Joe's Lasagna!

I apologize beforehand that I do not have any pictures of the making process for this battle. Sorry!

Anyways, onto my (first ever) lasagna. I went with the typical lasagna that most people can associate with. I took a few tips from the best cook in the world (my momma) and from what I can remember what is in my favorite lasagna in the world (Joseph's).

Ingredients:

1 crushed garlic clove
2 chopped bell peppers
3/4 lb. - 1 lb. ground beef (I used 90% lean)
1 can of 28oz. canned tomatoes (stewed)
1 can 8 oz. tomato paste
1 12oz can tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
parsley
14 lasagna noodles
1 pound mozzarella cheese (shredded)
16 oz. ricotta cheese
grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper (adjusted to taste)

Process:

I started the process with the sauce since it needed to simmer for about 2 hours. I threw in the ground beef with the crushed garlic, chopped bell peppers, and a tiny bit of parsley and cooked on medium high in a skillet until the beef was browned. I'm not a big bell pepper fan but I will admit that it smelled damn good mixed with the garlic and beef. After the beef was cooked through and the vegetables were all blended together I mixed in the tomato sauce, paste, stewed tomato slices, and a small handfull of fresh parsley. Salt and pepper was added and adjusted to taste. I like salt, so sooooommmmeee people probably thought it was a little salty (ratana!). I let the sauce simmer for about 2 hours, stirring every so often.

While the sauce was going I cooked the lasagna noddles in a huge! pot. The water was brought to a boil and salt was added so that the noddles don't come out all sticky. I let the noddles boil for about 12 minutes until they were cooked all the way through then drained and placed them on a paper towel to get all the water off.

Once the sauce was ready, it was time to assemble everything. I placed a small layer of sauce at the bottom of the pan and then placed 5 strips of noddles. On top of that went ricotta cheese, mazzerella, and parmesan cheese. I repeated this step two more times so that there were three layers. I took a tip from the momma and did not put sauce between the layers so that when you cut to serve the lasagna, the pieces don't fall apart and you get nicely formed cuts. It worked like a charm! I topped everything off with a lot of sauce and cheese and holy crap it looked beautiful! Once everything was set, I placed the lasagna in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes. QUE RICO!!!

Music while cooking: Broken Bells and Local Natives.

-Joe