Italian meat sauce and lasagne…

I’m sheltered in place, I’ve got enough ammunition reloaded to arm an infantry platoon, I’ve been reading a lot, and I’ve been sending and receiving lots of email.  Some of that email has been from good buddy Sergeant Zuo over in Lanzhou, and one of the things Zuo mentioned he’s been doing is developing his culinary skills.  I’ve been doing the same, and I thought I might share one of my favorite recipes with you.

Whoa, you might say…all this manly man stuff about motorcycles, international travel, guns, reloading, and…well, you know.  Cooking?

You bet.  For me, it started back in the ’70s, when I was an engineer at General Dynamics in Texas on the F-16.  I couldn’t get a date to save my life, I was single, and I was lonely.  And there were all those beautiful young Texas ladies.

One of my good friends was constantly dating a variety of beautiful women.  So one day I asked him:  What’s the secret?

Good buddy John was only too happy to put me on the right path.  “Don’t ask them out for dinner,” he said.  “Invite them over to your place for dinner, and you cook a meal.  No one can resist that…”

Hmmm….

Well, it worked.  Every time.   And today I’m married, two kids, two grandkids with a third on the way, and yep, I love to cook.

So here’s one of my favorite recipes:  Italian meat sauce and lasagna.   It’s not the original dinner good buddy John cued me to (that was bacon-wrapped filet mignon, and that’s a story for another time).  But this one is even better, I think.  You can use the meat sauce with anything Italian (ravioli, spaghetti, stuffed shells, and more).  Today’s focus is on lasagne and it works well.

Italian Meat Sauce Ingredients

What you’ll need is:

1 16-once can of diced tomatoes (my preference is Contadina, but these days, I’ll take whatever is on the shelves)
1 8-0unce can of tomato paste
2 stalks of celery (sliced)
1/2 onion (chopped)
3 cloves garlic (crushed)
1 lb ground beef (browned and chopped)
1 Italian sausage
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon oregano
2 bay leaves
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes (depending on how much zing you want in your sauce)

So when everything is prepped, add it all to the crockpot, stir it a bit, and then start the crockpot. I start my Italian meat sauce in the morning and I’ll let it cook for about 5 hours on the crockpot’s high setting.

While it’s cooking, the house will fill with this delicious Italian meat sauce aroma.  That’s part of the fun.  When the sauce is ready, it’s delicious.

PRO TIP:  Slice up a half a green pepper, and add it to the crockpot before you start cooking.   It adds another flavor dimension.

Lasagne

Like I said above, you can use the Italian meat sauce with any recipe calling for it.  One of my favorites is lasagna.  All you’ll need in addition to the ingredients listed above is a box of lasagna noodles.

Lasagne Ingredients

1 box lasagna pasta
16 ounce container of ricotta cheese
Shredded parmesan cheese
1 container of sliced mozzarella cheese
Italian meat sauce (as prepared above; you’ll need the entire pot)

Follow the directions on the pasta box and boil the noodles.  I usually drop a little bit of olive oil in the boiling water to keep the noodles from sticking to each other.  The box will probably tell you to boil the noodles for 8 minutes.  Don’t go over that or the noodles will get too soft.

And there you have it.  It’s good, it’s easy, and you’ll have plenty of leftovers.