What A Nice Daughter

[Addie]

My daughter had a better late than never 4th BBQ last night after the temps started to drop. I have not gone out of the house and she bought a boneless rib eye steak for me. I told her to buy me the smallest one. Well, if mine is the smallest one, I would hate to see what hers and her husbands were like. But I will do my dangest to eat my way through it. I have been toying with the idea of having it ready to eat just as Spike comes through the door tonight. But I don't know if I can wait that long. And I don't think I can be that mean. So for now it is sitting in the fridge salted and seasoned waiting to meet the heat! In the meantime I will eat the lasagna she sent to me. Not my favorite meal. I don't like rigotta cheese.

 

[Andy M.]

Addie, I don't care for ricotta either. I now make Luca Lazzari's lasagna recipe and we love it. http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f20/luca-s-meat-lasagna-easy-recipe-franca-s-style-74951.html

 

[Addie]

Addie, I don't care for ricotta either. I now make Luca Lazzari's lasagna recipe and we love it. http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f20/luca-s-meat-lasagna-easy-recipe-franca-s-style-74951.html

That looked so much better than what my daughter sent me. I pulled the layers apart and ate just the noodles. I once had lasagna made by a woman who thought she was Italian because she like their food. She made it with a white cream country sauce with sausage meat. I didn't have the heart to tell her the truth. I have to say, it was better than anything with ricotta.

 

[LPBeier]

I grew up with my Mom using Cottage cheese instead of Ricotta.

However, I learned at a restaurant I cooked at to use Bechmel sauce and I always make it that way. You make it fairly thick and pour it over the middle layer of mozza. It gives a creamy flavourful texture and taste IMO anyway and anyone who has eaten it has loved it!

Anyway, Addie, that was so nice of your daughter - enjoy that steak of yours. If you can't eat it all in one sitting, cook it anyway and use the leftovers for a sandwich or salad!

 

[Addie]

I used to eat cottage cheese as a kid. I don't know why I stopped. So I purchased a 4 oz. container of small curd. Now I know why. That first mouthful was so sour tasting to me, that I immediately spit it out.

 

[taxlady]

I grew up with my Mom using Cottage cheese instead of Ricotta.

However, I learned at a restaurant I cooked at to use Bechmel sauce and I always make it that way. You make it fairly thick and pour it over the middle layer of mozza. It gives a creamy flavourful texture and taste IMO anyway and anyone who has eaten it has loved it!

Anyway, Addie, that was so nice of your daughter - enjoy that steak of yours. If you can't eat it all in one sitting, cook it anyway and use the leftovers for a sandwich or salad!

That only works if the bechamel has been cooked long enough to get the yucky taste out of the flour. I thought I hated bechemel, because I had had it undercooked in restos.

 

[Andy M.]

In the recipe I posted, the Bechamel is mixed with the tomato/meat sauce for an ersatz Bolognese sauce.

Luca's recipe calls for 100% parm. We found that too overpowering so subbed 50% shredded mozzarella. I've also used 50/50 Italian sausage and ground beef for the sauce.

 

[LPBeier]

That only works if the bechamel has been cooked long enough to get the yucky taste out of the flour. I thought I hated bechemel, because I had had it undercooked in restos.

Well, we will just get together and I will cook you lasagna and let you taste the bechemel, before it goes it . For some reason I seemed to excel at sauces in culinary school. Which is good, because now I have to make non-dairy non-gluten versions and they turn out not too bad!

 

[Cooking Goddess]

You're right Addie, a very sweet daughter! With that big of a steak you could also turn the leftovers into a nice serving of mushrooms and beef burgundy over noodles, or a fake beef stroganoff. All kinds of possibilities! You just have to like mushrooms...

With lasagna noodles and bechamel sauce and NO ricotta/cottage cheese you can make a scrumptious Seafood Lasagna. Had a slab of it at a tiny restaurant in Rockland ME a few years back and keep thinking I might want to try it at home. Rich and hearty, so I might wait until colder weather. OTOH, lobsters have been running around $6 a pound and might go down a bit. Hmmm....

 

[pacanis]

You guys are making me hungry for lasagna. And I just happen to have some sauce in the freezer for another half pan...

And I'd be eating a small piece of lasagna with that ribeye! What steak doesn't get eaten in one sitting is good on some buttered garlic toast the next day with some scrambled eggs alongside for breakfast/brunch.

 

[Aunt Bea]

You're right Addie, a very sweet daughter! With that big of a steak you could also turn the leftovers into a nice serving of mushrooms and beef burgundy over noodles, or a fake beef stroganoff. All kinds of possibilities! You just have to like mushrooms...

With lasagna noodles and bechamel sauce and NO ricotta/cottage cheese you can make a scrumptious Seafood Lasagna. Had a slab of it at a tiny restaurant in Rockland ME a few years back and keep thinking I might want to try it at home. Rich and hearty, so I might wait until colder weather. OTOH, lobsters have been running around $6 a pound and might go down a bit. Hmmm....

At Christmas we make a similar dish of stuffed pasta shells with an assortment of seafood and then top it with a newburg style sauce and some breadcrumbs. I cheat on the sauce and use cream of shrimp soup with a shot of sherry for the pot and one for the cook!

 

[Cooking Goddess]

I like to cook with wine and spirits too Bea. Sometimes it even makes it into the food.

 

[Kylie1969]

Ricotta is quite bland but it is wonderful in baked cheesecakes along with cream cheese

 

[Addie]

I cooked the steak and got a beautiful crispy sear on both sides. And it was done to perfection. I could only eat half. Spike finished it. So now there are two very happy members of this family.

 

[Andy M.]

Ricotta is quite bland but it is wonderful in baked cheesecakes along with cream cheese

I've never used ricotta in a cheesecake. I use cream cheese and sour cream.

 

[Whiskadoodle]

That was nice of your daughter to think about you.

I like lasagna, but when it comes to making it, I think oooo that makes so much. We made pans of lasagna for a party once, that worked ok. Funny though, when I think of pastitsio or moussaka, somewhat related style dishes, made in the same size pan, that doesn't seem as much, even with leftovers.

Overall, I have to group anything in a 9 X 13 pan in the same "food group" as a ham and the in-laws. Good for three days and then you'r outta here.

We always used cottage cheese instead of ricotta but since discovering that, now I use a good ricotta that we get at an Italian market.

 

[Addie]

I have a little market where it is made fresh every day. I still don't like it.

The reason moussaka doesn't seem like it is as much is because the eggplant is lighter than pasta. The sheets of pasta and the ricotta make for a much heavier dish. And moussaka tastes better. When I used to make my own raviolis, I always made meat ones.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

.....I like lasagna, but when it comes to making it, I think oooo that makes so much. We made pans of lasagna for a party once, that worked ok....

Whisk, make the same amount of lasagna but put it in three smaller baking dishes. I make 3 pans at once: a 9x13 for dinner that night, plus some for few days later, and run some up to my SIL. I also make two smaller pans, about 8x8, that both go into the freezer unbaked. Then I have lasagna for 2 or 4 more dinners. Depends on if I want to share with SIL again or not. ALL the work the first time, but benefits for dinners to come. Hmmm, too bad you can't store a relative or two in the freezer for some other time...