I saw this recipe last week and knew that I had to do it. First of all, I never made a white sauced lasagna before. Second of all, I had a pound of ground pork in my freezer and wanted to try my hand at making my own sausage. So this was really fun for me to put together on a Sunday afternoon (The sausage I made the day before). The 'sausage' by the way, was essentially ground pork with a bunch of seasonings rolled in wax paper and left in the fridge for 24 hours, so don't get nervous when I say - 'I made my own sausage'.
SAUSAGE:
- 1 Pound Ground Pork
- 1 table spoon red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 3/4 teaspoon paprika
- 3/4 teaspoon red pepper flake
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
Place the pork and red wine in a bowl and add all of the above ingredients. Kneed until all flecks of spice are evenly distributed through the sausage. Roll up into saran wrap or wax paper, place in a zip lock bag and into fridge (for use within 24 hours, or freezer to save).
LASAGNA INGREDIENTS:
- Box of lasagna noodles cooked
- 4 cups whole milk
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 1 pound of Italian sausage (ground)
- 12 tablespoons butter, divided (1 stick plus 4 tablespoons)
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 1/2 pounds of mushrooms (I used large sliced and oyster)
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 2 cups shredded gruyere cheese
- fresh parsley for garnish
First - Sauté up the ground sausage in a pan for about 3 minutes, until almost cooked- then add the onions and cook until onions are translucent and pork is done. Set aside.
Then in the same pan heat up 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil put in 1/2 the mushrooms and some salt and pepper. Cook 2 or 3 minutes until mushrooms are evenly coated. Add 2 more tablespoons each of oil and butter and add the rest of the mushrooms, a little more salt and pepper - cook mushrooms for about 5 minutes until evenly coated and softened. Set aside.
To make the white sauce - first in a medium sized sauce pan bring milk to a simmer and set aside, while in a larger sauce pan melt 1 stick of butter, then add the flour at medium low heat stirring constantly with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes. Add all of milk into the butter and flour- add salt, pepper, basil and nutmeg and cook on med/low for 5 minutes until thickened. Set aside.
To assemble lasagna, spray 9x13 baking dish with non stick spray. Spread some white sauce at bottom of pan, layer lasagna noodles, 1/3 sausage onion mixture, 1/3 mushroom mixture, a little mozz and a little gruyere cheeses. Continue this 2 more times- lastly a layer of noodles, sauce and the remainder of the cheese should be on top. Bake at 375- for about 40 Minutes until top is browned and sauce is bubbly and hot. Let it sit at room temp for about 15 minutes, garnish with parsley and serve hot!
This was an amazingly rich and decedent dish. I was so impressed with how this came out, and the 9x13 pan served 6 adults, 1 child with 3 large pieces left over. It was very filling so a little piece goes a long way. All of the cheese is so tasty and the sausage and mushrooms give it just the right texture. The freshness of the parsley on top was a great contrast to such a heavy dish. This is definitely a dish I will make again, or a variation of it because the white sauce it really yummy with just a hint of nutmeg, its different than anything that I've ever had before. I highly recommend trying this out.
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