Thursday, October 4, 2012

[No-hassle lasagna] No need to pre-cook lasagna noodles: Mushroom Sausage Lasagna

I believe I said it before, and probably more than once.
But, I will reiterate!
YOU DON'T NEED TO PRE-COOK LASAGNA NOODLES.
Isn't it such a hassle to pre-cook lasagna noodles before you have them layered and baked in the oven?
I had never managed to cook lasagna noodles without tearing them. I got so frustrated and swore, each time, that I would never make lasagna again. But, of course, I made again, even before I dared not to pre-cook the noodles. After I used 'ready-to-use' lasagna noodles, I decided to try the same thing with regular lasagna noodles. And you know what? They worked as perfect as 'no-boil' lasagna noodles. And, not surprisingly, I was amazed. :(
That is why I can assure you,from my numerous experiences, that dry (lasagna) noodles are cooked well in the oven without being pre-cooked.
The only thing you need to be careful of is to spread abundant sauce between dry noodles so that there will be enough moisture to cook unboiled noodles.
I already posted a similar lasagna recipe last year.
As this mushroom sausage laasagna recipe is slightly different,
I'll write the recipe step by step.
Here goes the recipe:
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 Cups sliced crimini or button mushrooms
1 large onion, chopped
1 pound hot Italian sausages
2 +1/2 cups tomato sauce, homemade or storebought
9 dry lasagna noodles
500ml (16 ounces) container cottage cheese
1 + 1/2 Cups grated mozzarella cheese
Salt
Pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (190 degrees Celcius).

2. Remove casings from sausages.
3. Shred mozzarella cheese.

4. Heat olive oil over medium heat in large skillet and cook onion until onion gets translucent.
5. Add sliced mushroom and stir occasionally for about 2 minutes.
6. Set cooked muhsroom in a bowl and let it cool a bit.
7. Add cottage cheese, salt, and pepper, and mix them well.
8. Meanwhile, in the same pan,
add sausages crumbled and cook until sausage is pink anymore.
9. Add 2 cups tomato sauce and cook for another 5 minutes.
Remove from the heat.

10. Spread 1/2 cup sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish.

11. Layer 3 dry noodles. Don't overlap the noodles. When they are cooked, noodles expand quite a lot.
12. Cover 1/3 of sausage mixture over the noodles.
13. Spread 1/2 of mushroom mixture, over the sausage mixture.
14. Repeat the steps 10 -12.
15. Add the last 3 noodles and top with remaining tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.

16. Tent the baking dish with aluminium foil and bake about 35 minutes.


Then, uncover and bake another 10-15 minutes.







(Optional) For the last 1 minute, switch to broiling mode and broil the top, to brown the cheese.
Let stand 10 minutes before cutting and serving.
As you see,
this is a time-saving lasagna without any fuss.
You can use this no-fuss technique(?) to any lasagna recipe.
Simply skip the noodle boiling step of any Lasagna recipe.
Enjoy!
No fuss, no mass Lasagna




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