Ink Well My Raven Quill

Lasagna, an article by Raven Hawk

I have never had any formal cooking lessons, and I have never wanted to be a chef. I don’t cook anything particularly gourmet, but I do cook reasonably well. As a mother of four growing boys, I have to be able to put an edible finished product on the table each night (and reasonably fast). Meals have to taste good too. If I can’t do that, someone is going to chew my arm off.

When I was growing up, we ate traditional family meals; nothing extravagant or exceedingly fancy. We ate a lot of casseroles and simple meals that consisted of a vegetable, meat, and instant mashed potatoes (or very dry white rice). We didn’t eat a lot of deserts, but when we did we had home-made fruit pies. My mother was pretty famous, within our extended family, for her strawberry-rhubarb pie. She even grew her own strawberries and rhubarb in our back yard.

I always thought that my mother learned to cook, clean, and take care of her home and children from her mother. Growing up, I thought people taught their children trades and life skills so that when they were grown they would be able to pass those skills on to their own children, and theirs, and theirs, and theirs forever. I didn’t know if that was true or not, but I do know my mother was always too busy to teach me anything (even when I asked). So, I learned everything by trial and error – especially cooking.

In the beginning, I used cook books and I failed miserably. Nothing tasted like it should taste, and nothing looked like it should look. I didn’t understand the directions. I confused abbreviations for ingredients, such as teaspoon and tablespoon, and I didn’t know the difference between baking soda and baking powder. I didn’t know why recipes specified special vinegars or sugars, and I mixed up spices all the time. I should have given up, but my father taught me not to be a quitter.

Image that very first batch of chocolate chip cookies I made when I was ten. I distinctly recall, to this day, measuring out the Tablespoon of baking soda and coarse salt, instead of the teaspoon the recipe called for. Boy were they fluffy! I served them after dinner with huge glasses of milk thinking I’d made prize winning cookies. I was all smiles and full of pride at my wonderful accomplishment, and on my first try, only to be crushed to a sobbing wreck as my father spit his first bite back out declaring them, “the worst cookies he had EVER tasted.”

Over time, I got better at reading the instructions. I learned some tricks and I even learned how to adjust the recipes some. Then, one Christmas I was given a cookbook that actually explained things like basting and broiling, which helped more than I can ever give it credit (or the person who gave it to me). However, there is still one thing that I don’t cook, something that I refuse to cook. One thing, that after all this time, all these years of trial and error, I am still a complete failure at.

I don’t cook IT because I have never been able to get it right. Simply put, my attempts at lasagna have always come out either too soupy or way too dry. I’ve tried dozens of recipes and I’ve even tried doctoring them up. I simply can’t make a lasagna that you can cut into and pull out a beautiful square of saucy, meaty, cheesy noodle perfection, unless it’s cold and straight out of the refrigerator (which is cheating, by the way). So … I just don’t try at all anymore.

Instead … I improvise.

I don’t make lasagna, instead I make lasagna roll ups. I make stuffed noodle deliciousness filled with meats and cheeses and topped with sauce, and … It Is Perfection! I may not be able to make the perfect lasagna, but I can make something that tastes, smells, and has all of the same great ingredients as lasagna (and it’s better because it can be single serving size).

For those of you struggling in lasagna hell, like I have been for years. Throw away the recipes, the no-cook, no-boil noodles, and all of the tips and tricks from your family and friends that never work for you anyway. I have your solution. It’s Lasagna Roll-Ups, and now you can make lasagna too.

Recipe (makes 4)

Ingredients

1/4 lb extra lean ground beef

(or ground turkey, or a mix of pork, beef and/or turkey)

3 tablespoons chopped onion (optional)

(can also sauté diced bell pepper and/or garlic)

1 jar (14-oz.) tomato pasta sauce

1 egg white

1/2 cup ricotta cheese

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves

3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (3 oz)

4 (8×2 1/2-inch) frozen precooked lasagna noodles, thawed

(or cook 4 noodles, drain)

1 cup fresh baby spinach leaves, washed, stems removed

Instructions

Heat oven to 350°F. In an 8-inch skillet, cook beef and onion over medium-high heat, until beef is thoroughly cooked, stirring frequently; drain. Stir in 1/2 cup of the pasta sauce. Remove from heat.

In bottom of ungreased 8-inch square (2-quart) glass baking dish, spread 3 tablespoons of the remaining pasta sauce.

In medium bowl, beat egg white. Stir in ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, oregano and 1/2 cup of the mozzarella cheese.

Spread 1/4 each of ricotta mixture, spinach leaves and beef mixture over each lasagna noodle. Starting with short side, gently and loosely roll each noodle; place seam side down over sauce in baking dish.

Top roll-ups with remaining sauce. Cover with foil. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until bubbly and thoroughly heated. Remove foil; sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese. Bake an additional 2 to 4 minutes or until cheese is melted. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.