It was close to 0°C today, nice and sunny, with only a little wind. As the day progressed, the temperature kept dropping and the wind picked up.As I was driving home after work, the temp dropped below -10°C and I started to get a craving for comfort food.
I stopped off at a grocery store and picked up a couple of things ... it was time to make some ...
LASAGNA
I started the normal way, I started browning some beef while I chopped up some onion and garlic
Once the onions had sweated down a little, I added some tomato sauce. After a little stirring, I gave it a taste and thought it was too acidic. It needed a little ...
Maple Syrup
The sweetness should take away the acidity of the tomatoes and give it a nice ... Canadian twist.
The Ricotta Mixture
There are typically four layers in my lasagna. A tomato layer, a pasta layer, a ricotta/cottage cheese layer and shredded cheese layer. Each layer is repeated multiple times.
When I went to crack the eggs to add to the ricotta ...
It was hard-boiled... Fortunately, there were more in the fridge.
Assembly Time
If you've never made a lasagna, simply put a layer of sauce at the bottom, then a layer of noodles...
then some more sauce, the ricotta/egg mixture, then some cheese (I added a little bit of sliced basil) Repeat until you have reached the top of the lasagna pan.
Then into the oven
I put it in covered for 50 minutes at 350°F. Then uncovered for 15 minutes at 375°F.
While it was cooking ....
I left a little geek joke for my wife to find in the paper towel roll.
Then I went down to the tiki bar to find a bottle of wine. I went with an Italian Barbaresco
The Problem ...
While we were waiting, we had some snacks. We were both hungry, so we each had some Caesar salad and some sliced bread. There might have even been a peanut butter and jam sandwich.
At around 8 o'clock, my wife reminded me that she had to be up early the next morning and she didn't want to have too full a stomach before bed ... so ... after the lasagna had cooled.
This is all we ate
We cut out one slice so that we could try it to make sure it was good. Then we packed it up and put it in the fridge for dinner tomorrow night.
Hahaha. The best laid plans of mice and men sometimes go awry.
For anyone who was curious, the wine paired very well with my one slice of lasagna. I hope it doesn't oxidize to much before tomorrow evening.
Bon Appetit.