Topic: Italian comfort food 101

[livo]

Please be patient. As I have time, I'm going to share with you a recipe I've worked on for nearly 20 years. My kids call it "Dad's Lasagne" and while I used to get away with making a single tray for dinner, now that my family is growing and spreading out I usually have to make 3 or 4 at a time. Some to eat on the spot and some to take home.  It dawned on me the other day, when my son's girlfriend wanted to make it for her family, that I should record what I do.

It is never the same twice but always delicious.  I was originally inspired by finding this method as a secondary recipe to a recipe for home-made tomato sauce.  I originally made it from scratch but then realised that all the extra work wasn't really necessary, even though well worth it if you could spare the time.  It isn't really lasagne as it doesn't use lasagne pasta sheets but it could easily use that if you wish. I have done.  It is a pasta bake and I use any form of short pasta.  Shells, spirals, macaroni etc. The thing is that this recipe is so open to personalised variation that you'll never look back.
 
I have to go and finish this one and I'll start writing it up with photos soon.  This comes in at about 2.5 kg and is enough to feed 8 - 10 normal people or about 4 if they're like my 18 year old son and 26 year old son-in-law.

[Peripatetic Phil]

I wish I could summon up some enthusiasm for Italian pasta, but I am sorry to say I cannot.  To me, it is just stodge.  Oriental noodles I love

[Sverige]

Looks good Livo and well proven family favourite recipes are worth their weight in gold so please do share. I have a pretty mean lasagne meat sauce recipe of my own, which I make in batches and use in various different meals.  Will be interesting to compare and see how you make it down under.

Interesting to see you feel you make it differently every time. To me one of the fundamentals of the approach I take to home cooking is keeping notes and updating / adjusting the quantities, times, etc until I have a nailed down version which I can then repeat without variation each time I cook. I just don't like to risk random variations as ingredients are expensive and I prefer to avoid the disappointment which comes when you realise the meal you got spot on last time you cooked it has this time come out too salty, dry or whatever.

Hence I always take a few iterations to zero in on my idea of the "right" recipe for each dish I cook, then use my previous notes to make sure I'm cooking it "right" each time I do it.

[livo]

Read no further then Phil. Others may find it useful and delicious.

Notes first.
* You will make a mess. 3 large saucepans and a large lasagne tray (38cm X 26 cm X 5 cm).
* Tomato product:- I use nearly 1.0 litre of mixed Pasta Sauce, tinned tomato, Passata and Tomato paste (3x concentrate) and what I use determines the amount of seasoning added to taste. (Tasting it is important). Use whatever tomato based sauce or tinned product to suite your own taste. I vary it all the time depending on what's in the cupboard.
* Four cheeses:- I use for the b

[livo]

Sverige, it is pretty standard quantities which I know by heart, but I use whatever tomato based pasta sauces and tinned tomatoes and passata combination I have on hand to make up the volume.  I just adjust my seasonings and the amount of concentrated tomato paste to suite what I have in the cupboard.  Sometimes it will be all tinned plain tomato with extra herbs added. Sometimes Napolitano or Bolognaise sauce from the jar and I use less seasoning, etc. Tasting the meat / tomato sauce before assembly is important.  Sometimes the types of cheese will vary as well.

So it is never really exactly the same twice but it is cooked in the same way and variation is minimal.

I have also on occasion included smoked pancetta or streaky bacon in with the onion in the initial fry stage.

[Peripatetic Phil]

If your family is like mine (not Phil's) it wont last long at all.

Unwarranted assumption, old chap

[livo]

Retracted extension by kinship offered Phil.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Accepted with alacrity, Captain !

[chewytikka]

Dads Pasta Bake, looks tasty, keeping the family happy Livo.

Doing a Ragu with a good red wine and fresh herbs is an art in itself.
Bechamel, needs salt, black pepper and nutmeg.
Fresh Pasta sheets are an extra step but worth it.

Obviously moving on from your 101 recipe, but your photo is a good prompt
as I haven

[livo]

I agree with the pepper and nutmeg chewy but there is enough salt in the meat tomato sauce usually to carry into the whole dish. This is one area of being subject to taste and is the point of taste testing at the end of stage 1.. The seasonings added depend upon the brand and included extras in the Tomato products used and preference.

I have made this using fresh lasagne sheets and the dried stuff in the past. If using dried it is necessary to make your meat tomato sauce a bit wetter otherwise the assembled dish dries right out in the oven.  My family has been the reason I now nearly always use short form pasta as they tell me they prefer it. Using the sheets allows for a much more finely layered dish as is traditional but this method gets consumed pretty fast so I don't resist popular demand.

As I mentioned in the Achilles heal thread recently, cooking with red wine is a weakness of mine. Although just yesterday I turned a bottle of cab sav into vino cotto. Now this is something special if you've never tried it. Salad dressing, sauce for cooked meat and ice cream topping syrup all in one.