food Blogga. I felt pretty sharp when I replied, "Oh, it's a Japanese mustard green." So I knew what it was, but I was at a loss of how to prepare it. Google to the rescue! I found a recipe for a mizuna and chicken stir fry from Whole Foods, and while I liked the idea, that recipe called for all sorts of random ingredients. I just wanted a simple mizuna and chicken stir fry. Mizuna, I discovered, cooks down a lot. It’s like spinach, you start out with a huge bunch and 2 seconds later, poof, it shrinks down to nearly nothing. I kept a 1:1 ratio of mizuna to chicken in this recipe but feel free to use more or less chicken. The mizuna also cooks very quickly. I added it after I took the pan off the heat and the residual heat of the cooked chicken and hot pan was enough to gently wilt the mizuna. If it's cooked too long, the greens will be limp and lifeless.

Mizuna and Minced Chicken Stir Fry
Inspired by Whole Foods

3/4 lb chicken breast
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp Shao Xing rice wine
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp white pepper
3/4 lb mizuna
Salt to taste

Pulse the chicken breast in a food processor to mince it finely until there are no large pieces remaining but do not grind into a paste. Or alternatively mince it with a chef's knife. Mix the minced chicken with soy sauce, wine, cornstarch, sugar, and white pepper and set it aside to marinate.

Meanwhile, trim the ends off the mizuna. It's easiest to keep the mizuna in a bunch and trim the ends off all at once then untie the bunch to wash. My mizuna was pretty dirty, so wash it a few times to loosen and wash away any dirt on the stems and leaves.

Heat 2 tsp of oil in a wok or skillet over medium high heat. Add the chicken
and stir fry until it is fully cooked through, about 4 - 6 minutes. When the chicken is fully cooked, turn off the heat and add the mizuna. Toss the mizuna in the hot pan with the chicken and it will start to wilt and cook down, season to taste with salt.

Serve with rice.

More about CSAs:
If you live in the Pacific Northwest area, there are many different CSAs to choose from (we signed up with Full Circle Farms). To find a local CSA in your area go to this website: http://www.localharvest.org