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Who doesn’t love lasagna? It’s clear, when you look for recipes on line, that there are many versions of this incredibly delicious classic Italian dish. So many have the title “World’s Best,” “Mama’s Best,” or “Most Incredible.”

But as they said in the movie “Highlander…” There can be only one!

In this case, it’s simply a matter of preferences. 

I took my favorite parts of several recipes and weaved them together to make one incredible lasagna.

For me, lasagna has to have a great meat sauce, it has to have ricotta, and it has to have a bechamel sauce. This recipe includes them all.

It takes a bit of work, and a bit of love, but it’s all worth it in the end!

My lasagna starts with the meat sauce…

1 cup minced onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. sweet Italian sausage, out of the casings
1 lb. lean ground beef (I use 93/7 grass-fed beef)
1 (28-oz.) can of crushed tomatoes
2 (6-oz.) cans of tomato paste
2 (8-oz.) cans tomato sauce
1 cup water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
2 teaspoons dried basil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
5 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley (use 4 here, save 1 for the ricotta)

In a a large pot, add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and sauté the onions until translucent. Add the garlic and stir for about 10 seconds.

Add the pork and beef and sauté until the meat has browned.

Stir in the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water.

Season with the sugar, Italian seasoning, basil, salt, pepper, fennel and 4 tablespoons of the parsley.

Simmer the sauce, loosely covered, for about 30 minutes.

That gives you enough time to move to the next step.

1 lb. of lasagna sheets

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. When salting pasta water, think: the saltiness of ocean water. Add the lasagna sheets and carefully push them down into the water as they soften. Don’t break them!

Cook the lasagna sheets for 8 to 10 minutes, until they are even firmer than al dente, and drain them. Separate them and set them aside.

Next, the ricotta….

1 lb. whole milk ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, combine the ricotta, egg, the last tablespoon of parsley and salt. Mix well, and set it aside.

A bechamel sauce is a white sauce that adds even more creaminess to the dish.

3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

Melt the butter in a sauce pan, then remove the pan off the heat and add the flour. Whisk the flour to incorporate it into the butter, about 30 seconds, making a roux. 

Bring the pan back over the heat and slowly add the milk, whisking all the time to avoid lumps.

Keeping the heat on medium, keep whisking until the sauce thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon.

Take the sauce off the heat, and mix in the Parmigiano Reggiano. Season with salt and pepper and let the cheese melt into the sauce. Set it aside.

It’s time to put it together! (Don’t panic if you have leftover sauces or pasta at the end of assembly. Everyone makes their lasagna differently, and you can make a mini with all the combined leftovers.)

3/4 pound of mozzarella grated, and standing by

I use a large lasagna pan, about 11 x 14 inches.

First, I put down a layer of the meat sauce to keep the pasta from sticking.

Then I lay down the lasagna sheets in a single layer, overlapping a little so there are no spaces.

A little more meat sauce on top, followed by a layer of bechamel, and a light sprinkling of mozzarella.

Next another layer of slightly overlapping lasagna sheets. More meat sauce…more bechamel…more mozzarella. And now a layer of the ricotta mixture.

Next, one final layer of lasagna sheets, pushing down a bit to make good contact. This layer can be a bit heavier on the pasta, if you want to use the sheets up. Top it with the meat sauce, and a final generous topping of mozzarella. 

Season the top with a little oregano.

Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for about 40minutes, or until it’s bubbly and golden brown. Let it cool for about 15 minutes before serving.

This dish can be gluten-free if you change only 2 things: use GF pasta, and GF flour in the bechamel.

These delicious “chunx” of pork are full of fantastic Asian flavors and go great with broccoli and rice…or just by themselves. Plus, I used inexpensive boneless pork sparerib meat, which saves a few bucks.

3 pounds boneless pork ribs
1/2 a large onion, diced
1/2 cup soy sauce
4 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon Chinese chili garlic sauce
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 star anise
2 cinnamon sticks
1/2 cup maple syrup
4 cups chicken broth, preferably homemade

This recipe is similar to my Asian bacon recipe, only it uses a cheaper, easier to find, cut of pork: boneless sparerib meat. You can usually find packages of this meat in a 3-pound size at most supermarkets.

