"Don't Let the Sauce Stick!"

Week 1 of a 52 Week Project

The holidays are over (thank God), which means things can finally go back to normal, hopefully?

I did not have a lot of down time this holiday season, but I did manage to watch one of my favorite movies of all time, Goodfellas.

Goodfellas is inarguably a gangster movie - one of the best. I would put it up against The Godfather any day.

But, Goodfellas is also a food movie and some would suggest it could even be considered a Christmas movie.

Sure it’s not filled with holiday cheer, but there is a Christmas scene, so it’s fitting to watch it during the holidays, right?

I realized in my last rewatch how prominently food is featured in the film. Many of the scenes include traditional Italian dishes, reflecting the Italian-American mob culture depicted in the film.

Some of my favorites food scenes include:

- The scene where the guys eat a late night dinner at Tommy’s mother’s home.

* Fun fact: Tommy’s mom is played by director, Martin Scorsese’s own mother.

- The dinner in prison scene.

- And then there’s Henry’s coke fueled day of evading the FBI while he lets his red gravy sauce simmer on the stove.

Inspired by the movie, I decided to make an Italian American classic, lasagna.

Below is my recipe for it.

Recipe of the Week:

Lasagna

There’s nothing better than those crispy edges.

Ingredients

For the tomato sauce -

1 lb sweet Italian sausage (chicken, turkey, or pork)

1 lb 85/15 ground beef

1 onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, chopped

red pepper flakes to taste

dried oregano to taste

dried basil to taste

1 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 c red wine

1/2 c chicken stock

28 oz + 14 oz can whole plum tomatoes, crushed by hand

1/4 c evaporated milk (cream, half and half, whole milk also work)

For the cheese sauce -

16 oz ricotta cheese

1/4 c parmesan cheese

1 egg

Basil, to taste

2 c mozzarella cheese, shredded

And -

Oven ready lasagna noodles (so you do not have to boil them ahead of time)

Method

Step 1:

For the sauce, brown sausage and ground beef in Dutch oven or large pot. Remove. Sautee onion until soft and then add garlic. Return browned meat to the pan.

Next, add seasonings (red pepper flakes, dried basil, dried oregano) and tomato paste and stir.

Deglaze pan with wine and let reduce. Add chicken stock and let reduce. Add tomatoes and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat, add milk, season with salt and pepper to taste, and let simmer for as long as possible, but at least 15 minutes.

Step 2:

Meanwhile, combine ricotta, parmesan, basil, and egg in medium bowl.

Step 3:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Spoon a layer of sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 pan.

Layer the lasagna as follows:

• Noodle, sauce, ricotta, mozzarella

• Noodle, sauce ricotta, mozzarella

• Noodle, sauce, mozzarella

Step 4:

Bake lasagna in oven for 30-35 minutes (if the top layer of cheese begins to brown, cover with foil).

Remove and let stand 10 minutes.

Yes, this is a pic from the NYT website, but I failed to take a shot of a simple slice of my lasagna, and I could not have taken a more perfect one than this.