Lasagna

On May 15th, I was a tease. I mentioned making a lasagna and did not give out the recipe. Last Friday I was apparently a tease as well, as I was talking about my lasagna with a woman at Cardiac rehab, and she asked for the recipe. A man overheard me, and was interested in getting it too. This monday, the dietician is giving a cooking class on brunch, I will be going to that, and I will bring my Lasagna recipe as well. This recipe. I am a big fan of ratatoulle, a versatile eggplant stew. I used it then, and I used it now as a basis for my sauce. I improvise on my sauce recipe, so I will give a standard one here from the No Salt, - Lowest Sodium cook book by Donald Gazzaniga. _{(See right hand column for bilbliography)} What makes the recipe special for me, is the Béchemel Sauce.

Red Sauce

• ½ pound lean (10% or less) ground beef
• 1 large onion
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 1 T fresh chopped parsley (you will need 2T later as well)
• 1 6 oz can no salt added tomato paste
• 2 bay leaves
• ½C water
• 1/2 t oregano
• ¼ t ground cloves

Béchemel Sauce

• 3 T unsalted butter
• 3 T olive oil
• 6 T unbleached white flour
• 1 & ½ C Skim Milk
• 3 T Lemon Juice
• 2 T fresh chopped parsley (aren't you glad you chopped extra?)
• 1 clove garlic
• a smidge (ok a dash) of cinnamon

For the layers

• 12 oz lasagna noodles (16)
• 6 oz Swiss cheese
• 6 oz ricotta cheese/li>
• Italian Béchemel Sauce
• Cooking Spray

---

1. Cook meat lightly, and brown onion in nonstick pan
2. while that is sautéing, combine rest of ingredients in a medium size stock pot. Add to the sautéed ingredients when the mat is close to being cooked. Bring sauce to boil, then turn down to simmer for an hour(or 4) stirring occasionally. When sauce is done, remove the bay leaves
3. While sauce as 30 minutes remaining to simmer, heat the noodle water in a large pan so that it is ready when you are close to assembly time(I tried the no bake method, and it did not work well with this recipe)
4. While water is heating and the sauce is simmering, make the bechemel sauce in a smaller saucepan. Set aside when done. Cook the lasagna noodles in unsalted water. When noodles are done, drain and layer on wax paper for a few moments.

Italian Béchemel Sauce

• Melt the butter in a medium size pan on low heat, adding the olive oil, stirring. Don't let it burn. Add in flour, stirring constantly, until fully dissolved and smooth. When it bubbles, remove from heat and add milk, stirring constantly. Return to medium heat and stir in the lemon juice, parsley, garlic, and dash of cinnamon (I subbed Pumpkin Pie Spice by the way). Stir until smooth and slightly bubbles. It will thicken. It tends to look curdled at first with the lemon juice. Use room temperature milk.

Assembly

1. Preheat oven to 350° F
2. Spray 9 x 13 glass baking dish with cooking spray. Arrange noodles in a single rectangular layer, and creating a box, by adding noodles to the four sides as well. Layer the bottom with 1/3 the marinara, 1/4 the Swiss, 1/3 of the Béchemel, top with anothe rlayer of noodle. (I use ricotta alternately with the Béchemel). Repeat, repeat again except the cheese. After adding the final layer of noodles (this completes the box, sprinkle remain Swiss on top.
3. Seal with aluminum foil, tenting the foil to keep cheese from sticking (There is non-stick foil now too)
4. bake at 350° for 30 minutes, remove foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Eating Healthy Since Feb, 2004