Lasagna. An update.

Hey, remember this blog? Yeah, me too. 

Anyway. Almost fifteen years ago, I posted here an account of my decades-long efforts to emulate the lasagna that my grandmother made for my family in my youth. In the intervening years I've made adjustments to my recipe. I actually swapped out fresh mozzarella right from Caputo's salt water tub for whole-milk mozzarella, also from Caputo's. Which I shred, rather than apply in sheets. This reduces both runniness and moisture in the finished baked product. This year, or next year, whenever I get around to making lasagna again, I'm going to strain the ricotta through cheesecloth for further moisture reduction. 

I recently took a not-short road trip with my Aunt Catherine, now the sole survivor of the Petrosino family at whose ancestral home I spent so much time as a kid. Much family lore was revealed to me on this journey, including a lengthy clarifying of an issue that always kind of nagged at me, that is, how it was that my parents married in November of 1958 and I was born in August of 1959, and why there were no wedding photos. I'm saving that for my memoir, which this is not. Another thing I learned was that my grandmother had given Catherine a WRITTEN RECIPE for her lasagna, which Catherine would be more than happy to share with me. Would I find the secret at last?

Not really, unless the secret actually turns out to be putting more eggs in the ricotta — I generally have only added two. See below, and forgive the mispelling of "sauce," my grandmother's first language was not English. 

Comments

[Boriska]

I still remember the Andrei Rublev lasagna post from years ago. That reading was... formative, in a way, at a certain juncture in life. And here I am, still checking in (a lurker for the Consumer Guide, tbh...). Good to read this update now and to wish you a lovely holiday season ahead!

P.S. If the "sauce" even is misspelled, then it's in perfectly legible fashion. And this in the service of preserving the lasagna knowledge for the family line, all the future hungry? May perpetual light shine on her and her memory, and thank you for sharing the recipe.

[Titch]

Naturally, this reminded me of Italianamerican. And your aunty is called Catherine, as well! If you've never made Martin Scorsese's mother's pasta sauce, I can heartily recommend it!

https://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/a19548519/godfellas-movie-pasta-sauce/

[Craig Kaplan]

Ahh. Fantastic

[Jon K]

Man, 3 lb of ricotta? That's 6 short containers or 3 tall ones. I've only ever used 1 lb. How big is that pan?!?

[Jon K]

@Titch - My entry to Mrs. Scorsese's pasta sauce was, IIRC, from Entertainment Weekly back when the film came out. (It's essentially the same as the Men's Health one.) I was substitute teaching, and the classroom I was in had lots of magazines for some reason. I copied the recipe and have made it a zillion times since then, though most recently in a vegan version. (I can hear the judgment, but lemme tell you, Beyond Sausage and Impossible Meat get pretty freaking close.)

[GK]

About 13 by 9. Six quarts.