Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Rollin' Lasagna Part 2

Ok, so here is my review on Lasagna Rollups from Cooking Classy's recipe. I give this blog full credit for the recipe, just want to offer some pointers that will help with ANY lasagna rollup recipe! Oh yeah, I was making them to freeze, so down below in the blue are my tips for freezing them!

For starters - grab a girlfriend or a willing spouse or boyfriend who will help you. Also, make sure the kitchen as some work space- and is free of clutter. I strongly believe this would have been easier with an extra set of hands.

Remember how I accidentally quadrupled the recipe? NIGHTMARE
Well here is the ingredient list from the recipe - and my notes in blue :)

Ingredients:
4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
1/2 lb lean ground beef  (1 lb ground turkey, 1 lb ground beef)
1/4 cup finely chopped yellow onion (1/2 cup)
1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes (I'd recommend Contadina Brand)  (2 28 oz cans)
2 cloves garlic, minced ( 2 cloves in the turkey, 2 tsp of jar minced garlic in beef) (This was only because of what was available in my kitchen!)
1/2 Tbsp dried basil (double)
1/2 tsp dried oregano (double)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Double all of this part ~
1 (15 oz) container Ricotta Cheese
1 large egg 
1/3 cup fresh flat leaf parsley (aka Italian Parsley, its about 1 small handful), chopped
2 1/4 cups freshly grated Mozzarella Cheese, divided
3/4 cup freshly, finely grated Parmesan Cheese, divided
1/3 cup freshly, finely grated Romano Cheese
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper


12 uncooked lasagna noodles  (Just cook in batches of 8-10 unless you have a helper! I needed 32 noodles, and I think each container averaged 18-20, so 2 boxes will do! )

~ Ok prepare your meat just like the recipe tells you, and add 1 can of tomatoes to each pound of meat.
~ Let meat sauce cool, it will help later. Oh yea, I don't have a food processor and I think the meat was fine!
~ Mix up your cheese, and put it the in fridge. (Double was enough even though I had 4x the meat!)
~ Boil your noodles, and allow them to cool - straight. I draped them over the side of the pot and it seemed to work. And I did two batches of noodles since I was working alone.
~ Time to start rolling! Line a cookie sheet with wax paper.... I just eyeballed the the sauce and cheese mixture on each noodle, but don't over do it because when you go to roll - you will have an oooy gooey mess! 
~ Put a toothpick in each roll.
~ Place in the freezer on wax paper cookie sheet.
~ Freeze over night, and then transfer into a large Ziploc bag!
~ When your hungry - just pop a lasagna roll into a casserole dish, cover with your favorite tomato/spaghetti sauce and bake!

Make sure you visit Cooking Classy to see what else is cooking over there! Now that the freezer is stocked with single serving size pasta casseroles I hope Marc is hungry :)

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