The rib meat is fatty, however, and often has some gristle. So I trim as much of that away as I can to keep the tasty bites tender. 

I cut the pork into 1-inch cubes, and toss them in a bowl with the diced onion. I add the soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and Chinese chili garlic sauce to the bowl and mix everything really well.

I will let the pork marinate for 2 hours at room temperature, remixing every half-hour or so. (If the pork needs to stay out longer, I put it in the refrigerator, bringing it back to room temperature when I’m ready to cook.)

I preheat the oven to 350°.

I line a baking pan with nonstick aluminum foil and place the pork and onion pieces on it in a single layer, reserving any leftover marinade for later.

I bake the pork and onions for 30 minutes.

While the pork is in the oven, I get a large pot and place the lemon zest, lemon juice, star anise, cinnamon sticks, maple syrup, and chicken broth in the pot. I bring it to a boil, then reduce it to a simmer.

After the pork and onions have cooked for 30 minutes, I remove them from the baking pan and place them in the pot, pouring in all the juices that might be in the baking pan. At this point, I can add any leftover marinade into the pot as well.

Bringing the heat under the pot back on high, I continue cooking until the liquid in the pot starts reducing. As it reduces, I turn the heat down as well, so I don’t burn any sugars in the pot. I stir the pork pieces once in a while.

Soon, the liquid will be reduced to a glaze. I keep tossing the pork in that glaze until it looks nice and shiny and gooey and sticky. And that’s when they’re ready!

Serve the pork chunks immediately!

My daughter likes to find new recipes on line for us to try. And although they might look like new ideas to her, the ingredients tell me these recipes came from somebody’s cookbook from the 70’s.

Hey, maybe I’m the exception to the rule, but I haven’t opened a can of cream-of-anything soup in at least 30 years…and that includes cream of mushroom for the classic Thanksgiving bean casserole. (I’ve never made one.) Maybe it’s because I wasn’t raised on Betty-Crocker-midwest-American fare. My parents were from Lithuania, and we had our own list of favorites that would probably raise a few American eyebrows.

But my daughter had friends coming over this past weekend to hang out for a few hours, and I always like to cook something for them. (I learned from my mom and grandmother a long time ago that you don’t invite someone over without feeding them.)

This casserole recipe my daughter chose, originally called something like “Chicken Spaghetti,” had some good ideas, but wrong ingredients for a group of teenage girls who could be a bit finicky. For example, it called for 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup. I decided to ditch the mushrooms and I substituted one can each of cream of celery and cream of onion. The recipe called for green peppers. I chose to use peas and corn. And since it was all going into a casserole dish, spaghetti seemed like the wrong pasta. We went with smaller penne instead.

We made it a day ahead…keeping it wrapped in the fridge. But if we needed less than what this recipe made, we would’ve divided it into two smaller casseroles, freezing one of them (before cooking) for future use.

1 lb. pasta
1 can (10.5 oz.) cream of celery soup
1 can (10.5 oz.) cream of onion soup
1 cup chicken broth
2 to 3 cooked chicken breasts (about 3 cups shredded)
1/2 cup peas (frozen is fine)
1/2 cup corn (frozen is fine)
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon seasoned salt (I use Lawry’s)
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
2 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar, divided

Homemade chicken stock is the best. If you don’t have any that you’ve made from the leftovers of previous chicken dinners, and you don’t have any store-bought stock in your pantry, here’s any easy cheat…

Get a pot and fill it with about 6 cups cold, clean water. Put the pot over high heat. Chop up a carrot, a stalk or two of celery, and 1/2 an onion and toss them in the pot. Then add the raw chicken breasts you’re going to use in this dish.

Bring the pot to a boil, then turn the heat down to medium until the chicken breasts are thoroughly cooked and the liquid in the pot has reduced by at least half.

Strain the veggies out, and what you have left is basic chicken stock.

If you’re going to cook this dish the same day, pre-heat the oven to 350.

Grease a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray. (Two smaller pans if you’re dividing the recipe.)

