Lasagna or lasagne?

On Sunday, we watched Inception (50% of us for the second time, 50% of us for the first time) and I’m sticking with my original answer  (yes!)  to the question:  did the top stop spinning?  So have you watched it yet?   If not, what are you waiting for???  (see previous blog post - Am I dreaming?)   It was definitely worth watching it a second time and I think I’ll probably see it a third time (I should probably just buy the movie since I’ve already rented it twice!).  To sustain us through the second half of the movie (it is 2 hours and 28 minutes long!), we gobbled up my yummy lasagna (yes, that’s right…I’m going to fight thy blessed spell-checker and continue to spell it L-A-S-A-G-N-A not L-A-S-A-G-N-E!).  Since my lasagna received rave reviews, I thought I’d share the recipe:

Florentine lasagna (à la Tracey)

Onion, finely chopped

2 or 3 cloves of garlic, grated

EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil)

737 ml jar of pasta sauce (any kind will do!)

A few handfuls of spinach, chopped (or you could use a package of frozen spinach, thawed and drained)

400g tub of ricotta cheese

¾ of a 500g block of mozzarella cheese, grated (not sure how much that is but I’ll guess 3 cups)

Parmesan cheese, grated

Italian seasonings

Lasagna noodles (my preferred lasagna is the oven ready brown rice pasta but use whatever you prefer!)

1. In a frying pan, sauté the onion and garlic in EVOO until onion is transparent.
2. In a bowl, combine cooked onions and garlic, ricotta, spinach and ¾ of the grated mozza cheese (the remaining ¼ will be used to top the lasagna).  Add a couple of pinches of Italian seasonings to the mixture.
3. In another bowl, combine the pasta sauce with ¾ cups of water (the water is needed for the oven ready pasta only (the noodle is hard!) so if you’re using pasta that has been boiled (the noodle is soft!), you don’t have to add the water).  
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 
5. In your favourite lasagna dish, cover the bottom of the dish with pasta sauce then add a layer of lasagna noodles (I know it’s redundant to add the word “noodles” after “lasagna” but I like the word noodle so noodle, noodle, noodle!).  On each noodle (giggle, giggle), spread the ricotta cheese mixture.  Once each of the noodles has the ricotta mixture on it, cover it with pasta sauce then add another layer of lasagna noodles, ricotta cheese mixture and pasta sauce.  Add the final layer of lasagne noodles (if you have a deep dish, you could add as many layers as desired) then top with the remaining pasta sauce and grated mozza cheese then sprinkle the top with parmesan cheese and Italian seasonings. 
6. Cover the dish with aluminum foil then in the oven it goes. 
7. Remove the aluminum foil after 35 minutes and continue to bake for an additional 10 - 15 minutes (it should be bubbling at this stage). 
8. I find the lasagna always tastes better when I let it sit for at least 30 minutes before eating but it always depends on how hungry you are at the time! 

BON APPÉTIT!

I forgot to take a picture of the lasagna before we ate it but here’s a photo of the very last piece.  This leftover piece doesn’t look very pretty but it will taste super-yummy!  I wonder who will get to eat it?

P.S. Isn't it cruel funny that I would post a blog about losing weight then the very next day post a lasagna recipe? Go figure! Again, no pun intented :)