Stovetop lasagna
Cooking lasagna noodles upright in sauce and melting cheese on top is an easy route to layered pasta that is cozy, simple, and ready in a pinch.
Listen, chatty Kathy, take me to the recipe
It’s so cold. And so dreary. And so dark. All I want to do is hibernate under a giant blanket and eat cheesy pasta. You?
But, I also feel really low energy. Like, I don’t have the wherewithal for a complicated, multi-step, multi-method recipe. So, I reconcile these incompatible ideas with stovetop lasagna. Cook the noodles in a jarred sauce, top with cheese, and serve. Seriously, so so easy and so so good.
A few notes:
I added turkey to this dish to increase the protein, but feel free to leave it out to make it vegetarian.
There’s pesto in the ingredients photo because adding some dollops of pesto in this dish is fab. But I bought a mass-market brand pesto that was, in a word, inedible. So, I wanted to add it to the photo, but we actually eat the food I photograph and I could NOT stomach this sauce. Use one you’ve had before and liked, one you’ve made, or skip it.
WheWhen first adding the noodles, make sure they aren’t touching each other or they could stick together and become gummy and inseparable later on. They’ll start touching through the cooking process as they soften and flop over and you’ll stir to separate them. I’ve found that as long as you start off with the noodles not touching, they’re easy to separate later on.
It might seem like a lot of liquid, but the noodles soak up a lot of it and you still want the sauce to be saucy.
I add dollops of ricotta and then fresh mozzarella to top this dish. I never use part skim or pre-shredded mozzarella because I think they take too long to melt and then the noodles get overcooked.
You could absolutely put the pan under a broiler for 1-2 minutes to brown the top of the cheese instead of letting it melt on the stovetop. I do mine on the stove for simplicity, but choose your own adventure.
Stovetop lasagna
Time: about 45 minutes, mostly active
Yield: 6 large bowls
1 Tbsp olive oil or butter
1 small onion, minced
2-3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 lb ground turkey
3 cups tomato sauce (about a 32 oz jar of sauce)
2 cup stock (turkey, chicken, or vegetable), divided
13 regular or no-boil lasagna noodles (half of a box, uncooked, broken in half)
Ricotta cheese, optional
Fresh mozzarella
In a large cast iron pan (with a lid) or Dutch oven, saute the onions on medium heat until translucent and starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for one more minute, until fragrant.
Add the turkey and cook, breaking up any large chunks, until no pink remains, about 10 minutes.
Add the tomato sauce and broth and stir to combine. Turn the heat to high.
Break the uncooked noodles roughly into halves (don’t mind the noodle shrapnel; just toss it all in the pot) and tuck them into the sauce vertically, making sure they don’t touch each other.* (You want them to be perpendicular to how you would normally layer the noodles in a lasagna; kind of a sideways layering.)
Turn the heat down just slightly, cover the pot, and cook for five minutes.
Uncover the pot and stir the noodles around (it’s okay if they touch now). Turn the heat down to medium or medium low, cover, and cook for another 5 minutes.
Uncover and stir again. Make sure to separate any noodles that are very stuck together. Leave the pot uncovered and cook for 3-5 more minutes. Stir the noodles and sauce frequently to ensure that nothing is sticking or cooking too fast. Add more stock if needed, 1/4 cup at a time.
When the noodles are just al dente, add the mozzarella, cover, and cook until the cheese melts, about 5 minutes.
Creamy tomato and white bean pasta
TOMATO SEASON IS HERE!!!!!!! I looooooove tomatoes. Love. And so does M (though he mysteriously won't eat them in his lunchbox anymore).
M does not always love beans though. He eats them, but they aren't on the top of his list.
As anyone who's read this blog knows, I have a relationship with healthy eating. Like all relationships, it takes work and there are lots of struggles. But any article titled, "The Last Conversation You'll Ever Need To Have About Eating Right," I am 100% going to read. I mean, I'm not going to stop having conversations about eating right, but I liked the article and one of my main takeaways was: Beans are good. Full stop. So, we're eating more beans, which is sometimes a struggle with a toddler.
These beans are not the healthiest things I've ever eaten. But a little bit of cream and Parmesan go a long way. A boat load of tomatoes, onions, garlic, salt, and fresh thyme also do some heavy lifting to form a dish that is hearty and tasty and takes advantage of the best summer produce.
But the secret ingredient here is patience. Reducing the sauce to a syrupy, caramely sauce gives you maximum tomato flavor.
And then your toddler will eat beans.
Creamy tomato and white bean pasta
1 Tbsp olive oil
½ large white onion, minced
5 large garlic cloves, minced
2 pounds cherry or other heirloom tomatoes (or a mixture of both)
1 can white beans
2 Tbsp heavy cream
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup pasta, cooked
¼- ½ tsp salt (more to taste)
pepper
Thyme (2 tsp fresh or 1/2 tsp dried, or to taste)
In a medium pot, bring well- salted water to a boil for the pasta. Cook the pasta according to package directions.
While the water is coming to a boil, mince the onions and garlic. Over medium-low heat, saute the onions for 4-5 minutes or until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for one more minute, or until fragrant.
Chop the tomatoes and add them to the onions and garlic. Turn the flame up to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10-12 minutes, or until the tomatoes release their water and begin to boil.
The liquid should be at a consistent and vigorous boil. If it isn’t, turn the heat up slightly until the liquid begins to boil. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the tomato liquid has reduced by more than half and become syrupy, about another 8-10 minutes.
Add the heavy cream and parmesan cheese and stir to combine. Continue simmering for 4-5 more minutes, stirring regularly, until the sauce thickens. (You should be able to scrape the bottom of the pan and the sauce doesn’t ooze back right away.)
Add the beans and pasta to the sauce and stir to combine. Cook for one more minute to heat the beans and the pasta through.
Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with fresh or dried thyme.
Yield: 4 servings (one heaping cup each)
Meatless Monday: Lentil meatballs
If you need a change from your regular meatball routine or are trying to eat less meat, try this lentil alternative!
Well, it's happened. M is officially in preschool. He's officially potty trained. He's officially a kid and not a baby. I'm officially unsure of how I feel. On the one hand, I'm so happy! I'm writing a post without a child hanging on my leg! I'm staring down the gaping maw of 4 whole hours to myself every day!
On the other hand, it's the end of a really sweet time in our lives. Being home with M all day every day was exhausting and sometimes unfulfilling, but more often it was pretty magical. I was there every time he learned something new or said something hilarious. We had adventures and figured out our new town together and made some friends. Not that those things are over, but it's definitely going to be different. Different in a good way, I hope. We'll see.
You know what else is different in a good way? Meatless meatballs. (See what I did there?) Seriously though, we've been trying to cut out meat once a week, but not skimp on taste and IT. IS. POSSIBLE. These meatballs are delicious.
They're tender, but don't fall apart. The garlic and onion powder load them with flavor and the Parmesan gives them a toasty crust when lightly sauteed. And a couple of eggs and some panko bind them together without drying them out.
A couple of notes:
- You want the lentils to overcook a little, so I cut back on the water and cook them a tiny bit longer than is necessary. The slight mushiness helps to bind the meatball mixture together.
- I've also tried cooking these in a few ways: Roasting keeps the balls very circular, but I miss the slight crunch that comes with sauteeing. And cooking these right in the sauce makes them fall apart a bit. So, sauteeing is the way to go.
Lentil meatballs
Time: About 90 minutes, with chunks being hands off
Yield: 12-20 meatballs (1/4 cup to 1/8 cup)
1.5 cup green or brown lentils (or 3 cups cooked)
3.5-4.5 cups water* (see notes below)
Large pinch of salt
¾ tsp onion powder
2-4 large cloves garlic, minced
¾-1 cup panko
1/3 cup finely grated parmesan
2 large eggs
½ tsp sea salt
2 Tbsp of olive oil
Combine water and lentils* (see notes) and bring to a boil over high heat. Turn heat down to low and simmer, partially covered, for the times noted below. Our goal here is a slightly mushy lentil, which will help the meatballs stick together.
When all the water has evaporated and the lentils are cooked, drain well over a fine mesh sieve while they cool slightly, about 5 minutes.
*If possible, save time here by either cooking the lentils ahead of time or buying precooked lentils that you can find in the produce section of your grocery store.
Combine the lentils and the rest of the ingredients (start with ¾ of the panko and add more later if needed) in a bowl and mix well. The mixture will be sticky and ever-so-slightly slack at this stage, but should be easy to roll into balls. If the mixture feels very slack, sticky, or is hard to form into balls, add the other ¼ cup of panko to the mixture and try again.
Form into balls and chill in the fridge for at 30 minutes.
Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Turn the heat down to medium low and add the meatballs. Let a crust form on one side. Flip the meatballs over and crust the other side. The process should take about 12-15 minutes.
*If using large brown or green lentils, use 4.5 cups of water for 1.5 cups lentils and cook until water has evaporated entirely, about 30-35 minutes. If using small green or brown lentils, use 3.5 cups of water for 1.5 cups lentils and check after 20-25 minutes. If the lentils have too much bite left, but are dry, add 1/4 cup of water, cover partially, and continue cooking, checking every 3 minutes until water has evaporated or the lentils are mushy enough.
