Mom/Chef: Lasagne of love

My best friends just had a baby. A beautiful boy just six months younger than my son, we are already referring to our boys as future best friends. It doesn't matter that we live over an hour apart, they will be best friends if we have anything to say about it. Now since my baby wasn't born that long ago I remember those first few weeks of having a new baby at home and how difficult it is to do anything but tend to the baby. (Actually come to think of it, it is still hard to get anything not baby related done.) Also being a chef I cook for people I love so I started cooking some things to bring to them. Today I made lasagna. Now my husband and I love lasagna, I mean, who doesn't? But it isn't something I cook very often because it is so labor intensive. Since I was already doing one lasagna I figured I might as well do two, one for them and one for us. I started last week by cooking up the Swiss chard and kale I get in my CSA box every week and putting it in the freezer, so this week I would have plenty for the lasagnas. Today I got everything together and started.

Step One: Clean and chop 1 bunch chard and 1 bunch kale. Saute in olive oil with garlic and red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Let cool. (Mix with defrosted greens that were already done)

Step Two: Boil 2 packages noodles in salted water until al dente. Rinse in cool water and set aside.

Step Three: Mix together 16 oz ricotta cheese, 16 oz cottage cheese, 1/2 cup grated Parmesan, 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg, 1 tsp Italian seasoning, salt and pepper and 2 eggs.

Step Four: Grate 2 pounds mozzarella cheese and set aside.



Sauteed greens, grated cheese and cheese filling for lasagna.

Step Five: set up work area, lay everything out including pans and sauce. Sidenote: okay, despite the fact that I like to make things from scratch and all that I almost never make pasta sauce from scratch. My version of from scratch pasta sauce is a can of good quality tomatoes that I can gussy up however I feel like. Starting with fresh tomatoes is just too much for me. And when I do lasagna I always just buy jarred sauce. It is so much work anyway, why make lasagna even harder?



Noodles, pans and sauce ready to go.

Step Six: Assembly! Start with some sauce on the bottom of the pans. Add two layers of noodles on the bottom, then add some of the ricotta cheese mixture, greens and shredded cheese. Add another layer of noodles and repeat.

Lasagna in progress.

Step Seven: Finish lasagna with a layer of noodles, sauce and shredded cheese.


Lasagnas done!

Now I made tons of prep stuff and ended up with enough for three lasagnas, which isn't necessarily a bad thing at all. I wrapped them up and stuck them in the deep freeze.

Now they will be ready whenever I go visit next. Not bad for an hour and a half of work. Next project, squash soup!