When someone asks me about my favorite meal growing up, the answer is always my mother's lasagna. She would spend hours simmering the sauce, which we lovingly called gravy, as its aroma breezed throughout the house.
When I make my lasagna, I follow her recipe.
While the gravy is simmering, I make my beef meatballs and tenderly drop them into the gravy to slowly cook, giving the gravy a deep delicious flavor.
For the filling, I use ricotta cheese, adding an egg, fresh herbs, parmesan cheese, and a few (crumbled) meatballs directly from the gravy.
Maria knew her lasagna was a promise of forever...
To assemble the lasagna, I start with a layer of gravy. Then I add a layer of noodles followed by a layer of the ricotta cheese mixture topped with a layer of noodles. I keep repeating until the final layer of noodles is topped with gravy and a handful of parmesan cheese.
I cover the lasagna with aluminum foil to keep the lasagna from burning. For the last fifteen minutes of cooking, I remove the aluminum foil.
When I take the lasagne out of the oven, I let it rest for at least fifteen minutes before serving. As enticing as it is to eat it right away, waiting allows the flavors to settle nicely.
Tony and Marie recently celebrated their fiftieth anniversary...
Le lasange sono amore!
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