Lasagna = Love

We Love Lasagna. There are so many different ways to make it. Our favorite is the traditional way with ricotta cheese between the layers of Lasagna sheets.
If I had the time I would have liked to have made my own lasagna sheets, but this time of year, unless I really plan ahead it's not going to happen. I used Barilla Lasagna sheets. The ones that you boil. I do not like the no cook sheets. I'm not saying that they are  bad, I just don't like them.
After boiling the lasagna sheets in a huge pot of salted water I run them under cold water and then lay them out on dish towels to dry them.
When they are dry I layer my noodles, starting with sauce on the bottom of the pan and then a layer of lasagna sheets. I cooked some Sweet Italian sausage, out of the casing, and crumbled it up and sprinkled some of the sausage meat on the first layer and added some more sauce.

This is the first layer of my lasagna

If I am really ambitious I will make tiny meatballs and put them into the layers of lasagna too. I was serving meatballs on the side and decided not to add the meatballs this time.
Keep layering the lasagna sheets with the cheeses, meat and sauce until you don't have any Lasagna sheets left.

all layered and ready to go into the oven

I like to top off the whole pan with a generous amount of shredded mozarella cheese and some grated Reggiano Parmiagano.
Bake in a preheated 350 - 375 degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour until nice and hot and some of the Lasagna noodles get crispy! (That's my favorite part!)
I forgot to take a picture when it came out of the oven. You'll have to trust me on this one, it was beautiful!

Here's what I used to make this lasagna.

2 pounds of lasagna sheets
3 pounds of Ricotta cheese, either whole milk or skim
2 cups grated parmiagano cheese
2 pounds shredded mozzarella cheese
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
a small bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped
Sunday Gravy sauce that my meatballs, sausage and pork have been simmering in for hours.

Mix all the cheeses together, reserving some of the shredded mozzarella to top the lasagna. Add the eggs, salt, pepper and flat leaf parsley. Mix well so all gets incorporated.  This is what you will use in your layers of lasagna.
Add some meat if you want. We like the flavor of sausage, which was cooked prior to adding it. I took the sausage meat out of the casing and cooked it through and crumbled it.
You can also cook the sausage whole and then slice it and add it to your lasagna. You may also add meatballs, either tiny ones or sliced. It doesn't matter...add what ever you want to your lasagna, it will taste great.
Just do me a favor and make your own sauce! That's the one thing that you should never cheat on!

Buon Appetito
xoxoxo
Lorraine

Ricotta Cheesecake

This is not your normal ricotta cheesecake. It is so smooth you would think that you're actually eating a New York Style Cheesecake! I have no idea where this recipe came from. It was written on an index card in my own hand writing. It's definitely from my single days, I just have no idea from whom I got it.

Ricotta Cheesecake
3 pounds ricotta cheese
8 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
zest from one orange
zest from one lemon
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup of cornstarch

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Butter a 9 inch springform pan and then dust it with flour.  Using aluminum foil tightly mold the foil around the outside of the pan. Set aside.
In a blender puree the ricotta cheese, until very smooth. Do this in batches.  Add the eggs one at a time while the blender is going.
Take out mixture of ricotta and eggs and pour into a large bowl. Add the sugar, zests, vanilla, and cornstarch making sure all is mixed in well.
Pour the batter into the prepared springform pan.  Place the pan in a large roasting pan and carefully add hot water to the pan so that it comes to about one inch outside of the springform pan.
Bake for 1 1/2 hours until the top is golden. Insert a knife and if it comes out clean it is done.
Turn the oven off and prop open the door and let the cake rest in the oven for 30 minutes.
Remove from oven and let rest to room temperature.
You may serve this at room temperature or chilled.
I like to dust the top of the cake with some powdered sugar.

Enjoy!
Buon Appetito
xoxoxo
Lorraine

Pizza Grana

This pie is also know as a wheat pie. It is one of my favorites! It is very similar in taste to an Italian Cheese Cake. You will love this!

Here's what you will need.

Pizza Grana


For the filling
2 pounds of Ricotta cheese
1 pound cooked grain
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs, seperated
1/2 cup of scalded milk
1/4 cup citron chopped
1/4 cup orange peel, cut fine
1 1/2 tsp of Orange water
the rind of 1 lemon and 1 orange

for the crust
2 1/4 cup flour (and more as needed)
3 eggs
4 Tablespoons of milk
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 pound butter

This recipe will make 2 pies.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix all the ingredients together for the filling, except for the egg whites.

Beat the egg whites in a bowl until they are stiff, and fold them into the wheat mixture.

Mix your ingredients for the pie crust. the dough will be very wet and stick to your hands, keep adding flour until the dough does not stick to your hands and can be rolled out.

Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness to fit your pie dish. Add the filling and with the extra dough create strips to make a lattice top.  Weave the strips, I think this helps them from falling into the mixture, but don't quote me on that one...lol.

Bake in the oven for 1 hour at 350 degrees.  They'll jiggle a little when you take them out of the oven but they will have a beautiful golden color to them. Don't over bake them.  Let them cool off before refrigerating them.

I gave up deserts for Lent. I am so ready to dive into this one!

Buon Appetito!
Happy Easter!
xoxoxo
Lorraine

Easter Pies

My sister and I are starting a new tradition. We are making our Easter Pies on Good Friday. The new part of the tradition is that from now on she will be taking the day off! You cannot start baking at 3 pm on Good Friday! You shouldn't start that late in the day on any given day! We made 3 different pies today. 2  different meat pies, one recipe is simply called Easter Pie ( the recipe is out of the newspaper) , and the other is Pizza Gaina, and is also known as Pizza Rustica. Until recently, I thought that this was one of my mothers recipes. I found out during a phone call to my Zia Josie, that this is not something that was a tradition on my mothers side of the family. It became a tradition while we lived on Daniel Drive in Farmingdale, New York.  I don't recall an Easter growing up that we didn't have these two pies on the table Easter Day! Thanks to "Aunt" Margie and "Aunt" Marie,  I now make these recipes and they have become a tradition in my own family.

Pizza Gaina


Filling
1/2 lb of Prosciutto
1/2 pound Genoa Salami
2 pieces of sweet dry sausage
1 pound basket cheese
1 pound ricotta
1 pound mozzarella
1/2 cup grated cheese ( I used Parmigiano)
12 eggs

Dough
4 cups flour
4 eggs
4 T Crisco
1 t baking powder
1/2 cup warm water

Cut up all your meats into chunks and put them into a bowl large enough for all of your filling ingredients.

Cut up your basket cheese, and mozzarella into chunks and mix with the ricotta cheese. Add the grated cheese and 12 eggs. Mix all together until it is well mixed.

Set this aside and start on your dough.  Mix all the ingredients together and knead. It will be a firm
dough, not sticky.

 Roll out the dough to fit in a large baking pan. It's not an easy dough to work with so keep rolling. Once you have the dough rolled out to the desired size place into your baking pan.

add the meat and cheese filling

usually the recipe calls for encasing the mixture into the dough, but I didn't have enough dough so I didn't do that! I just folded the ends of the dough towards the middle of the pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, turn down heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional hour.

Let the pie cool and then slice into small pieces, and enjoy. This can be served warm, or at room temp. It is very rich and very tasty.
Buon Appetito!
I'll be posting our sweet pie tomorrow!
Come back and see me soon!
Ciao!
xoxoxo
Lorraine