 Meat and Vegetable Lasagna A healthier lasagna with lots of vegetables. Comfort food while still having some nutrition Craving lasagna after my coworker talked about the one her mother-in-law had made, I decided I needed to make one. I wanted to make it healthier than just your usual mostly meat and cheese, so I added a lot of vegetables. If you are sad and need a distraction, this is a nice time time-consuming project. It is labor-intensive and takes several hours to do all the elements and assemble, and cook. Serves: 4-6 Ingredients: Red Sauce
Instructions The Red Sauce Step 1: Brown the MeatIn a large 10 quart braising pan brown your sausage on medium high heat. Once browned remove to a large bowl leaving as much as the grease in the pan as you can to cook the vegetables. Step 2: Prep the vegetables. (all but the mushrooms)While the meat is browning, chop the carrots, onions, celery, and red pepper.. doesn’t need to be super fine, that’s a matter of preference. Once the meat has been browned and removed from the pan add these veggies to the pan and sauté till soft. Season with Italian seasoning, black garlic salt and pepper. … till it feels right… I never measure spices, but be generous with everything but the salt… the salt a little goes a long way. Once the desired doneness has been achieved (about 5 minutes) add to the bowl with the sausage. Step 3: Prep the mushrooms and cook.While the other vegetables are cooking chop the mushrooms. I keep these rather large as they will shrink down with cooking and I like to have good chunks in the sauce. After the Vegetables have been removed from the pan put the mushrooms in it should be mostly dry at this point without much grease… you want to brown the mushrooms, the water will start to seep out and they will start to caramelize/brown. This takes several minutes… maybe 10… Then and only then do you add the butter, stirring till all the mushrooms are nice and coated and the butter is all melted. Add the garlic… stir and cook for a minute or two. Step 4: Combine it all and simmer. To the mushrooms in the pan add the other vegetables and sausage. Add the can of tomato paste, can of crushed tomatoes and the chardonnay. Keep on a low simmer while you work on everything else. Taste and adjust seasonings after its been bubbling a bit. The Cheese While the mushrooms are simmering shred all your cheeses and mix them into a bowl. Could you buy a store-bought mix? Yes… but it won’t melt as nicely and the cheese probably won’t be as nice . I used a blend of Mozzarella, Fontina, Pecorino Romano and Parmesan but you can use whatever “Italian” type cheeses you like. If you have a food processor you can make quick work of this. I do not so it’s a time consuming endeavor but worth it. I used a little less than half the cheese in the cheesy white sauce and then the remainder in the layers. The Cheesy White Sauce Step 1: Make the RouxMelt the butter, add the flour, cook till its slightly golden Step 2: Add the milk.Add the milk to the roux slowly, stirring to break the flour. This will be much looser than a traditional Bechamel at this point because we are straying slightly away from tradition and making more of a saucy fondue. Simmer the milk and slowly incorporate about half the cheese a handful at a time, making sure it’s all melted before adding the next handful. Once it’s all together it should coat the spoon nicely but not be a cheese pull like fondue… you want it to still be a sauce. Season with a little nutmeg and pepper. Simmer on low while you work on the rest. The Greens Meat lasagnas usually don’t have much in the way of vegetables. Many of the vegetable lasagnas I see are a combination of mushroom and spinach… so I’ve opted for a hybrid of the two. Chop up the spinach, kale, basil, sage, thyme leaves (remove them from the stems), and chives and place in a bowl to the side. The Pasta Cook the pasta per the instructions on the box. I like to do it the old fashioned way with pre-cooked pasta as I find it easier to layer and I can control the texture better. When I drain I keep them in the pot with just a little bit of water so they don’t stick together and then pull out each sheet with some tongs. The Lasagna Step 1: Assemble the layers.Start with a layer of the red sauce on the bottom of your pan. We have a casserole that is the perfect length of lasagna I think its about an 8x12 … the lasagna is just a little short for a 9x13. Next do a layer of the pasta. My pan allowed for four sheets wide. Add another layer of the red sauce. Top with half the greens (these are uncooked and will cook while baking) Top with the cheesy white sauce Top with about half the remaining cheese. Add another layer of pasta Next the red sauce Remaining Greens White sauce NO CHEESE… skip straight to the pasta Top with the layer of pasta Add a little more red sauce A little more cheese sauce so the pasta is covered The remaining cheese. Step 2: Bake.Be smarter than I was… Put your lasagna pan on a sheet pan to protect the oven from spills. Bake in a 375 oven for about 30 -40 minutes. Serving Let Lasagna cool slightly so it sets up a little so you can dish nicely. Wait 15-20 minutes. Enjoy comfort food while not feeling terribly guilty because there’s lots of vegetables. I did have a few left over lasagna sheets and red sauce so I just cut up the pasta into bite size chunks and mixed it with the sauce to have for lunch.  My Tips for Tricky Element of Dish
