Recipe - Lasagna Fried In Olive Oil

Growing up as a child in a low to middle income Italian household, pasta was a staple part of the diet. We had it two times a week with homemade sauce as my mother would have jumped off a building before opening a jar of Ragu! I don't know if any of you remember the Ragu spaghetti sauce commercials from those days, but they had an obviously stereotyped Italian guy taking a taste of pasta with Ragu on it and loudly proclaiming "That's Italian!". My mom said he was a traitor to all Italians because the sauce tasted nothing like her homemade version!

Speaking of 'The Sauce', my mom would make the sauce early Sunday morning, we'd have pasta promptly at 1 PM and the remaining sauce would go in the fridge until Thursday evening. More pasta would be made and the sauce remaining from Sunday heated up. There was always salad with oil and vinegar dressing, and Italian bread and butter as accompaniments.

The sauce was always flavored with some kind of meat, anything from sausage, pepperoni, pork, beef, meatballs, whatever, and each type of meat or combination of meats gave each batch of sauce a unique flavor.

Sometimes we had pasta three or four times in a week as leftovers if too much pasta was made Sunday or Thursday. That leftover pasta, which was put away coated with whatever leftover sauce there was, was then placed into a frying pan with hot olive oil and some spices and fried. As soon as it was taken out of the pan it was served with freshly grated cheese on top of it. Delicious! If you have never tried fried pasta like this, you really should.

So, today I wondered if leftover lasagna could be treated this way, and the answer is a resounding Yes. YES!! For those of you who do not make their own lasagna, I see no reason that you couldn't do this with some store bought frozen lasagna which would certainly improve its taste tenfold at least, in my humble opinion.

Ingredients:
Leftover or heated frozen lasagna, two to three servings
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup shredded four cheese blend (I use Asiago, Fontina, Parmesan, & Provolone)
4 tbs Olive Oil

Preparation:
Heat leftover lasagna in microwave until warm, for frozen lasagna heat according package directions. Heat oil in frying pan over medium heat. Slice the lasagna in 1 inch wide pieces and add on side to frying pan after oil is hot. Sprinkle with garlic, basil, and oregano. Cook covered three minutes, turn pieces over, and cook and additional three minutes. Turn off heat and top with shredded cheese blend and let sit covered until cheese is melted.

Serve and enjoy!

SaturdayorThe Fog

If you've never seen either the original or remake of The Fog, you can't understand how foggy it was almost all day yesterday! We went from below freezing temperatures to the 40's in a matter of hours overnight. It started raining and ended up in the 50's yesterday. This made for some world class fog conditions. Virtually all the snow is gone except the remnants of big piles from snow removal, and I think the majority of the huge ice dams on my roof are gone as well.


It was a surrealistic look out the windows of the house after I got up. I let Tails out of her room and instead of her usual being cute and cuddly behavior she began running around the family room in a very agitated manner, stopping inside the fireplace and meowing. Thinking she's found a mouse or something I went over to discover water dripping down the chimney! Not a lot, but water none the less.

A quick checked showed the infamous basement steps dry (thank goodness!) and the 'control' crack in the furnace room was leaking slightly. For details on the leak and repair of the basement steps see these older posts from 2006 here, and here, which will open in a new window. Wow, have I been blogging that long??

Tails and I went upstairs and I ascertained the leak in the fireplace downstairs was coming from the runoff of the one directly above it in the living room. Some ice must have worked its way down the chimney and with the big thaw underway it was melting. I kept a watch on it while I used the PC for the next couple of hours and by the time I finished my session on the exercise bike it had stopped.

I talked with the X about dinner as I had invited the family over this evening for leftover lasagna but did not know if they had accepted. The X stated they had so we set a time and I headed out into the fog which was quite the experience! It was very unreal and downright spooky driving the wipers had to be n constantly because of all the moisture in the air and I had to repeatedly roll down the windows to keep them clear. It's only a half a mile to the grocery store! Halfway there I could not see the light from my street or the one for the store, that's how thick the fog was. I was reminded of scenes from The Mist which I quickly put out of my head!

I picked up extra peperoni because Kevin likes it so much and as some got eaten on Christmas there was not a lot left. Since I would be making garlic bread I got two loaves of bread and garlic so I could make my special garlic butter. Arriving home after another spooky journey in the fog I started cooking the pepperoni and then went outside to take a few pictures.

A bit later I made the garlic butter which consisted of one stick real butter, an equal amount of margarine, some olive oil, a LOT of crushed garlic, paprika, basil, oregano, and a touch of freshly ground black pepper. This then sat for two hours before making the bread to allow the flavors to mingle and permeate the butter.

Scott does not like lasagna so for him I made some spaghetti and I made one and a half loaves of garlic bread warming half a plain loaf for mom and dad who are not big on the garlic. Mom can't eat it at all without getting sick so whenever she will be eating my spaghetti sauce I substitute onion power for garlic....not as good...but an acceptable substitute.

