Mr. Toad’s Lasagne
(Actually, it’s from my Sicilian-born Aunt Francesca.)
The keys are good fresh ingredients, and time. Depending on where you live, you may not be able to find the best ingredients. Aunt Fran lived in NYC and could easily get good ingredients like Italian sausage.When I lived in Alabama, not so much. Jimmy Dean just ain’t the same.
You can save some time and effort, for example, by skipping the “meatball” step and just cooking up the meat loose. Or maybe buy pre-made meatballs. But your results will not be as good.This dish freezes well. Let it thaw in the refrigerator. Reheat in the oven, not the microwave, unless you like your pasta rubberized.
You can serve this dish the day you cook it of course, but it is better the next day after cooling, then mellowing in the refrigerator overnight.
Makes a 13”x 8”x 2” pan or equivalent.Serves at least 6.
Ingredients:
2, 6 oz cans tomato paste (Pope, Progresso, Red Pack)
3, 28 oz. cans tomato puree (same brands recommended)
3 medium onions, diced
5 large cloves of garlic
1 large carrot
Basil, salt, pepper
1.5 lbs ground chuck
1 lb sweet Italian sausage (remove from casing)
1 cup Italian flavored bread crumbs (Progresso, Colonna)
¾lb grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
4 medium eggs
1 lb Ricotta cheese (stir in one of the eggs, not beaten, to make ricotta easy to spread)
1 lbMozzarella thinly sliced
1 lb of lasagna noodles
Olive Oil
Vegetable oil
Make the Sauce:
In a large, heavy saucepan, saute three whole cloves of garlic, and the diced onions in olive oil. When onions are clear, discard garlic. Add tomato paste, 1 ½ cups of water and stir until smooth. Add puree, a little salt pepper and basil, and the whole, peeled carrot. The mix should be thinner than the finished sauce. Add a little water if needed. Start cooking over low heat.
Meat:
Mix the meat, the bread crumbs, 3 slightly beaten eggs, 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic, and ½ cup of grated cheese, a little salt and pepper. Form meatballs (wet your hands every few times). Brown meatballs in hot vegetable oil (not olive oil). Just brown them, no need to cook them through. Add browned meatballs to sauce. Cook about 1 ½- 2 hrs over low heat. Be sure to use a heavy enough pan to prevent burning on the bottom.
Remove meatballs from sauce and mash them up.
Pasta:
Cook lasagna noodles as directed, i.e. not thoroughly. Drain, rinse in cold water.
In the lasagna pan:
Spread a thin layer of sauce
A layer of pasta
Spread 3 or 4 tablespoons of ricotta
Spread a layer of meat
Place a layer of mozzarella
Spread some grated cheese
Another layer of pasta, at right angles to first
Repeat
Last should be sauce, grated cheese and mozzarella.
Bake at 375 degrees, ½ hour.
If serving the same day, at least let it sit out of the oven for 15 minutes.
I made this recipe for Kathleen before she was my wife. It was the start of a long and beautiful and happy relationship.
Enjoy. If you do, perhaps you will offer a toast to my Aunt Fran, who developed this recipe.She died of Alzheimer’s.