Lasagna cook off and poll - everyone is welcome to join!

[chitownmelli]

Foggie and I are having another cook off. We are doing lasagna this time.

She will be doing a variation of one of her recipes with a red sauce and home made pasta, and I will be doing my white bechamelli lasagna with whole milk mozzeralla, omitting ricotta and will also be making home made pasta. There is also a meat sauce on mine with a tomato base, the bechamelli sauce goes over that.

We would love if more people would join our cook off - the day will be Thursday, February 24th. We will make a thread for the results like we did with the turkey cook off, where everyone will be welcome to post their results and any photos.

If you will be joining the cook off, please post here and let us know what sort of recipe you will be using, and anyone who will not be able to play along, we would be happy to hear about your favorite lasagna as well!!!

For the poll: that is just for fun, it is a multi selection poll, please choose which items are your favorite to have on a lasagna. If you choose other, please tell us what your "other" favorite ingredients are!!!

Hope this thread gives everyone a lot of neat ideas for lasagna!!!

[XUfan]

Your cook-off sounds like fun! Unfortunately, I work evenings on Thursdays, so I won't be able to participate. Can't post my "recipe" either...since I've really never used one. I just put stuff together...and it never tastes the same twice! (this is how I cook)

As for ingredients...my most recent one had spinach, mushrooms, thinly sliced red onions, and artichokes. I used a red sauce and ricotta and lots of mozzarella. It was pretty yummy!

[chitownmelli]

Aw Xu, that's too bad. If you felt like playing anyway, you could make your lasagna another night and post to our results thread after Thursday if you like. We would really love for you to be a part of it.

That's funny about your recipe, I'm kind of the same, I have guidelines yet, sort of "wing it" on amounts. Whatever seems right usually :)

[TiggerToo]

Problem w/my lasagna is I use homemade sauce, but my sauce cooks all day long...since I work on Thursdays...there is no way I could get the sauce going...

I would take y'all down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[chitownmelli]

I do a home made sauce too, but mine is cooked a month in advance and frozen. Why don't you do it on another day and post with us later? We would love to see everyone's lasagna!!!

[TiggerToo]

I just absolutely ADORE lasagna

[chitownmelli]

I didn't like it until a couple of years ago. I'm not the world's biggest ricotta fan, and my dad put probably 3 times the amount that you really should on his lasagna.... yeah - so then cutting out the ricotta and adding the white sauce was the ticket for me.

What I would REALLY like to do is to take a day and make home made mozzerella, and make ricotta from the left over milk liquids and put THAT in a lasagna. I think it would be amazing.

[TiggerToo]

What I would REALLY like to do is to take a day and make home made mozzerella, and make ricotta from the left over milk liquids and put THAT in a lasagna. I think it would be amazing.

Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[TiggerToo]

My grandma/grandpa actually used to roll very tiny meatballs and use those to make their lasagna back in the day. it was tedious work but man o man was it heavenly. I used to help them when i went to visit. ahhhh the memories.

[Gardencook]

Have any of you ever tried roasting your tomatos for sauce? Got the idea from Alton Brown. He's got a recipe over on the Food Network site. I never end up following a recipe entirely, so mine evolves each time I make it, depending on what I've got on hand -- usually tomatoes, onions, garlic and lots of bell peppers. The roasting adds so much extra flavor and no chance of scorching the bottom of the pot. Once I got a taste of the roasted stuff and realized how much easier it was, I quit making it on top of the stove.
Basically, you just halve the tomatoes and veggies, lay them in a single layer in a big roasting pan, pour in a little wine, drizzle with olive oil add seasonings and roast away. When they've got a nice color to them, let them cool a bit before putting them through a Foley mill. If you're lazy like me, like chunky sauce and don't mind the seeds, the food processor works great.
I realize it's not traditional, but the original Betty Crocker Cookbook used cottage cheese instead of ricotta. That was the first lasagna I ever made, and we actually prefer the flavor.