Lasagna, a traditional Italian staple. Try a gourmet version, however …

Have you ever bitten into a slab of tomato sauce oozing, cheese-bubbling Italian lasagna and found that ... gasp ... despite all of the calories you know are in there, it is really ... just ... I'll say it quick ... not-that-tasty? Grimace. Yeah, Chef Dave (professional restaurant chef and restaurant manager) has too. That’s just not right. What a waste. And maybe it is somebody's ... grandmother's ...or Italian Family's ... "secret and famous lasagna recipe". Gasp again! Sorry, grandma, but lasagna, given all those ... calories ... needs to have ... Flavor! Let's at least make it "worth" the caloric investment!

First of all, one of the major "traditional" flavoring and texturing ingredients, ricotta cheese, really has very little taste compared to ... say ... Parmigiano-Reggiano, Pecorino Romano, even Provolone or Mozzerella. It has a nice texture, all right, but what are we going to use for flavor?

Well, a lot of recipes call for a “bottled”, “store-bought” tomato sauce. Dave's not saying that there are no reasonably good store-line tomato sauces out there. When in a pinch, he is not adverse to using one himself, but he is not going to just open it up and pour it in there! He is certainly going to enhance the flavor some. A very big draw back, though, store-bought tomato sauces are "laden" with salt. So if you are using one, take this into consideration and do your arteries a favor, Dont add any additional salt, even if you "enhance" this very basic sauce, until you taste it near the end of the additional flavoring process!

Therefore, Dave has developed some really “tasty” recipes, including the semi-traditional Meatball Lasagna Recipe you’ll find below. Call it his Homemade Version (call it Dave's "secret Italian family recipe" if you want. Chef Dave is Italian at heart, but his wife is quite Italian ("nee" Ripa). In this one, he takes the time and effort to make his "own tomato sauce", using ingredients and a gourmet cooking technique that greatly enhances the flavor. He adds a generous portion of sun-dried tomatoes, because their “concentrated” flavor also intensifies the taste.

As for the pasta noodles, by far the most desirable method is to make your own. This is a good pasta maker that does it all and will hold up as long as most of us will. We’ve tried the no-boil pasta, and we don’t particularly like it, though it does save some time. If you don’t have a pasta maker, it is really not that much of a hassle to boil the curly noodles that are common on every grocery shelf.

Techniques for making lasagna are the type of articles carried in some of our favorite cooking magazines, such as Fine Cooking (May 2001 issue) and other instructional mags like Cuisine At Home and Intermezzo. As we uncover other variations we feel are worthy of you, we will pass those along, of course. In the mean time, if you really like to make this stacked dish, we’ve come across a really good non-stick pasta pan. So, check out some of these dishes and start baking!

Buon appetito always!
Chef Dave

newitalianrecipes2003@comcast.net