Lasagna with Turkey Sausage

For the second post of my blog I decided on lasagna made with a Italian spiced turkey sausage.  I did not know where to start so I decided that I wanted to make my own tomato sauce. From there I followed I made my lasagna from a different recipe. 

The lasagna has 5 layers that you will repeat a few times. They are:

• ·         Tomato Sauce

• ·         Uncooked lasagna noodles

• ·         Ricotta mixture

• ·         Italian Turkey Sausage

• ·         Mozzarella and Provolone Cheese

First the tomato sauce:

4 (28 oz) cans of crushed tomatoes
1 onion, chopped
½ carton of chopped mushrooms
1 Tablespoon each of: oregano, fresh cracked black pepper, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and minced onion
1 Teaspoon of fennel seed
1 Teaspoon of salt
1-2 Tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley

This is the easiest sauce that I have ever made. Just put into a very large saucepot and cook for an hour, while stirring occasionally. I used to make a marina sauce for a pizza company, that will remain unnamed, and this is kind of like it. I think that it is a very robust sauce that would go well with both lasagna and as a standalone for spaghetti. Next time, I personally am going to add a peppery red wine, maybe a merlot or a pinot noir. After the sauce has gotten nice and broken down you can just let it sit and cook a little while longer while you work on the rest of the lasagna’s parts.

                 

The ricotta mixture is made up of:

2 pints of half-skim ricotta cheese
1/3 cup of milk
1 Tablespoon of fresh chopped parsley
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon Oregano

                Combine in a mixing bowl and you will have an awesome ricotta mix that will bind all your layers together. 

                The sausage is pretty simple. Just brown in a skillet, I used 5 links and it turned out to be enough, and then chop into small chunks. 

                Now here is where I found my first problem. My baking dish was not deep enough (9x13) so I would go with something larger in the future.  Halfway through assembling I realized that I will be cutting it very close.  Just go tomato sauce, noodles, ricotta, sausage, and cheese. Repeat! I like lasagna because the beast of the preparation is in the sauce and the sausage. I ended up putting a large cookie sheet underneath to cover and spillover from the cooking process. Cook for an hour and a half at 350F and voila! Lasagna!

45 minutes into the cooking:

After cooking:

Results:               

The ricotta was the perfect texture and has a great flavor thanks to the oregano and parsley. The tomato sauce is robust and sweet in all of the right ways. The only negative of the sauce is the fennel seeds. Next time I will definitely cut in half the amount of fennel seeds to ½ teaspoon. I definitely did not like getting a great big bite and chomping down on a licorice-y fennel seed. In fact, I am going to chop them up and see how that works. Overall, the lasagna was an awesome success and I am really happy that I went through the trouble to make the sauce myself. Much better than canned stuff and I can add what I want to taste in my tomato sauce. This recipe will leave you with a ton of sauce leftover. Goes great over spaghetti or dipping garlic bread into.

Chicken with Potatoes, Asparagus, Mushrooms, and GARLIC!

Today is my first time writing about my cooking. I am not an overly eloquent person so I will try to describe my thought processes. I have always loved cooking, but the past year has led me to really explore myself as a cook.

While shopping at the neighborhood store (Walmart), I decided on doing a chicken dish. I know I wanted to use chicken breasts and incorporate potatoes. I always get something green in, Mom's lessons never die, and I am tired out on broccoli, so asparagus was my green veggie. Mushrooms were already in my pantry, because I forgot to put them in my last dish of Beef and Broccoli. Lastly, Garlic....we have a long standing relationship, Garlic and I. For awhile I didn't use it because I was afraid of relying on it too much, but it has wormed its way back into my pantry.

Lets start with the chicken: with most of the pre-packaged chicken I find that cutting off those last few pieces of fat kind of fun. I get to choose which pieces go in and which ones go straight into the garbage. I like to cut the breasts into smaller chunks because I find the overall coating and cooking time are much faster. I am a huge fan of the prepared spices from Montreal Seasonings. I dearly love Montreal Chicken Seasoning. I add a generous dash, or six, of the seasoning and added Tapitillo Hot Sauce, a wonderful Mexican brand, for a little kick.

For the potatoes: I used yellow flesh potatoes with the skin peeled off and chopped into bite size chunks. I threw them in very hot oil with a generous dash of an Italian Herbs seasoning and some S&P. After about a minute I tossed in the minced garlic and turned it down to medium.

The asparagus I chopped into thirds and added chopped mushrooms and cooked them in an olive oil/margarine blend. I always have enjoyed that extra little pop of flavor the margarine adds to the asparagus. I wish I had some shallots to add to that dish.

After about 7-8 minutes for the potatoes and 4-5 for the asparagus I added the asparagus/mushroom mix into the potatoes and covered and steamed at a medium-low temperature. This helped me keep a crispy texture to the potatoes while steaming the insides to a creamy inside. The garlic was able to finish out to that buttery finish that I love so much.

There is the finished plate. I am not big into garnishing or adding extras. A big bonus was a nice broth that the chicken gave me. I wish I had thought of some crusty bread to soak through the broth. Next time I will think of that.

Next post will be on Thursday night and I am thinking lasagna or a made from scratch sauce and pasta. Any suggestions?

Thanks for taking the time out of your day to read my attempt at being a food blogger.

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