Lantello Family Italian Recipes – Lasagna

Lantello Family Italian Recipes – Lasagna

 

***** This has been transcribed from my mom’s notes*****

If you cannot find certain brands, please try to find the best quality ones you can or can afford too. Quality products really make a difference.

 

Pot Cheese (which serves as the filling for the lasagna)

Ingredients:

2 lbs. Ricotta cheese (buy either Polly O WHOLE MILK or Gardenia WHOLE MILK or Sierra WHOLE MILK)

3 eggs

1 bunch of mint sprigs- remove them from the sprigs and coarsely chop them up

1 bunch of fresh ITALIAN parsley (coarsely chop them up)

1/2 cup of grated Romano cheese

Unknown amount of previously made sauce.

 

Directions:

Lightly beat the eggs. Add in everything else and mix well. If it seems too thick to spread easily, you can add about ½ cup of milk or half and half to thin the mixture a bit. This may or may not be needed, you be the judge.

 

Lasagna Noodles:

Ingredients

2 lb. BARILLA Lasagna pasta. Should say “No Bake” on the box.

Directions:

Follow directions on box to cook them

 

Ingredients for the Lasagna

The above pot cheese

Prepared lasagna noodles

½ lb. of Mozzarella cheese which has been coarsely grated

1/2 cup of grated Romano cheese

Unknown amount of sauce

 

Directions for the Lasagna

Spread a layer of sauce that is approximately ¼” thick on the bottom of your lasagna tray. This should just be enough sauce to cover.

Place a layer of the lasagna pasta on top of the sauce. You cand and should butt them up edge to edge, but be careful not to overlap the pasta as it may not cook properly if they are overlapped.

Spread a layer of the pot cheese on top of the pasta

Spread a layer of the sauce on top of the pot cheese

Sprinkle mozzarella over the sauce

Sprinkle Romano cheese over the mozzarella

You should have enough to do 4 layers which should go like this FROM THE BOTTOM TO THE TOP:

 

 

Sauce (Bottom Layer)

Lasagna pasta

Pot cheese

Mozzarella

Romano

 

 

Sauce

Lasagna pasta

Pot cheese

Mozzarella

Romano

 

Sauce

Lasagna pasta

Pot cheese

Mozzarella

Romano

 

 

Sauce

Lasagna pasta

Sauce

Mozzarella

Romano (Top layer)

 

So, in effect, you need to use 1/3rd of the pot cheese for each of the FIRST THREE layers. The top layer does not have the pot cheese on top. You will use ¼ of the mozzarella for each of the FOUR layers. Use the Romano for each of the 4 layers but use it SPARSELY. You’ll probably wind up using between 1 and 2 boxes of lasagna pasta.

Once the tray is complete, cover it with aluminum foil and bake it at 375 degrees for one hour to one hour and 10 minutes. You can remove the foil in the last 10 minutes of baking. Let it rest about 20 minutes before you cut it and dish it out.

Have a bowl of Romano cheese available for your or your guests to sprinkle on top and also extra sauce from them to ladle over the lasagna.

Lantello Family Italian Recipes - Meatballs

Lantello Family Italian Recipes - Meatballs

 

***** This has been transcribed from my mom’s notes*****

If you cannot find certain brands, please try to find the best quality ones you can or can afford too. Quality products really make a difference.

 

Ingredients:

1/3 lb. ground veal

1/3 lb. ground pork

1/3 lb. ground beef

(most of the time, I just use all ground sirloin, but when I want to make them authentic and extra special, I use the combination veal, pork & beef.)

3 eggs, beaten with a fork

½ cup of Italian style bread crumbs

1/3 cup grated Romano or parmesan cheese, but use the decent imported stuff-definitely  DO NOT USE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES THE KRAFT PRE-GRATED STUFF THAT COMES IN A CAN OR ANY OTHER CHEESE LIKE THAT

5 cloves of garlic, chopped (or more!)

Salt and Pepper

 

I just guessed the amount of the parsley and the cheese, but the figures should be about what I throw in. The more important ratio is the eggs to bread crumbs ratio. 3 eggs plus ½ cup bread crumbs per each pound of ground meat works every time! The above should make about a dozen meatballs. Mine are usually somewhere around 1 – ½ in. diameter.

Throw everything in a bowl and mix it all up. Chop another couple of cloves of garlic and throw them into the bottom of your pot (my sauce pot is a 10 Qt. pot) and add enough olive oil to barely cover the bottom of the pot. Roll the meatballs up and brown them in the oil over medium heat. I usually put them in the pot, then cover the pot and let them fry over medium heat for about 5 or 6 minutes. Then I remove the cover and use a large stainless spoon (the serving spoon that usually comes with a set of flatware) and I use the spoon to gently loosen the meatball from the pan and turn it over. I make sure that they are nice and brown on that side before I turn them over. If they’re not there yet, I cover and let them cook another minute or two and then check again.

Once they are all turned over, I cover the pot and let them cook another 5 or 6 minutes.  Then I remove them from my pot and make my sauce.

