Lasagna

Mom usually made lasagna for family parties, and it makes a great party dish because you can serve it in small or large dishes. It can be made ahead and stored in the fridge or freezer until it is ready to be baked. Lasagna is also very good as leftovers, but then again in our house just about everything was enjoyed as leftovers.

There are other recipes for lasagna, such as vegetable lasagna or spinach lasagna. But as far as I am concerned, there is only one: Mom's lasagna. Like so many of Mom's recipes, I don't know if this recipe was ever written down. I know it from years of making lasagna with Mom.

Sometimes, Mom would make it the day before the party and store it in the fridge overnight and then just stick it in the oven before the party. A few years ago, I used to make lasagnas for Grandpa to keep in the freezer and put in the oven for dinner. I made the lasagnas in small pans that would be enough for one or two meals. This lasagna stores well in the freezer, but after all the work that goes into making the lasagna, why bother freezing it when you can have a big pan of lasagna to enjoy.

The first thing to do is to gather the ingredients. While some ingredients are pantry staples, other ingredients are not household standards. I do not have a preferred brand of noodles, but I personally do not like the no-boil noodles; they never cook right. While cooking the noodles adds some time to this already time-intensive dish, the noodles can be cooked while making the gravy and hard-boiling the eggs.

Lasagna
1 box lasagna noodles
Gravy
6 hard-boiled eggs
1 pint ricotta
1 cup shredded mozzarella
grated parmesan

First, prepare the various components. Get the gravy going. It can always simmer as everything is being prepared. Cook the noodles according to the directions on the package. Drain and carefully separate the noodles to prevent them from sticking together. You will need four layers of noodles, so separate the noodles into layer groups reserving the most intact noodles for the top and bottom layers. Meanwhile, hard-boil the eggs. After the eggs are cooked and peeled, finely chop the eggs then add a dash of salt and a double dash of ground pepper.

Once all the components are cooked, gather all the ingredients to prepare the lasagna.  Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Add a little bit of gravy to the bottom of the pan to prevent the noodles from sticking. Then, add a layer of noodles, followed by gravy, eggs, ricotta, and parmesan. You should use one-third of the eggs and ricotta because there will be two more layers with the eggs and ricotta. Use about one-fourth of the gravy because there will be three more layers using gravy. Once you have the gravy, eggs, ricotta, and parmesan down, you may need to evenly spread the layer with a fork. Then repeat two more times, starting again with the noodles. For the top layer, after putting down the noodles and gravy, cover with mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese.

Cover with foil and cook at 350 for 25 minutes. Uncover and cook for 10 more minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and lightly browned. Allow 15 minutes to cool before cutting.