Now this one requires time and a little bit of expertise to make it, but once prepared you would realize that it is worth the effort. It is one of the best Italian dishes I have eaten, well probably because I ate the home cooked version. For people who don't know what Lasagna is - its another type of pasta. It comes in long flat strips, 3-4 cms wide and 12-15 cms long. Its prepared by making alternate layers of lasagna stripes, meat sauce and cheese one over the other. You prepare the sauce separately, boil lasagna and then make alternate layers. The outcome is layers of creamy, spicy, tangy and very tasty food. Well lets look at the recipe - its quite simple if you break it down into steps.
Ingredients (for 5-6 servings)
- 1 big chopped onion
- 1 big chopped green bell pepper
- 5-6 chopped green chilly
- 1 large table spoon chopped garlic
- 2 cup chopped spinach
- 800 gm of Pasta Sauce
- 400 gm Sour Cream
- 1 large table spoon of red chilly powder
- 2 tea spoons of Oregano
- 500 gm ground chicken
- 12 stripes of Lasagna
- Lots of Cheddar Cheese
- Vegetable Oil
Step 1 - Sauce Preparation
Start heating some oil (around 150 ml) in a large pan. When its slightly heated put 1 large table spoon of chopped garlic in it. After say 2 mins, add chopped onion and green chillies in the pan. When onions start to turn golden, add grounded chicken (keema), mix well and then cover it until the chicken gets cooked. Once the chicken is cooked add chopped green bell pepper and chopped spinach. Let it cook for sometime say 3-5 mins at medium heat then add salt, red chilly powder, Pasta Sauce (we used Francesco Rinaldi Chunky Garden Pasta Sauce) and oregano.
Mix everything well and then leave it on medium heat until the spinach get cooked. When the spinach is cooked and the sauce is slightly thicker then turn off the heat and add Sour Cream to it. Mix it well and then taste the sauce - add extra salt, red chilly powder or Sour Cream as per your taste. All right your sauce is done now keep it aside. It is a creamy, spicy and tangy, i am sure you would love it. You can have your own version of sauce - just experiment carefully :)Step 2 - Boil Lasagna
Boil water in a big bowl and add 12 stripes of lasagna, we used Ronzoni, Healthy Harvest whole wheat, you can use anyone available in your market. Also add some vegetable oil to the boiling water so that stripes of lasagna don't stick to each other. Cover it and boil the lasagna until it gets cooked. Once its done drain out the excess water and take out the lasagna stripes. Its very important that you don't overcook the lasagna and make it soggy. The stripes should be intact and see that they don't stick to each other. Ok you are done with step 2.
Step 3 - Layering
Hmm...Get a large rectangular glass bowl and apply a thin layer of oil on the sides and the bottom on the inside of the bowl. Now start making layers of lasagna stripes, sauce and cheese. First put 3 lasagna stripes in the bowl then put a layer of sauce on it and then sprinkle cheese on top of it, then start with another layer of lasagna stripes. Do it with for all the 12 lasagna stripes, so that you will have four layers. Cover the top most layer of lasagna with a lot of sauce and cheese. Cover the glass bowl with the silver aluminum sheet.
Step 4 - Oven
Lasagna is supposed to be served hot, so when ever you want to serve it just put the glass bowl in the oven preheated at 350 degree Fahrenheit and then keep it there until the cheese melts. It will take around 10-15 minutes. Once its done, take out the dish and serve.
Credits
Ok again I learnt this from my Aunt - Pali Massi. I hope you liked it. You can make various variants of the sauce and also use it with normal pasta or noodles they all turn out to be equally tasty. Lasagna gets some extra points just because of its eloquent layering.
