One of the New Jersey…

One of the New Jersey workshop participants just wrote me and asked to be reminded of the secret of the "no boil" lasagne, which I tend to think of as "Kevin's mom's spinach lasagne", although in fact, carnivores can replace the spinach with the appropriately carnivore item. Appropriately pre-cooked, of course. With onions and garlic, ideally. But to get back to the basic spinach lasagne, it's astonishly easy -- about fifteen minutes to prep, assuming you remember to leave the spinach out to thaw in advance. Here's the gist:

Buy some frozen spinach (how much depends on how much you like spinach, but anywhere from a box to a bag :-), a jar of pasta sauce, a container of ricotta cheese (umm...2 cups? the medium size, not the huge size), a bag of shredded mozzarella (12 oz?), and a box of normal lasagne noodles. There is *no need* to buy the fancy no-boil kind, as our fabulous recipe will take care of that.

Got everything? Leave the spinach out to thaw. (If you forget that part, thaw it in the microwave. Or under hot water.) First step -- preheat the oven to 350. Second step -- squeeze as much liquid as you can out of the spinach. Third step -- pour the pasta sauce into a bowl *and add a quarter cup of water to the sauce* (this is very important if you like your lasagne noodles actually cooked). Now you're ready to layer:

Put about a quarter of the sauce into the bottom of your 9x12 baking, spreading it around (to keep the noodles from sticking to the pan). Layer into the pan: enough noodles to make one flat layer, half the ricotta, half the spinach, half the remaining sauce, half mozzarella. Repeat. Cover with foil, stick in the oven for 45 minutes. Take off the foil (so the cheese gets golden brown), cook another 15 minutes. Check for doneness. Serve. Be praised extravagantly for fifteen minutes of work. One lasagne with salad serves about six people.

Hmm...checking, I find that I already gave you Kev's mom's version of the recipe some time ago. So I guess the version above is really my version -- it has some slight modifications, but mostly, it's just longer and more babbly. I hope to grow more concise as I age. Concision is a virtue, I'm told.

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