Making Lagasana?!
Answers: What kind of cheese do you use when making lagasana?
Ricotta inside. Mozzarella & Pamesan on top.
Sometimes cottage cheese.
you can put in there any kind you like White Italian,cottage cheese Ricotta It's your taste.
Ricotta, 1 egg, parmesan AND chunked up mozzarella mixed together on inside each layer of noodle cover with sauce on top then foil bake for45min., take foil off then top with more mozzarella and parmesan back in oven til cheese melts on top. Let it sit for 1/2 hour or so til it cools so it won't fall apart all over the dish. Even better the next day.
There's always Ricotta for the filliing, Parmegiano-Reggiano(it's the same as parmesan, but better quality),fresh Mozarella to sprinkle. here an easy way to cook one for beginner:
1 lb. ground beef
3 1/2 c. (32 oz.) thick spaghetti sauce
1 1/2 c. water
2 c. (15 oz.) Ricotta cheese
3 c. (15 oz.) shredded Mozzarella
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
8 oz. lasagna, uncooked
Brown beef in 3-quart saucepan; drain off excess fat. Add sauce and water; simmer about 10 minutes. Combine remaining ingredients, except lasagna, for filling. Pour about 1 cup sauce on bottom of 9x13x2-inch baking pan.
Layer 3 pieces of uncooked lasagna over sauce; cover with about 1 1/2 cups sauce. Spread half of cheese filling over sauce. Repeat layers of lasagna, sauce and cheese filling. Top with layer of lasagna and remaining sauce. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes. Remove foil; bake about 10 minutes longer. Allow to stand 10 minutes before cutting.
Hope you enjoy it!
I just use some mozzarella inside the layers and parmesan on top. No ricotta. In place of ricotta there is bechamel (white sauce). In classic authentic northern Italian lasagna (the original, from Emilia Romagna) there is NO ricotta (actually, there is often no mozzarella either: just bechamel and meat sauce, and topped with grated parmesan cheese).
In southern Italy you find people throwing in all sorts of stuff: sausages, salami, hard-boiled eggs, sharp goat's milk cheeses (whatever kind is made or popular locally), peas... but then it becomes more of a catch-all casserole type dish ("timballo" in Italian).
Ricotta is usually used, classically together with chopped spinach, as a filling in other types of pasta dishes: ravioli, agnolotti, tortellini, panzerotti, cannelloni, crespelle, and a dish called variously "rotelle", "tondelle", "ricciole" or "rotolo":
http://www.menssanafood.it/ip-192-img1-R...
http://www.bofrost.it/dettaglio/Primi/Be...
... all where a drier filling is okay or desirable.
Just for curiosity's sake, someone on the Italian Y.A. recently asked for recipes for the classic "lasagne al ragù" (with meat sauce), and NO ONE mentioned ricotta:
http://it.answers.yahoo.com/question/ind...
Ingredients: http://img171.imageshack.us/my.php?image...
It goes like this:
About ? cup each (depends on the size of the pan) of tomato & meat sauce, bechamel (white sauce made with butter, flour, milk, and salt), and diced mozzarella spread over each layer (6 in all), then topped just the last 5 minutes with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese (to avoid burning the top crust). No basil or other herbs, ricotta, or vegetables such as peppers, and no sugar in the sauce. I always use fresh pasta that does not need cooking first; it cooks with the juices of the sauces (which should be of a fairly liquid consistency, not too dense), in 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the dish or pan. Let it set, cool, and firm up a bit before cutting, otherwise it will be too runny. It's wonderfully creamy, delicate, and rich at the same time.
Finished: http://img137.imageshack.us/my.php?image...
always ricotta
TUNA LASAGNA
Cream Sauce:
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup oil/butter
1 cup milk
dash salt and pepper
Lasagna:
2 tins tuna (drained)
2 med. onions (cubed)
1 clove garlic
2 cups cut mushrooms
1 tin whole tomatoes
1 (small) tin tomato paste
Lasagna Pasta:
3 cups grated mozzarella cheese
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
Cream sauce: Mix together flour, oil, salt and pepper until you have created a paste.
Heat the milk in the microwave (about 2 mins) and pour little by little over the flour mixture until you have created a sauce. Sat aside.
Lasagna: Pre-heat oven at 350° In a medium bowl mix together tuna (drained), and the tomato paste. Add in the whole tomatoes (should have about four or five) and about half of the juice in the tin (as per taste). Add garlic, onions, mushrooms, salt and pepper to taste and set aside.
Cook your lasagna noodles. Take a large pan (lasagna pan) and oil the botton with a little bit of olive oil. Put in two layers of pasta, cover with half the tuna mix, cover the tuna mix with half the mozzarella.
Pour half your cream sauce and pour it over the cheese. Do the same thing with the next layer, only finish it off with the Parmesan cheese. Cook covered for approximately 30-40 mins and then uncovered until brown.
This is quick, easy and very good!!
Preparation time: 15 min Cook time: 45 mins.