Cook the pasta according to the package instructions, but stop the cooking even before the pasta reaches the al dente stage. (It will cook more in the oven, so you don’t want it mushy.) Drain the pasta and set it aside.

Sauté the onion in a bit of olive oil until it’s translucent.

Get out a large bowl and add the can of cream of celery, the can of cream of onion, the sautéed onions, the peas and corn, the shredded chicken, the chicken stock, the cooked and drained pasta, the seasoned salt, the cayenne, and 1 1/2 cups of the cheese. Season with the salt and pepper, to taste. Mix well.

Pour the contents of the bowl into the 9 x 13 pan (or between the 2 pans if dividing), and top it with the rest of the cheese. This is the point where you wrap and freeze or continue to the oven.

Bake for 40–45 minutes, until it’s nice and bubbly. (If it looks like the cheese might burn, cover it with foil.)

If you’re freezing this recipe for later, wrap it tightly in plastic and foil before placing it in the freezer. A day before you want to cook, take it out of the freezer and thaw it in the fridge for 24 hours. Then cook as usual.

Corned beef hash is actually a very simple thing to make. The most difficult part is the corned beef, especially if you’re curing it yourself. That process takes about three weeks…a long time to wait for a plate of hash!

If you have a package of already prepared corn beef that you bought at the supermarket, thaw it, and rinse it in clean, cold water.

If you follow my corned beef recipe (I posted it a couple of weeks ago…you can search for it on my home page), do the same after three weeks of curing: wash the slab of brisket well, removing any seeds and spices that have wedged themselves into the meat.

At this point, many people choose to boil the corned beef, but I don’t. Instead, I place the piece of brisket in a container large enough to hold it covered with more cold, clean water. I let it sit in this cold water for about 12 hours. I dump some ice into it to keep everything cold.  I change the water a couple of times over the 12 hours. Much of the salt will be washed away by this process. I pat the meat dry with paper towels.

Preheat the oven to 325°.

I lay a couple of sheets of foil down on a baking pan, and then add chopped carrots, celery and onions to it. I place the brisket on top of the veggies.

I wrap the brisket tightly in the foil, and place the pan on the center rack of the oven.

I let it cook for about 3 1/2 hours for a 8-pound piece of meat. Cook it less if yours is smaller.

I let the meat cool to room temperature in the foil, then unwrap it, and cut it into manageable sized pieces for future use. I wrap each piece tightly in plastic wrap once it has cooled, and I place the wrapped pieces in a sealed bag and into the freezer. 

Once the corned beef has cooked, it’s ready for sandwiches, and of course, hash! (Pastrami is another series of steps, discussed in another blog.)

A piece of cooked corned beef, about 1 lb., cubed
1 medium onion
2 lbs. sweet potatoes 
olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350°. If the corned beef is frozen, remove it from the freezer, and let it come to room temperature.

Peel and cube the sweet potatoes. Make the cubes about a half-inch around. Placed them in a single layer on a large sheet pan, sprinkling them with olive oil, and seasoning them with salt and pepper. Toss the sweet potatoes to coat them with the seasonings and then place the sheet pan in the oven, baking for about 25 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are fork-tender and have tasty caramelized, slightly charred edges.

A few minutes before the sweet potatoes are done cooking, finely chop the onion and sauté it in a large pan with some olive oil.

Cut the corned beef into small cubes, about a quarter-inch in size.

Once the onions are translucent, add the cubed corned beef to the pan, and warm it through.

Now add the sweet potatoes to the pan and mix thoroughly to combine.

Your sweet potato corned beef hash is ready to serve! It also freezes well, so don’t be afraid to make extra!

A great dipping sauce for Chinese dumplings, known as Jao-Tze, needs to be more than just a bowl of soy sauce. Sure, if you’re having sushi-grade raw fish, you may want to keep it simple with a gentle dip of high-quality soy sauce to preserve the subtle flavors of the fish, but sometimes you want more.

If you’re having dumplings, chunks of pork, beef on a skewer, or grilled chicken, a dipping sauce with more flavor is essential.

Inspired by what I call my Bible of Chinese cooking, “The Chinese Cookbook,” by Craig Claiborne and Virginia Lee (printed in 1972), I tweaked the recipe to fit my own tastes.

