Oh, messy food, you are always the most delicious.

LASAGNAAAAA

lasagna noodles
onion
garlic
olive oil
tomato puree/etc
basil, oregano, salt, pepper
ricotta
mozzarella/etc
an egg
spinach/other greens

Right! So there are a few stages in the making of lasagna. First: sauce.

For the sauce you essentially just want to make a good marinara. Mine was totally basic: I chopped up some onions and garlic, softened them in olive oil, added tomato and spices, added some water to thin it appropriately, and straight up let it cook. Fin. You could put all kinds of delicious business in your sauce if you wanted to: peppers or mushrooms or olives or eggplant or anything else you can think of. It is all delicious.

While the sauce is simmering, preheat the oven (350F) and prep everything else that will go in said lasagna. For the cheese: mix a small tub of ricotta with an egg and a couple big handfuls of grated mozzarella. For the greens: wash them and chop them up. I think I actually used a mix of spinach and chard for this instance of lasagna. You could mix your chopped greens into the cheese if you want, but I didn't bother. It's all going into the lasagna anyway.

For the noodles: it seems like a lot of lasagna noodles are now the no-cook variety. Mine certainly were. However, I had heard that a quick parboil makes them more delicious, so I parboiled mine for about a minute. It worked perfectly and was not too awkward. It probably also helped that I got the wide, short lasagna noodles instead of the long annoying ruffly ones. I used six noodles for the entire lasagna.

Ok! Once your sauce has simmered for maybe ten or fifteen minutes, it's time to assemble. Get out a casserole dish and spread in a layer of sauce. Then add a layer of noodles, a layer of cheese, and a layer of greens. Stack up a second layer of all these, or even a third if your pan is that deep. Add a final layer of sauce, spread grated mozzarella over the top, and stick the whole business into the oven.

Now you have to WAIT. Lasagna takes 45 minutes to an hour to cook. I mean, it clearly makes sense, since you have this huge thick pan of delicious goodness, and it takes time for heat to penetrate that degree of bounty, but STILL. It does give you plenty of time to wash the amazing quantity of accumulated dishes.

When the lasagna is done, plot to steal all the crispy cheese off the top.

Eat as much of it as you can. John and I made it about halfway through the pan before collapsing. Lasagna is very good with red wine (which we actually did not have).

The next morning, eat it for breakfast.