You're Speaking My Language!

I would like to give a shout-out to my Aunt Toni for providing this week's recipe, though she probably doesn't even remember giving it to me. It was about five years ago at my pre-wedding pounding party. In case you don't know, a pounding party is a fantastic type of bridal shower where everyone brings a pound of something (rice, flour, sugar, whatever) for the bride so that she doesn't have an empty kitchen when she gets hitched. Seriously! I LOVE this idea and loved my own pounding party. I imagine if there's a male equivalent, there would be a lot of frozen pizza and Ramen noodles. Well, there was a really fun twist put on my party in that everyone was supposed to bring one or two of their favorite recipes. Everyone who was at my party all brought absolutely wonderful recipes and lovely kitcheny-type gifts as well, but I think my Aunt Toni's made me laugh the most. Toni gave me a pair of pans (one for cooking and one for keeping the hubs in line, she said), a garlic mincer (which I am somewhat embarrassed to say I didn't know what it was), and today's recipe. Without further ado...

Ultra-Quick Lasagna
1 32 oz jar tomato sauce
1 garlic clove, pressed
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 1/2 cup water
1 tsp dried oregano
2 lg eggs
2 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 lb uncooked lasagna
1 lb mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine the tomato sauce, garlic, wine, water, and oregano. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs, ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, and nutmeg.

Pour a generous amount of sauce in a 9"x13" pan or baking dish. Alternating the lasagna, sauce, cheese mixture, and mozzarella, make about three layers, ending with the mozzarella.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil, bake one hour, remove the foil, and bake for another 15 minutes or until sauce has thickened and noodles are tender.

Let sit 10 minutes before cutting.

Did you catch the name of the recipe. Ul-tra-quick...lasagna? You may think that 's an oxymoron, but I can confidently--and excitedly--tell you that that is not the case.

The beginning! If you look at the bowl there, you'll see that that's a lot of liquid. Yes, that's the ultra-quick part. The ingredients do all the work for you. Awesome.

And now you begin to build the layers. You may notice a meat layer slipped into my dish there. I'm pretty sure Mike would be rather unhappy if I served him a meat-less lasagna, so I spread a single layer of ground beef into this.

And into the oven to work its magic. No extra assistance from me required. :-)

Ahhhhhh, smells delcious! Or it did at the time. I paired it with some garlic roasted broccoli to round out the meal. SO good!!!

Granted, someone who is inexperienced with making lasagna may think that an hour plus does not equal ultra-quick. Those of us who have made lasagna from scratch, however, know that this is quite a bit faster than the traditional method. It usually takes me about three hours. Go ahead and give this recipe a try and then kick your feet up because this dish takes care of itself.

Bonus: My hair has a pretty good tendency to make me angry. It gets uppity and decides to ignore what I ask it to do...a lot. What can I do about that? Chop it off!!!
Aw yeah, we're going pixie. How fitting for me. :-) What do you think of my new doo? Hey, Heather, get a load of those earrings. Jealous? :-p