Cottage Cheese Lasagna

To get over our "post-vogue" depression, we decided to gather for a dinner party and I've decided to make lasagna  Reason is simple: everyone likes lasagna and it's difficult to screw up. I've always made it with a bechamel sauce but this time I decided to give it a bit more texture and use cottage cheese instead. I know what you are thinking..."what about ricotta?" . Well, I've just never made it that way.


Ingredients:


Meat sauce:
2 lb ground beef
1 tbsp fennel seed
1 tbsp cumin
2 tsp cayenne
1tsp paprika
1 tbsp salt
2 tsp pepper
1/2 lb mushrooms
1 small onion
3 minced garlic cloves
2- 28oz cans of tomatoes
1 5.5 oz can of tomato paste
splash of water





Cheese filling:
1 lb cottage cheese
1 egg
1 bunch spinach boiled and drained
salt and pepper
1 cup grated parmesan

Noodles:
3 eggs
2 cups of flour (really varies depending on the size of eggs)

Brown the beef with the spices then add in the onions, garlic, and mushrooms. Cook until the onions are translucent then add in the canned crushed tomatoes and tomato paste. Add in a splash of water and let the mixture cook for 1.5-2 hours. Add in more water if it looks a bit dry. 

I should probably have left this mixture a bit runnier since I wasn't pre-cooking the pasta. Although it's fresh pasta, it still needs a bit more moisture than cooked pasta.

Blend the eggs in the food processor then slowly add in the flour. I forgot to measure exactly how much flour I used but I think it was about 2 cups. Start with 1 and keep adding until the mixture becomes crumbly. It will form into a ball first when it doesn't have enough flour, but it'll fall apart as you add more. Turn it out onto the counter and you should be able to press it together easily. Wrap it in plastic wrap and let it rest on the counter for 30 minutes.

Roll it out on the biggest setting a couple of times to "knead" the dough. Then you can take it in one setting at a time until the desired thickness. I used "5". Wrap it in plastic so it doesn't dry out.

There's me with my pasta machine! Alex and Tyler showed up already for the dinner.

Combine all the ingredients for the cheese sauce and mix well.

I just did the very traditional lasagna layers for this. 4 layers of meat sauce, 3 of noodles, and 2 of cheese. Lay down 1/4 of the meat sauce and top with 1/3 of the noodles. Cover with 1/2 the cheese sauce then ladle over another 1/4 of the meat sauce. Repeat with noodles, cheese, and meat sauce. Then do a final layer of noodles and finally cover with the last of the meat sauce. I garnished with some sliced mozzarella. 

This goes in the oven for 45 minutes or until the cheese has browned on top.

Overall the flavours are great and the noodles were really amazing. I'll probably never buy noodles for lasagna or chicken noodle soup for the rest of my life. Try this but invest in good cheeses.

I think I might invest in some better quality cheeses next time. The $3.99 mozzarella just doesn't cut it. I went a little cheap with my cheese and I don't know about other people but I can definitely tell! (shhh!!!)