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Title: Lasagna the Quick, Easy and Delicious Way
Author: Fern Cohen
Article:
Do you know that the local restaurant you frequent probably
doesn't make everything from scratch? I learned this when I
worked in a New York City a while back. Much to my dismay, I
watched one day as the kitchen staff unpacked boxes of
already-made sauces, packages of conveniently chopped
vegetables, and even prepared cookie dough and pie-shells. There
is a well-known chain of sandwich shops that boasts heroes with
"freshly baked bread". But you might be expecting to find
frenetic yeast rising and dough rolling in the back. Chances are
you would see globs of dough pre-formed into hero-bread shape,
waiting to be put in the oven. And what's the difference? The
cookie or bread would taste freshly baked, and the cooks
wouldn't waste time with rolling pins or discarding dough that
didn't rise. It makes for a much more efficient kitchen, right?
Well, why not use the same principle in your own kitchen? You
can make a delicious lasagna without rolling out the pasta
dough, or even toiling over a stove to make your own sauce, like
Grandma did. Of course, if you want to do everything from
scratch, more power to you, because you probably have no kids,
don't have to work for a living, and have someone to clean the
mansion and do the laundry. But for the rest of us, leave the
saucing to Francesco Rinaldi, and the pasta artistry to Ronzoni.
Your guests will think you knocked yourself out for them, and
you can still put your own culinary signature on your lasagna.
To this day, friends still call me on me to tell them how to
make "my" lasagna, and my name doesn't even end in a vowel!
First, buy a package of lasagna pasta. To make it special, you
can get green spinach pasta. If you want to make it really
outstanding and you live in a big city, or an area with a big
Italian population, you can go to the local Italian deli and get
fresh lasagna noodles, instead of picking your box off the
grocery shelf. Check with the store about cooking time and make
sure you tell them you are making a lasagna, so the pasta will
be put in the oven after cooking. Sometimes you get
already-cooked pasta that you can put right into the oven
without par-boiling. If you use pasta from the box, do not boil
it for the 15 minutes they tell you on the box. You want your
pasta to be "al dente" which is a little hard, because when you
put it in the oven to bake your lasagna, the pasta will cook
more, and you don't want it to overcook it and let it get mushy.
The next thing you are going to put together is your filling.
Now, here is where you are going to put your own signature on
your lasagna. Mine was little mini-meatballs, but you can also
brown the chopped meat and put it in too. Start with some tomato
sauce. Here too, take liberty and pick out a jar of your
favorite spaghetti sauce. You can use meat sauce and you don't
have to brown any meat. You can use sauce with sausage, or to
make it really special, buy already-made Italian sausage. Make
sure you cook it first. Want to add your own special vegetable?
You can put in cooked eggplant, zucchini. Onions, peppers or
whatever you want. Add fresh herbs if you desire. If you want to
make a vegetarian lasagna, leave out the meat. Want to go easy
on the calories and cholesterol? Use chicken or instead of
chopped beef, use chopped veal or even chopped turkey. For a
very different lasagna, put in seafood -- calamari, mussels, or
even shrimp.
Now you are ready to assemble your lasagna and put it in the
oven to bake. You will need a large container of ricotta cheese
and a package of mozzarella cheese too. Take a rectangular
baking dish- either glass or metal, or even disposable. Spray
the bottom with non-stick cooking spray or a thin layer of olive
oil. Then line the bottom of the pan with sauce. Then cover the
bottom with a layer of your pre-cooked "al dente" lasagna
noodles. Next, slather on your ricotta cheese in a thick layer.
Then, put on your filling and sauce. Then, put another layer of
lasagna noodles, again slather on ricotta, and again your
filling. Top off with a layer of lasagna noodles, liberally pour
sauce on top, and then slices of mozzarella to cover the top.
Put the pan in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes, or until the
mozzarella on top is completely melted and the sauce is bubbling.
Make sure to serve some Italian bread and compliment with a good
bottle of wine, and your guests will never know that you didn't
slave all day. You can even make the components of the filling
the day before. That way, all you have to do on the night of
your dinner party is parboil the lasagna noodles, assemble the
lasagna, and pop it in the oven. Everything is already cooked;
you only have to put it all in the oven to melt the mozzarella
and heat everything up. The lasagna is your creation. You have
chosen what goes into it and what flavors and spices your
guests' taste buds will enjoy. And the best part? If there are
leftovers, you can reheat it and enjoy it again. I will never
figure out why, but Italian food always tastes even better the
second time around. Isn't there a song like that? Or is it love
that is better the second time around? Love? Lasagna? They
certainly go together.
About the author:
Fern Cohen is a freelance writer living in New York City. She
was a sales manager in the airline and hotel industry for 20
years before a career change found her teaching foreign language
in a New York City high school. Diagnosed in 2004 with ALS/Lou
Gehrig's Disease, Ms. Cohen was forced to leave teaching and
became a freelance writer.
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