To round off the meal I made a nice garden salad and got a new flavor of Kraft dressing, their light version of Traditional Italian. It was surprisingly good! I put out ranch too because the kids love it.

Christopher does not like pasta in any variety and he had plans anyway for the evening so the nine of us sat down to a most excellent dinner which everyone enjoyed. Uncle Kevin bested me by an extra helping of lasagna, and that was impressive considering we both had multiple pieces of garlic bread and pepperoni. I don't know how he did not explode!

After dinner which thankfully I had to do very little cleaning up from I headed into the living room. I noticed my little fiber optic tree looks quite colorful in a dark room as this picture shows:


I asked Kevin to join me in some Left 4 Dead on the easy skill setting. It was a bit comical; Kevin has not gamed in years and he was having a bit of trouble with the X & Y axis controls on the xbox controller. Danielle sat next to him and started giving him 'helpful' hints and after a bit I gave her my controller. Everyone sat down and was watching us play.

After a few levels I put on the Christmas Episode of Night Court entitled "Let it Snow" and we all watched that. Afterward I started up Get Smart.s The Nude Bomb as I figured everyone was leaving. It turns out mom and dad really like Don Adams and Get Smart so they stayed along with Kevin and Lili which was nice because I had company until after 9 PM and that was quite enjoyable.

The rest of the evening was spent watching TV and in research mode shopping for my new AV receiver which I planned to utilize my Amazon Gift Certificates to purchase.

Christmas Eve..and Christmas Eve Day

It is just after 8:30 PM, and the lasagna was finally cool enough to put in the refrigerator. Even with the whole bottom shelf clear there was not enough room for the lasagna pan and the turkey that is thawing in there. I had to put the turkey on it's side crammed next to the lasagna pan, with the plate under the turkey partially under the lasagna pan. I forgot what an ordeal it is making my lasagna, particularly the way I make it, and not having anyone to assist. If everyone enjoys it tomorrow it will be worth it!

I make my lasagna in the bottom of a 26 pound turkey roasting pan. I make three different types of fillings, the traditional Ricotta cheese, plus a layer of ground sirloin which is seasoned and fried in olive oil. I do the same with sweet Italian sausage. Each meat is then crumbled into a bowl and some of the home made sauce is added to it. Using 2 pounds of each meat, is enough for one layer of ground beef, and one layer of sausage. If MacGyver were here to see it, he would say "That's one honking big lasagna!"

So, tomorrow's lasagna starts with the bottom two layers being Ricotta cheese, then the layer of ground beef and grated Romano cheese, then a layer of Ricotta cheese, the sausage layer, this time sprinkled with Asiago, Parmesan, and Mozzarella cheeses, and then two more layers of the Ricotta cheese. Note I also add some things to the Ricotta cheese mixture. Don't ask, I won't tell. ;)

The homemade sauce for today's creation was flavored with Italian sausage (browned first in olive oil and spices), and pepperoni.

I can't believe I still have to cook a turkey dinner in the morning......I am beat!

I also finished clearing out the living room and organizing it, even temporarily moving the exercise bike into my bedroom since there will be 10 of us tomorrow. The living room looks positively palatial without the exercise bike! I love the way the room looks without it! Below is a panoramic shot of the room.

I wish I could re-arrange my bedroom somehow to keep the exercise bile in there, but, there would be no way to do that without making the already small bedroom seem very cramped.

In addition to the above I also cleaned out the fridge, throwing out three plastic supermarket bags of old items...now at least there will be room for leftovers tomorrow!

I did manage to watch a little bit of holiday TV today though, I watched two versions of a Christmas Carol. And older black and white version with Alastair Sim, and a newer one with George C. Scott. I love a Christmas Carol! It speaks a lesson many seem to have forgotten......

The weather was surprising today, it stayed above freezing long enough where we had rain and then some snow but the majority fell as rain not as the predicted snow, which makes me feel a bit better. The forecast has been right three times in a row, today would have made four and that would just be too hard to believe! The real downside here though is I could have gotten to the store much easier today than last night's nightmarish journey. oh well!

I went out around 9:30 AM and snow blowed my driveway and sidewalk, and the sidewalk of the next door neighbor. I am still loving the new Snow Blower, it just makes short work of deep snow, and even the stuff the plow leaves in the driveway is no match for it.

I also got all the kids presents I ordered nicely wrapped, as well as a present for the X's mom, and one for the x too.

I never did get around to vacuuming, that will have to be right after the turkey goes into the over in the morning.

Everyone is down at the X's parents for dinner. Mom was making Swedish meatballs. I had to stay home and deal with the lasagna. As much as it is somewhat lonely here alone on Christmas Eve, at least the kids and the X will get to see Kevin, Lili, and Lucy. I'll see them tomorrow though.