Lasagna

Lasagna. Not my favorite dish per se but I definitely enjoy making it. It's such a good time-wasting recipe. So much preparation to do for a small dish. Sounds good for wasting time right? Mind you, my recipe is for single person lasagna.


WARNING: This recipe contains beef. However, you can always substitute minced beef with minced pork and chicken OR even making your own seafood lasagna. It's your choice, after all, you're the one who's going to gobble it down your stomach =P

MY RECIPE:

Difficulty level: 20%
Preparation time: 2 hours (plus soaking time)
Ingredients:

• 3-5 strips of lasagna noodles
• 20ml of oil
  
• 3 cloves of chopped garlic
• 1 onion, minced
• 100g minced beef
• 50g grated cheese (preferably ricotta)
• 30g shredded mozzarella cheese
• 400ml pasta bake sauce
• 200ml tomato paste
• 1 egg
• mixed herbs
• salt
• any more meat: sliced sausages, diced luncheon meat etc.

Steps:

1. Soak the lasagna noodles in warm water for 30-45 minutes. Basically till it's soft but don't let them stick together.
2. Prepare the sauce and meat. Heat the oil and throw in the garlic and onions.
3. Then, put in the meat selections that you have. Do not put in the seafood if you're going for seafood lasagna.
4. Once the meat are cooked, pour the pasta bake sauce and the tomato paste.
5. Wait till it boils, then taste the sauce and add salt if you need to.
6. If you're doing the seafood lasagna, repeat the steps except adding in the seafood once it goes to boil. You don't want your seafood to get overcooked.
7. Now done with the sauce, you can prepare the cheese.
   
8. Beat the egg in a bowl, add in the ricotta cheese and herbs. Add some salt if you want to.
9. Take out a baking dish, and pour some of the sauce as the base.
10. Then lay out the lasagna strips on top of it.
11. Pour in the cheese and egg mixture to the middle part, and top it off with another layer of lasagna strips.
12. Finish off the top with the rest of the sauce, and spread the shredded mozzarella on top of the lasagna.
13. Cover the lid with a tin foil but don't let it touch the top of your cheese because it'll stick!
14. Bake it in the oven at 200°C for 30 minutes.

This is the way I cook my lasagna. But basically, it's sauce, layer of pasta, then cheese, layer of pasta and sauce with mozzarella cheese! You need them mozzarella by the way. Necessity.