Family Lasagna

Serves 8

Prep time: 3 hours for sauce another 1 hour for lasagna preparation

My family doesn’t have a ton of family recipes: but this one is our most favorite. Josh calls it “Kaushansky sauce”, but this isn’t right: the recipe actually comes from my “Aunt Bea” - who was actually my great aunt, and my paternal grandmother’s older sister. My grandmother was one of seven siblings and my grandfather one of eight, and somehow this sauce recipe spread widely across the families and generations. When people hear it they really don’t believe it - I sometimes don’t believe it myself as someone who errs on the side of cooking from scratch. Still, it remains my all time favorite bolognese-type sauce, and the reason I almost never order bolognese when I go out to italian food (I’ve tried a few times - it is always a disapointment). The sauce is great to serve over fresh pasta, but my favorite is to use it for lasagna.

Photo credit: Ken Kaushansky

For sauce:

2 - 33oz cans tomato puree

2 - 33oz cans tomato sauce (the most basic you can find)

2 - 15 oz cans tomato soup

2 - 15 oz (or 5 - 6 oz) cans of tomato paste

1T oregano

1T salt

1t baking powder

1 lb ground beef (I use a 85/15 mix here, but anything will do)

6 cloves of garlic

For lasagna:

cooked sauce (above)

16 oz container of part-skim ricotta cheese

1 lb fresh lasagna sheets (if you use a box, you will need to boil them in water for 5 minutes or so)

2 large balls fresh mozzarella

1/2 cup shredded parmesan

To make the sauce, simply brown the ground beef in a pan with the garlic. Wait until the beef is cooked through and skim of the fat. Set aside.

Combine all tomato products in a large pot, bring to a simmer. Once it is simmering, add oregano and baking powder, and stir. Add the ground beef. Continue to cook over very low heat for 3 hours, stirring every 20-30 minutes, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pot. This will make more sauce than you need for the lasagna - it freezes well. If you only want enough for the lasagna, you can halve the recipe.

For the lasagna, preheat the oven at 425 degrees F. Once the sauce is complete (sometimes I “cheat” and start the lasagna two hours in - I think this is just fine), coat the bottom of a 9X13 pyrex pan with a think layer of sauce. Then layer fresh pasta sheets, ricotta, sauce, mozzarella until you are out of the cheese and pasta - I aim for three layers of each. For the top layer, add sauce, making sure the pasta is fully covered, and top with a combination of mozzarella and parmesan. Cover in foil, and bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil, and return to the oven for an additional 10 minutes. For the last 1-2 minutes, turn on the broiler, watching it closely to ensure it does not burn.

Enjoy!