Spaghettofu: Traditional Lasagne

With the in-laws visiting, one of the best things is having traditional italian homemade food.

Tuesday night, Michele's dad Gennaro made traditional lasagne from scratch! I've never had so much lasagne my whole life...boy was it a HUGE piece per person. However, it was really light, because it was not covered in alot of cheese nor sinking in marinara sauce. It contains the usual italian produce: tomatoes, parsley, carrots and celery, and of course, light mozzarela cheese. It was not greasy or heavy.

After Italian class, I learned that the singular form is lasagna, but since its a lot of lasagna, the plural form is lasagne. Just like panini - there is no such thing as paninis....panino is the singular form, and panini is the plural form. So here is the recipe of Gennaro's traditional lasagne:

Ingredients:

lasagne sheets

tomato sauce

diced celery and carrots

parsley

one pack of ground pork

one pack of ground veal

one egg

mozzarella cheese

Preperation:

In a pot of boiling water, add salt and cook the lasagne sheets, and lay them on a flat surface seperately

In a medium bowl, stir together the pork, veal with the egg and parsley. Sprinkle salt and pepper. pinch the mixture into small meatballs, and cook them with olive oil in a saute pan. Remove from pan, into a bowl and set aside.

In a pot with olive oil, cook the diced carrots and celery with the tomato sauce, and add parsley.

Dice the mozzarella and leave in a bowl.

In a lasagne baking dish, layer the lasagne, with the pasta sheet on the bottom. sprinkle cheese, meatballs, and top with tomato sauce. Repeat with as many layers you want. Broil in the oven for 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let it sit and cool down. Cut into squares and serve!