Lantello Family Italian Recipes - Sauce

Lantello Family Italian Recipes - Sauce

 

***** This has been transcribed from my mom’s notes*****

If making sauce after making the meatballs I brown up any other meat I plan to add (usually Italian sausage and also pork or beef bones of some variety—neck bones and/or short ribs are my favorite to use). Once all the meat is browned, I take it all out and get my sauce going.

If you cannot find certain brands, please try to find the best quality ones you can or can afford too. Quality products really make a difference.

 

Ingredients:

1 – 32 oz. can of Progresso (or real imported Italian and supposedly San Marsano are the best) chopped tomatoes

2 or 3 -12 oz. cans of tomato paste (again, imported tastes the best, but I’ll use Contadina if I am in a bind)

1 full 12 oz. (tomato paste can) of water for EACH can of paste

½ tsp. of salt

1 tsp. black pepper

Gobs of fresh basil leaves (I usually use a full bunch of fresh basil)

1 ½ tsp. dried oregano

Enough DRIED basil (in addition to the fresh) to cover the top of the sauce (I never measure… I just use enough to cover it somewhere between a sparse layer and so dense of a layer that you can’t see the sauce)

Approximately 1 ½ tbsp. sugar (this supposedly kills the acid)

Directions:

I add all of this to the olive oil/garlic/bits of meatball mixture that was left in the pot after all of the meat was browned. Then, I stir it all up and it will probably still be really, really thick. I add somewhere between ½ and a full can of water using the 32 oz. can that the chopped tomatoes came in. I add a little at a time and stir as I go and then stop adding when it seems a bit thicker than where I want it. Once you add the meat back in , the sauce will thin out a bit more from all of the meat juices. After it’s cooked for a couple of hours, if it still seems too thick, you can add a little more water. It’s better to initially add too little than too much as you can always add more.

After the sauce has cooked about 20 or 30 minutes add all of the meat back into the pot and turn the sauce down to a simmer on the lowest setting my burner will go. I let the sauce simmer COVERED for 3 or 4 hours and I give it a good stir every 20 minutes or so making sure to get the bottom of the pot so it doesn’t burn.

I actually prefer to make my sauce the day before I want to use it. Once it’s done cooking, I let it cool and then I stick it in the fridge for the night. The next day when you heat it up, the flavor will have changed dramatically!

Yummy Sweet Potato Casserole

Yummy Sweet Potato Casserole

 

Ingredients:

4 cups sweet potato, cubed (Please do not use canned or frozen sweet potatoes they will not taste the same)

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons butter, softened

1/2 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1/2 cup chopped pecans

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Put sweet potatoes in a medium saucepan with water to cover. Cook over medium high heat until tender; drain and mash.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the sweet potatoes, white sugar, eggs, salt, butter, milk and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Transfer to a 9x13 inch baking dish.

3. In medium bowl, mix the brown sugar and flour. Cut in the butter until the mixture is coarse. Stir in the pecans. Sprinkle the mixture over the sweet potato mixture.

4. Bake in the preheated oven 30 minutes, or until the topping is lightly brown.

Cream Cheese Mints

Cream Cheese Mints

 

Ingredients:

1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 tablespoon butter, softened

3 cups confectioners' sugar

2 drops peppermint oil

any color food coloring paste (optional)

 

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, butter, and confectioner's sugar. Mix in peppermint oil. Color as desired with food coloring paste, or leave white.

2. Roll mixture into small balls, and place on waxed paper. Flatten with a fork dipped in confectioners' sugar. Let dry for about 2 hours on waxed paper, then freeze or refrigerate.

Scallops a la Peking House

Scallops a la Peking House

 

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup dry white wine

4 tablespoons peanut oil

2 green onions, minced

1 1/2 pounds scallops

1 cup clam juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/3 (8 ounce) can sliced water chestnuts

 

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, dissolve cornstarch in 1/4 cup dry white wine. Set aside.

2. In a large skillet, heat peanut oil on medium-high heat until almost smoking. Remove the skillet from heat and add green onions. Return the skillet to heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the scallions are soft.

3. Add the scallops to the skillet. Cook the scallops for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

4. Add clam juice or broth to the skillet. Continue stirring. Add salt and red pepper or hot sauce to taste. Stir in ginger and water chestnuts.

5. Stir in the mixture of dissolved cornstarch and white wine. Turn the heat to high, and cook the mixture until it boils and thickens.

Scallops with White Wine Sauce I

Scallops with White Wine Sauce I

 

Ingredients:

1/4 cup white wine

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon shallots

1/2 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup butter

24 sea scallops

1 tablespoon olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

 

Directions:

1. In a medium saucepan, combine white wine, wine vinegar, and shallots. Cook until liquid is almost evaporated, approximately 1 tablespoon left. Stir in heavy cream and let boil down until reduced by half. Stir in butter 1 tablespoon at a time, allowing each to melt before adding the next. Keep warm while preparing the scallops.

2. Preheat oven on broiler setting.

3. Brush scallops with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place under preheated broiler for 2 minutes on each side, until scallops are opaque, with a bit of brown around the edges. Place a spoonful of sauce on each plate, and top with 4 scallops.