Mains · By James
Lasagna à la Sharon
When you're in love .... Sharon and I were engaged in Winnipeg, but that spring had to return to our separate homes because we each had excellent jobs we couldn't afford to give up: Sharon as a lifeguard managing a pool in Prince Albert, and me working on a road construction crew in Medicine Hat. My first visit to Prince Albert to see her that spring couldn't come soon enough. In PA, Sharon shared with me the scenes and stories of her youth, personal touchstones, but there was special energy reserved for the Venice House restaurant. She simply had to take me there for her lasagna! Served in a round metal dish with handles, it oozed cheese over the side. Willing me to love it as much as she did, she explained how food was very basic in her home, spaghetti having only once made an appearance (she laughingly recalled how she had slurped it enthusiastically, getting sauce all over, and it hadn't made an appearance at their dinner table again). That September, newly married and back at our studies in Winnipeg, I searched for a way to honor her birthday, our first together. There had been no food that stood out in the way her Venice House lasagna had, and I resolved that this would become her birthday feast each year. It's been over 40 years of birthday lasagnas now, oozing cheese over the side, and she maintains that each year is the best ever! In our travels over the years, Sharon has made it a mission to try lasagna wherever she finds it in the world. It's a family joke to naively ask Mom what she's having whenever lasagna makes an appearance on a menu. The Prince Albert Venice House restaurant has cast a long shadow!
Ingredients
Sauce
- 2 lbs of smoked pork sausage — peel off casing or scrape sausage out of casing, and finely chop (add liquid smoke to taste if your sausage isn't smoky enough). Alternately, use ground pork and quite a bit of liquid smoke (1–2 tsp, depending on your taste).
- 2 lbs of lean ground beef
- 1 full big bulb Russian Purple garlic (or equivalent of other garlic — 10 big toes for sure) — crushed or finely diced
- 1 big purple onion — finely diced
- 1 big carrot, very finely grated — or use ½ cup of carrot juice if you keep it around
- 1–2 tsp anchovy paste — or a few fillets of anchovy, very finely chopped
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 3 jars (~700 ml jars) of good Arrabbiata sauce (a spicy tomato sauce)
- 1 can (796 ml) tomatoes (if you can, get San Marzano tomatoes), chopped into small pieces (1–1.5 cm dice) so they are not too chunky inside the lasagna layers
- 3 tbsp tomato paste (the best is Mutti in the tubes)
- ¼+ cup sundried tomatoes in oil — finely chopped
- ~2 tsp sea salt
- Optional — if your Arrabbiata sauce is not spicy enough, add 2 tbsp pepperoncino red chilies in oil, finely chopped (Superstore has a "black label" jar that is very nice; don't confuse with the milder pickled version). Alternately, use ~2 tsp cayenne pepper.
- ¼ bottle good red wine (¾ cup)
- 1 cup chopped fresh basil
Noodles
- Fresh lasagna pasta sheets (or no-cook lasagna noodles — in which case add a bit of water to your sauce to help with hydration)
Cheese for Top
- 2 cups fresh grated mozzarella (avoid bagged, grated mozza)
- 1 cup fresh grated Asiago
- ½ cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Spinach/Cottage-Cheese Mixture (one middle layer)
- 300 g package of frozen spinach, thawed and finely chopped (moisture squeezed out)
- 500 ml container of dry cottage cheese
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 tsp fresh ground pepper
- 1 tsp sea salt
- ¾ cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Method
- 1
Sauce: Fry the pork sausage (drain some fat, if desired). Add onion, carrot (or juice), and garlic, stir fry for a few minutes, then add beef and cook until not pink. Then add everything else except basil (which goes in just a few minutes before assembling the pasta) and heat, simmering for about 30 minutes to blend things.
- 2
Spinach/cottage-cheese mixture: mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and use for one middle layer of the lasagna. There is enough to provide a thick single layer (about 1.5 cm) in a standard 9 × 13 inch baking pan.
- 3
Assembly: Build lasagna with sauce on bottom then noodle, then sauce, and so on — with a layer, in the middle, of the spinach/cottage-cheese (use all of it — it will seem like a lot for one layer, but it's amazing). Use lots of sauce between layers or it's too dry. On the last/top layer of noodle put a little of the sauce, just to cover, and then a little of the mozza/asiago/parmigiano (leave most of this cheese mixture for the last 10 minutes of cooking time so it doesn't get so browned and dried out).
- 4
Tent the lasagna with foil and cook for 35 minutes at 400°F, then uncover and put on the rest of the top cheese, and cook for 10–12 minutes longer. Let rest for 10–15 minutes before trying to serve it.
A note from James
A traditional sofrito for a Bolognese includes celery, and pancetta is sometimes added. The celery is not included here just because we like it better without; the pancetta, while tasty, is not needed with the pork already in the recipe. Smokiness is not traditional in a Bolognese, but Sharon had a smoky Bolognese in a lasagna once in Calgary, and there was no turning back. Drink/wine pairing: any bold red like a Cab Sauv or Shiraz, or good Italian red — of special note would be a Valpolicella Ripasso, a good Chianti Riserva, a Brunello di Montalcino, or a Nobile di Montepulciano.
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