Ciao Foodies,
Today is Lasagnas Day … I made this awesome stuffing I already used to make Stuffed Portobellos yesterday and I had a ton of left over. What a great left over …
Instead of just frying my stuffing and using it the classical way, I decided to make mini Meatballs and create a Meatballs Lasagna Recipe… Lucky me I went for a Trader’s Joe veggies takeover a couple of days ago so I had all the veggies in the World to tackle this very demanding dish (if made from scratch).
Ingredients for a cake Pan, 4 ppl:
Lasagnas dry sheets – 6 pc / Tomatoes – 10 pc / Sweet peppers – 2pc / Red onions – 2pc / Garlic – 5 cloves / Sweet Turkey Stuffing (recipe HERE) / Flour – 1 handful / Olive oil – 1/2 cup / Mozzarella – 1 ball / Whipping cream – 1 cup / Fresh basil – 1/2 box / Fresh Parmesan – to taste / Dry basil / Pink salt / Black pepper / Crushed red peppers / Sage / Thyme /
Home made Sweet tomato Sauce :
1/ Cut the peppers and red onions in half. Throw in a pan. Crush the garlic cloves. Throw in. Drizzle with olive oil.
2/ Roast them in the oven at 420* for 20 mn.
3/ Heat up some Olive oil in large pot and throw the tomatoes cut in pieces. When ready, add the roasted veggies. Cover up for 15mns.
4/ Add 1 cup of white wine. Stir. Cover for another 15mns, slow heat.
5/ Throw in your spices, this part is up to you and what you fancy. I personally chose to use my dry spices : basil, sage, Italian mix, chives and a few drops of honey. Pink salt, black pepper.
6/ Use a soup mixer, mix it all together. Cover. Let it sit as you work on the rest.
1/Pre-cook the pasta sheets for a couple minutes then throw in cool water. Let sit for about 5mns. Reserve on a plate. Make sure they are not sticking to each others.
2/ In a mixer, throw the whipping cream, the mozzarella cut in small pieces as well as the fresh basil. Mix until the cream gets thicker and turns into whipped cream. No salt. No pepper. Reserve in the fridge until done with sauce.
3/ Start making the mini- meatballs. (find recipe HERE) They shouldn’t be much bigger than a blueberry. To help roll them, wet your hands with cold water and work on a flat surface powdered with flour so it doesn’t stick.
4/ In a large pan, pour about 2 cups of vegetable oil and fry your meatballs for about 2-4 mns. They don’t need to be fully cooked since they will go in the oven very soon. When ready reserve on a large plate.
5/Rub the inside of the cake pan with olive oil. Cover the bottom of the pan with tomato sauce to start with.
6/The order is as follow: Lasagna sheets. Mozzarella-Basil whipped cream. Meatballs. Tomato sauce. Proceed 2 more times.
7/ End with a layer of tomato sauce and a lot of freshly grated parmesan.
8/ This babe is ready to jump in the oven for about 35mns.
Remember : the lasagnas and meatballs are pre-cooked already, so basically what we do here is just melt and mix the flavors together with heat.
Make sure you leave some pieces in the tomato sauce, it’s juicier and always nice to bite into a piece of red onion or garlic …
This IS going to overflow with sauce straight onto your oven, make sure you protect the bottom with aluminium fall or a any removable material (that doesn’t burn ;-0)
