I pulled out Italian sausage links for a last minute supper today. I pulled them out this morning with no idea how I was going to use them.
At some point around noon I did a Google search “recipe Italian sausage onion pasta”.
I knew I didn’t want a tomato base recipe, so I looked for anything without tomatoes. I found a recipe called Creamy Italian Sausage Pasta.
It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for because I didn’t have all the ingredients the recipe called for. But I decided I could adjust. When you’re looking at “last minute” you look at how you can improvise for this last minute supper.
Substitutions
This recipe called for penne pasta. I already had a different type of pasta open, so I use it instead.
Cooked, strained pasta
The recipe called for a ground Italian sausage but I was using link. I just cut it up in small slices and used it instead.
The recipe called for adding cream. I did add cream, but my husband likes a gravy so I added about 2 1/2 Tbls of flour first. I didn’t drain the grease, added the four and then added the approximately 2 cups of cream to make a roux, then a gravy.
Local raw cream
I buy whole raw milk from a neighbor weekly and usually make butter out of the cream. I’ve been putting the butter in the freezer, so I decided I could use the cream for this instead this week.
Once I made the roux, I shredded a little more than a cup of shredded parmesan cheese. I stirred it in until it was melted.
Then I added steamed broccoli and cauliflower instead of the called for spinach. I really love spinach. But I didn’t have any, so I improvised.
Improv for a last minute supper
The best part of this last minute supper is to improvise the ingredients you don’t have or don’t want with what you do have or what you like better.
Broccoli in pasta
Don’t be afraid to try a new recipe, with your own twists. You’ll be surprised how good it can be.
Tell me how you improvise on recipes and share with the rest of us.
Homemade lasagna is always good, just like every other homemade goodness. This lasagna is “Beyond” because not only is the lasagna homemade so are most of the ingredients.
This won’t be a recipe in the conventional sense. In my usual fashion, there really isn’t precise measurements for the ingredients. It’s really all about what you like which determines how much of each you add
Lasagna is generally a layered pan of meat with sauce, cheese and noodles. The order and amounts are entirely up to you.
I follow that rule with most recipes, hence, I’m terrible with precise measurements.
The Homemade Ingredients of the Homemade Lasagna
The Meat
Lasagna usually contains a meat of some kind, but not always. (We like veggie lasagna too.) The meats used can range from hamburger, sausage or as in this case venison. My husband hunts so we don’t buy hamburger, we use the ground venison from his deer.
Canned ground venison.
I also can venison so when I don’t have time to cook, which generally means I don’t have time to thaw meats too, I can open a mason jar of already cooked meats and mix it however I need to.
I can meat in quart jars and that comes to about 2-1/2 to 3 cups of meat per jar. Again, not an exact measurement but close enough for government work (as my dad used to say).
The Cheese
If you’ll remember a few posts back I had a failure in my homemade mozzarella cheese making. You can see that failure here.
I told you then that the ricotta that came from that would be lasagna soon. And here you go.
Ricotta cheese.
I did figure out that I should have salted the ricotta cheese. I rarely salt things, but this is one of those “note to self” things for next time. That was something i didn’t add to the post either, but again, I should have.
The Sauce
The sauce is made from home canned tomatoes. Several years back we planted a lot of tomato plants and almost none of them grew, so we got nothing out of them.
Because of that we planted a LOT of tomatoes a year later and they all produced copious amounts of tomatoes. I can’t even tell you how many pints I canned that year. Thus, I’m just now using up the last of them.
All I did was drain the liquid from them, mash them up and add some salt, basil, rosemary and garlic. I had a partial jar of spaghetti sauce in the fridge that I added too, just to use it up.
The Noodles
I bought them. I haven’t had the pleasure of making that kind of pasta yet. I’ve made the noodles for chicken and noodles, but that’s a different recipe.
The Process
Mixing the Sauce and Meat
As I said before, I drained the liquid from the tomatoes, added salt, basil, rosemary, the other sauce from the fridge and a few teaspoons of garlic (sadly that was from a jar too).
Mashed tomatoes with herbs and salt.
The amounts of each of those are entirely up to your preferred taste, depending on how much you like each. I would generally start on the lower side, tasting every so often to make sure it suits you.
Then I added the meat, mixed it in completely and again allowed it to come to a simmer until all was thoroughly mixed and heated throughout.
Simmering meat and tomato sauce.
The Noodles
As soon as I added the meat to the sauce, I started a large pot of water to boil. After the water came to a rolling boil, I added salt and then the lasagna noodles 3 or 4 at a time. In the end I used 12 noodles.
Cooked noodles, ready to use.
After they boiled about 8-10 min, I pulled them out and laid them out on wax paper.
Building the Lasagna
Lay 3 noodles in the bottom of a 9 X 12 pan, then layer on the meat and then the ricotta cheese. I also layered in mushrooms in ours, just cause I really like mushrooms. You could add onions, green peppers, carrots or even a spinach or kale if you wanted to. Use your imagination.
If I had it to do again, I would have made more meat sauce, just to make that layer a little thicker.
Layering the lasagna.
After the last layer of noodles, I added the remaining meat on top, then the last of the ricotta cheese, then sprinkled about 1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese. Again this was a little bit that was left in a container in the cheese drawer, so I used it up.
The finished build with parmesan cheese sprinkled over the top
Cover with foil and bake in the oven at about 400 deg. for about 40-45 minutes. You’re not really cooking this, but you do want it to heat completely through enough to melt the cheese in the center.
The finished product. Sorry for the fuzzy picture.
After that, I pulled it out of the oven, removed the foil and added shredded mozzarella over the top and placed it back in the oven for about 10-15 min. Long enough to melt and brown the cheese.
We love broccoli. And yes, that is a paper plate. We love them.
Using up Leftovers
Throughout this recipe you’ll notice a theme. I’m a master at going through the fridge and using the last bits of things that seem to fit a recipe. I hate wasting food so when I can find a way to use it, I will. If it fits a recipe I’ll try and find a way to use it.
Although this really isn’t what you would consider a conventional recipe I hope you found some use in it. If nothing else, I hope it inspires you to look through your fridge and figure out how you can use all those little bits of ingredients in a homemade meal of your own.
Do you have a piece mill dish you make? Let me know how you use up the stuff in your fridge. I’d love to hear how you piece mill meals.
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Until next time – Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey
