Family Recipe Essay

When I was younger, I remember walking into my grandmother’s house every Thursday night smelling the freshly-baked homemade lasagna she always made. The recipe she would follow has been passed down from many generations in our family. It is one of my favorite meals to make, and it can be done in approximately an hour and thirty minutes. The key to making my family’s homemade lasagna can be summed up in three simple steps: selecting top-quality ingredients, preparing them, and baking the lasagna correctly. The first step in cooking my family’s homemade lasagna is to select top-quality ingredients. There are many different requirements for this dish, and getting the cheap brand of any of the ingredients does not allow for the full potential of the meal. You need to have one 16 oz. package of Barilla lasagna noodles, two pounds of the store’s fresh ground beef, one 24 oz. can of Prego Traditional tomato sauce, half a teaspoon of salt, two 16 oz. bags of Kraft mozzarella cheese, and one 16 oz. cup of Sargento ricotta cheese. After purchasing these ingredients, the ground beef, mozzarella cheese, and ricotta cheese need to be placed in the refrigerator until consumption. The second step in cooking my family’s homemade lasagna is to prepare it. Lasagna has many different ingredients that have to be cooked and mixed together at separate times. First, you need to preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit or 190 degrees Celsius. Boil two and one half quarts of water in a 5 quart pot of lightly-salted water on medium high, add the noodles and cook them for approximately eight to ten minutes or until soft. Drain the noodles and put them to the side. Next, put the two pounds of beef in a skillet and cook on medium high heat until all of the meat is evenly brown. Once the beef is fully cooked, drain the grease and rinse the meat with warm hot water. After you have drained and rinsed the beef, put it back into skillet and add one 24 oz. can of Prego Traditional tomato sauce. Stir until the meat and sauce are mixed evenly, keeping the temperature on low or simmer. As soon as you have cooked the lasagna noodles, beef, and mixed the tomato sauce and meat, you must combine all of the ingredients to bake it properly. For this process, you will need to use a three quart rectangular pan. First, place four lasagna noodles side by side down in the pan. Second, you need to add half of the meat and sauce to that layer and spread it evenly across the pan. Third, use a spoon and spread a thin layer of ricotta cheese across the meat and sauce. Once that is done, the fourth thing you do is add a moiety of the shredded mozzarella cheese to fully cover the layer until you see nothing underneath. After those steps are done, you must repeat this step again using the rest of the ingredients. The third step in cooking my family’s homemade lasagna is to bake it the correct way. The oven needs to have been preheating on 375 degrees Fahrenheit while you are preparing the dish. Once you have the pan ready to put in the oven, take a big piece of aluminum foil and cover the top. Place in oven for twenty five to thirty minutes depending on the cheese. When the cheese melts and turns slightly brown, take the pan out of the oven and remove the aluminum foil. Place the pan back into oven for five to eight minutes. After the typical five to eight minutes is up, remove the pan and let it stand for ten minutes before cutting. When the ten minutes is up, you can cut and serve up to ten people with this dish. When you finish eating the portions that you please, be sure to cover the pan up with aluminum foil and place it in the refrigerator. Preparing my family’s homemade lasagna recipe is not a difficult task, but it is very time consuming. Many people try to rush and throw everything together to have a meal in a timely manner, but the key to success is patience. You must have the patience to cook and put together the dish before baking it. The key to creating my family recipe is to select top-quality ingredients, prepare them, and bake them correctly. By following these directions, your homemade lasagna meal will be a great success for you and whomever. (760).