Better Beef Lasagna

I am a sucker for great Italian food. If it were up to me, I would eat Italian food every single day. Not necessarily every single meal, but certainly every day. Just imagine---okay, I need to stop because the drooling is affecting the effectiveness of the keyboard keys. Anyway, when we decided to go with an Italian theme, I immediately thought of lasagna because its delicious, wonderful, yummy, scrumptious---oh, crap, drool problem again.

One bad aspect of lasagna, however, is that it's usually loaded with fat and calories because of the beef and sheer excess of cheese used. Another drawback being time. Lasagna is so time consuming to make because there are just so many steps. I felt like this recipe by Elie Krieger, whom I love by the way, appropriately met my biggest concerns.

I made this recipe for a potluck for my small group and was really quite anxious. There's just a tad bit of pressure when you don't normally "cook" (yay baking!), and you're the one in charge of the entree (READ: if you screw up, everyone's screwed). Good times! But everything turned out decently.

Don't be alarmed by the intermediate level difficulty of this recipe, it isn't too bad actually. Or maybe I was just expecting a war and it turned out just fine. It really did take around the time described below to prep and cook. One of the things I don't like the recipe calls for 4 cups of marinara, but when you're in the store...well, I didn't know how much that was and hoped it was around a jar size. In actuality, I ended up running short on sauce and I wonder if that contributed to my lasagna being a little dry. It definitely isn't the dripping, saucy mess that you're used to from lasagna, but this is supposed to be healthier. I bought a nice, organic marinara from Trader Joe's and it tasted beautifully. I was surprised the meat and lasagna tasted pretty well spiced when the recipe doesn't call for extra spices. I did however end up adding a few pinches of dried oregano to the top of the lasagna when I added the last layer of sauce and cheese. It smelled so good when it baked--the drooling started all over again.

All in all, I think this turned out well. I ended up using 95% lean beef because I couldn't find 90% lean and it worked, in fact the beef taste was better for it. I also mixed up portobello and crimini mushrooms because all portobellos was out of my budget range. I think what messed up my version was that I baked it and then stopped to refrigerate it because it was too early. Then I had to rebake it and I think this reheating/double baking dried it out a little bit. It really could have used that extra sauce. I also added more mozzarella and used regular Parmesan instead of Fresh. Yummy! Great recipe, happy eating!


A peek at the lasagna---so ghetto with the foil covering it, ha!

4 stars out of 5 (would have been 4.5 if it wasn't dry)
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Recipe from here.

Recipe courtesy Ellie Krieger

Prep Time:35 min, Cook Time:1 hr 15 min

Level:Intermediate

Serves:6 servings

Ingredients

• 12 ounces whole-wheat lasagna noodles (15 noodles)
• 8 ounces lean ground beef (90 percent lean or higher)
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 8 ounces portobello mushrooms, diced (about 3 large mushroom caps)
• 4 cups good quality store-bought marinara sauce
• 1 (15 ounce) container part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Pinch ground nutmeg
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
• 3 ounces grated part-skim mozzarella cheese (about 2/3 cup)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Cook the noodles al dente according to the directions on the package. Drain them well then lay out on waxed paper to prevent them from sticking to each other.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over a medium-high heat. Add the beef and cook until no longer pink, breaking it up into small pieces as it cooks, about 3 minutes. Transfer the meat to a plate, discarding any fat remaining in the pan.

Add the oil to the same pan and heat over a medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally until all the liquid has evaporated and they begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Return the meat to the pan. Stir in 2 cups of the tomato sauce and simmer for 2 minutes.

In a medium bowl combine the ricotta cheese, spinach, egg, the salt, the pepper and nutmeg.

Spread 1 cup of tomato sauce on the bottom of a 9 by 13 inch baking dish. Place a layer of lasagna noodles on top, touching but not overlapping. Spread half of the ricotta mixture on top of the noodles. Add another layer of noodles. Top with half the beef-mushroom mixture. Repeat with another layer of noodles, then remaining cheese mixture, more noodles, then remaining beef mixture and finally 1 more layer of noodles. Top the final layer of noodles with the remaining sauce, then sprinkle with the grated cheeses. Cover loosely with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake for 15 minutes more.