I have been making this lasagna recipe for friends for friends for over 20 years

I was young, newly married and teach yourself When a friend invited my husband and me for dinner. Lasagne was on the menu and it was more delicious than any lasagna that I had previously eaten – including in my own kitchen and in restaurants. This friend, who later became one of my best friends, was also a young fire, so I asked her wherever she learned to make such a tasteful, decadent lasagna.

“It is a mixture of recipes that I have perfected,” she said passionately. “Type of mine Mums old recipe And somehow from a lady who brought Lasagna for a potluck I approached once. I can give you the recipe, but it is not written down in my head. “We grabbed a bright pink index card and went to work, wrote a version of Shelley’s Lasagne, a recipe that is still my recipe for lasagna almost 20 years later.

The ultimate cozy comfort meal

Like every good recipe, Shelleys Lasagne saw me and his creator through good and bad times: the births of our children, solemn dinner, Grief and LossAnd finally I kept the end of our friendship. I pulled far away, Shelley divorced and our children have been concerned with our lives, but I still did this lasagna. Shelley’s lasagna remains the most prepared birthday or my children’s vacation meal. Shortly after the Covid 19 pandemic, I volunteered for Lasagne loveA non-profit organization that connects domestic chefs with families who need a little additional support, the recipe for countless families needed from which many then cleared out to tell me how good it was and to ask the recipe.

It is the meal for which I immediately accept myself New mothers In my community that just born. It is my casserole for Potluck dinner, my failure meal much from lasagne). In the time when “my best friend Shelley” and I were not even friends, I would make it and think of her, small prayers spoke for her when I sent the boiling meat sauce and her good mood while I cheese, meat and pasta in a pan.

Like this recipe, my friendship with Shelley passed the test of the time. Not too long ago I received an email from my long lost beast, which wanted to connect again. Time heals everything, it seems, and it didn’t take long for us to get involved with our lives through text. “I have to ask you,” I wrote an SMS one day. Of course, she still does because it is really, very good, how you stopped with an old friend.

I asked Shelley to tell myself more about her lasagna recipe. It turned out that her mother had a lasagna recipe that Shelley worshiped, but over the years she had the feeling that it had changed and “not as well” as before. When she tried the above -mentioned Potluck lasagna, she reminded her of the glorious days of her mother’s recipe, so she asked about the recipe and then made some changes until it tasted as much as it grew up. Later she asked her mother what happened her Lasagne recipe and why it has changed over the years. It turned out that her mother had actually made small changes here and there to try to make the lasagna healthier while she and her husband age, which led to a departure from her original quality.

The secret of Shelley’s Lasagne

What makes Shelley’s lasagna so tasty? I’m not sure. It could be the mixture of two types of minced meat –Beef and Italian sausage– That gives him so much taste. I also thought that it is the use of more tomato paste than a sauce, which leads to a thicker, more hearty red sauce that is never watery. It could be the addition of sugar to the acidic sauce on tomato base, which she meals and gives it exactly the right hint of sweetness. It could also have something to do with the three types of cheese: Parmesan, Mozzarella and Ricotta. Or maybe Shelley’s lasagna is so good because it was always done with a lot of love.

Whatever the reason may be, it is a recipe that I always grab to fill bellies and warm hearts. And I never stood up Shelley’s Lasagne recipe. In fact, I have more people that I can count, photos of my tattered, tomato sauce dye, pink recipe card-so many who saved the picture on the album of my phone for quick distribution. My friendship with Shelley is one of my oldest relationships with adults. So it is fitting that your lasagna recipe is one of the longest running, mostly made recipes from my kitchen. I am not sure in life, but something I know with certainty is that I have the best lasagna recipe that I can share with the people I love, and many memories of a life that lived with my friend Shelley to conjure up when I do it.

Shelleys Lasagne

Ingredients

• 1 pound beef meat meat
• 1 pound Italian sausage, packed without housing or with housing
• ¾ cup of chopped onions
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped
• 16 ounces doses tomato paste
• 15 ounces of tomato sauce in cans
• 2 tablespoons of dried parsley flakes
• 1 teaspoon of dried sweet basil
• 2 ½ teaspoon of salt
• 2 tablespoons of granulated white sugar
• 3 cups ricotta cheese
• 1 cup of shredded parmesan cheese, halved halved
• 1 teaspoon of dried oregano
• ¾ pound crushed mozzarella cheese
• 1 pound of lasagna noodles (such as “no-bake” lasagna leaves)

Directions

1. Combine beef meat, Italian sausage, onions and garlic in a deep cooking pan or sauce pot, cook until meat is browned and onions are translucent.
2. Drain the meat mixture; Then add tomato paste, tomato sauce, parsiliefing, basil, 1 teaspoon of salt and sugar in the pan. Stir until well tied up and let it simmer for at least an hour. (I like simmering my sauce on the stove for several hours so that the flavors can be combined.)
3. If you are ready to put together the lasagna, spray a lasagna pan (or 9 x 13 baking shell) with cooking spray and put it aside. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
4. Combine in a large mixed bowl ricotta cheese, a ½ cup of parmesan cheese, oregano and 1½ teaspoon of salt until they are thoroughly mixed.
5. Lasagne noodles, meat sauce mixture, ricotta cheese mixture and mozzarella cheese 2-3 times (depending on how much noodles they prefer in their lasagna) and then outperform with the remaining mozzarella cheese and a ½ cup of parmesan cheese.
6. Cover with aluminum foil (I spray the inside of the film to prevent cheese from sticking to it) and bake at 350 minutes to an hour at 350 minutes until the cheese has melted and the sauce bubbles.
7. If you prefer a crispy cheese topping, switch the oven to roast and remove the film. Fry up for 3-5 minutes until the cheese is golden brown.