You don’t usually find maple syrup in Asian cooking, but I found that it added just the right amount of sweetness needed, and I prefer it over the more commonly used honey.

1/4 cup dark soy sauce
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon maple syrup
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
3/4 teaspoon Chinese chili garlic sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 green onion, finely chopped

I combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

I store it in the fridge in a container with a lid, and give it a good shake right before using, to re-mix the ingredients.

I used this dipping sauce as part of a meal I made with beef skewers (posted recently), stir-fried veggies, dumplings, and lo mein with a peanut-chili sauce.

Inspired by a recipe from chef Martin Yan, these beef skewers are absolutely delicious when grilled over hardwood charcoal, but are mighty tasty when roasted in the oven as well.

Choose a piece of beef that has some marbled fat throughout…that will give it extra flavor. Ribeye is a good choice, although this time around, I used a beautiful hunka grass-fed beef flap. I trimmed as much fat and silver skin off the beef as I could, then I sliced it thinly on the bias–that is, against the grain of the meat.

Marinate the beef for at least 4 hours in the fridge…overnight is even better.

2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup white wine (I used an unoaked Chardonnay from Australia)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon sugar
2 green onions, minced
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons grated ginger

Place the sesame seeds in a small frying pan over medium heat. Cook the seeds, shaking the pan frequently, until the seeds have lightly browned, about 4 minutes. (If you’re using black sesame seeds, they won’t turn brown, but they’ll have a dry look to them.) Immediately remove the sesame seeds from the pan to cool, then place them in a spice grinder, and pulse until they’re ground up.

Place the crushed sesame seeds in a bowl with all the other marinade ingredients, mixing well.

Slice the beef on the bias into thin strips about 4″ long. Place all the beef in the bowl with the marinade, and squish it around to make sure all the meat makes contact with the marinade.

Place the bowl in the fridge for at least 4 hours…overnight is better. Squish the meat around every couple of hours if you can, to ensure it is coated well.

Once the meat is done marinating, remove the bowl from the fridge and let it come to room temperature.

Get out those bamboo barbecue skewers that have been sitting in the kitchen drawer for years. If you’re grilling outside, you’ll want to soak them in warm water for an hour so they don’t burn while you’re cooking. If you’re using the oven, you won’t have to.

Start skewering the beef…about 3 pieces of meat per skewer. Spread them out on the skewer a bit so they aren’t bunched up.

If you’re grilling outside, start a hardwood charcoal fire, and spread the coals out so that you have a medium fire. If it’s too hot, the beef will burn. When the fire is ready, place the skewers on the grill and watch them carefully, turning them so they cook evenly.

If you’ve got a convection oven (an “air fryer” for you youngsters), pre-heat the oven to 350. Place the skewers on a grate that is raised an inch or so above a sheet pan, so that the warm air in the oven can circulate all around the meat.

Place the sheet pan in the oven and cook the beef until it has browned nicely on the top. Then pull the pan out of the oven, and flip the skewers over, returning them to cook a little more on the other side.

Enjoy your beef skewers with whatever you like! I served mine with stir-fried vegetables, lo mein with a peanut-chili sauce, and dumplings with a homemade dipping sauce.

Sweet and spicy is my favorite Asian flavor combination for chicken. This time around, I had a couple of packs of drumsticks and I thought I’d substitute the usual sweet ingredient, honey, for maple syrup. It was delicious!

Soy sauce
8 medium size chicken drumsticks
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoon maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon Chinese chili garlic sauce
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

Pre-heat the oven to 350.

Place the drumsticks on a baking pan and sprinkle them with the soy sauce, making sure you rub the sauce into all parts of the chicken. Let them marinate for 10 minutes.

To make the brush-on marinade, in a bowl, combine the hoisin, maple syrup, chili garlic sauce and sesame oil. Pour off any extra soy sauce from the pan into the bowl and mix well.

Once the oven is hot, brush the drumsticks on all sides with the marinade. Bake the chicken for 30 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the oven, brush again with any leftover marinade, and return the chicken to the oven for 15 more minutes.

Mighty tasty!