Beverage Pairing This recipe uses chardonnay in the red sauce and I think that it would pair nicely if you want a white wine to go with. A better pairing of course would be a Sangiovese or Barbera or a nice Tuscan red blend. Personal Reflections
Today is the 10-year anniversary of my dad’s death. I have a lot of feelings about it all. It does in many ways get better with time. I just have an overwhelming sense of sadness today and didn’t really feel like being out in the world. A stranger started talking to me and I couldn’t process her words just experienced extreme panic and had the overwhelming urge to just turn and walk away. I then ran into a friend at the grocery store and started crying when she hugged me so opted out of going to a bridal shower of an acquaintance. The people pleaser in me struggled with this choice but I am also learning that I need to take care of me and not put myself in situations where I need to be social when I really don’t have the energy. So I cooked instead. Dad loved to cook. I think being on stage and cooking were his two favorite things. I got that from him. I don’t get stage time anymore. I have feelings about that too… but I can cook. Lately the weekends are my cooking therapy time where I can just put on music and focus on the thing in front of me. Its meditative. This is my first time making lasagna. I’ve of course eaten many over the years. Dad usually got them from Costco. I don’t think he ever made one from scratch… that I remember anyway. After today I rather see why. There are many steps involved. It takes time. One could of course make it more simply by skipping the vegetables and just browning some meat and using a store-bought sauce… skipping the cheese sauce for ricotta and pre shredded cheese… using the oven ready sheets. That is perfectly acceptable and if you have a time crunch or are overwhelmed by all the steps. Start there. I wanted a challenge today. A distraction. This was a good one. I don’t know what Dad would think of the state of the world today. He was conservative and Christian, but he also was a studier of history and had been to Poland and talked about the horrors of visiting Auschwitz. He played Tevye 4 times and had a great affinity for Judaism and the horrors faced in World War II. He loved to Travel and loved exploring other cultures and connecting with people (I guess I get that from him too). I’d like to think he’d be horrified by the things happening. That he’d be outspoken and vocal in dissent as he could be. But then again, he did have me write a glorified paper of how wonderful Regan was when I was in high school… and a book titled "Gay is not good" (Which I ripped up after he died) so maybe not. My relationship with my dad was difficult. The more time I spend in therapy and in reflection I logically can understand sometimes why he acted the way he did… in some areas anyway. In other ways he remains a mystery, and I struggle, especially with how he treated me. Maybe I’ll get clarity one day, maybe not. Generational trauma is real, and I’m trying to break the cycle and heal. It ends with me. there’s no more of my family branch and there never will be. One of my best friends said she doesn’t remember the dates of the people that passed… I don’t for everyone… that list is too long.. but my stepdad, my dad, My paternal grandfather, my paternal grandmother… these dates I feel and cannot forget. I’ve been thinking a lot about Ying and Yang lately, The good in the bad and the bad in the good. Darkness and light are in everything. It is hard for me not to be caught up in the bad lately, and I’m struggling. But the act of cooking. Watching a bumblebee bumbling about the thyme in the yard, my cats snoring, the light on the mountains in the evening. These things are beautiful. Grief is the price of love and this is beautiful too. Abusive relationships aren’t just abuse, that’s why people stay in them so long and have a hard time leaving, there is love and affection too and happy times. It doesn’t excuse the abuse or make it right. When you understand this blend perhaps, we can have more understanding and empathy of the struggle. I’m determined to write more. I know I’ve said that before. But changing tactic. the blog will be a blog… a journal of thoughts and recipes. No arguments and quoting sources and entertaining photos that are not my own. Just thoughts and recipes. In my healing work I’ve been going through old family recipes and things that were saved. I’ll post those too.
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