Hybrid Lasagna

We LOVE lasagna. But it is so time-consuming to make. And you have to pre-cook the lasagna noodles just right, or they turn out too chewy or too mushy. I’ve tried those “oven-ready” lasagna noodles, too, and I can’t stand them. I want to eat my lasagna, not chew it like cud! Plus, lasagna just takes too long to fuss with– all the layers, stacking the noodles just right, etc. Who has that kind of time? Not me!

I made up a pseudo-lasagna recipe, using ziti for the pasta. I call it Hybrid Lasagna, because it is a mixture of a lasagna recipe and a baked ziti recipe. The kids love this stuff! It keeps well, and you can make it early in the day (or a day before) and throw it in the oven later. It’s also great as a “full” meal- contains vegetable, meat, dairy, and carbohydrates. And, like most of my meals, it is “fully customizable,” that is you can eliminate an ingredient or substitute an ingredient. I make this stuff in huge quantities, and for when I’ve got a full house or when I want to serve it again another day.

Like most Italian dishes, this requires a lot of cookware and dishes for the prep work. I hate doing dishes! But the nice thing about this is that you can prepare this early in the day. Whch means that the cookware gets dirty early in the day, and you have all afternoon to wash it. I like that. I don’t know about you, but after dinner, I am tired and the last thing I want is a huge stack of dirty cookware to clean! OK, on with the show:

Hybrid Lasagna

Serves 10!

1 pound ground beef or ground sausage, cooked
2 boxes ziti
1 large white onion, diced
2 28oz. cans petite tomatoes
1 28oz. can spinach
3 eggs
1 tub (32oz.) small-curd cottage cheese
1 jar spaghetti sauce (leftover sauce does well)
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Dried basil
Dried oregano
Garlic powder
Salt and pepper
Aluminum foil
A GREAT BIG casserole dish (or several small ones)
A cookie sheet

You’re going to do three things for the prep work: boil the ziti, coat the ziti, and cook the tomato sauce. I always get the ziti boiling first thing. A word of caution: do not overcook the ziti! It’s going to be sitting in a tomato sauce for over an hour– it will get mushy. Cook the ziti for about 5-6 minutes, until it is al dente- the point at which you can split the noodle with a fingernail without too much effort. If it falls apart in your fingers, it’s overcooked. Don’t worry– I’ve done this, and served it up anyway. Kids will eat just about anything. But keep an eye on the pasta. Drain it and rinse it with cold water. (In Italian cooking, we usually don’t rinse the pasta, but I am being unconventional here. You don’t want to allow the ziti to cntinue cooking. The cold water stops it in its tracks).

While the ziti is boiling, I heat up my pre-cooked and drained ground beef. Sometimes I use ground sausage (ooo lala! it’s good with sausage), but I was a dunderhead today, and didn’t thaw out the sausage in time. So ground beef it is. Once the beef is heated, add the onion. Allow this to cook until the onion is translucent and tender.

Now, add your two cans of 280z. petite diced tomatoes. Add in your spices. I’ll leave the quantities of the spices up to you- I love basil and it sweetens the tomatoes, so I add about a tablespoon. I add 1/2 tablespoon oregano and about three shakes of the garlic powder. Stir it all in and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes. The simmering is important– if you don’t cook the tomatoes through enough, the ziti will have a raw taste to it. Wait until you see it really bubbling and look for those frothy red-brown bubbles to show up. It will also smell wonderful.

So while that simmers (don’t let the tomatoes burn! keep them in the back of your mind and stir the pot every minute or two!), let’s go back to the ziti.

In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs.

Open up your can of spinach, drain it thoroughly, and beat it into the eggs. Add a little pepper and salt to the mix.

Now add the cottage cheese. Mix it up really well.

Dump the cooled ziti in, and mix to coat the ziti thoroughly. Set aside.

By now, your tomato sauce should be just about done. I always assemble all my components at this point. You’re going to work in layers: spaghetti sauce, ziti, cheese, tomato sauce. Repeat this one more time.

This dish can be a little juicy. Like I said, I just hate scrubbing cookware, so I mummify my pans before baking with them. I wrap my cookie sheet with aluminum foil and place my casserole dish on top. Then, I loosely cover the Hybrid Lasagna with a sheet of foil. I puncture the top with a fork, to allow steam to escape. The foil cover keeps the ziti noodles from drying out. There is nothing worse that hearing my family bust their teeth on solidified pasta at the dinner table.

Bake the Hybrid Lasagna for an hour at 350 degrees. If you make the dish early in the day and refrigerate it, be warned that you will have to bake it for a longer time, for it to cook in the center. At the final 15 minutes of the baking time, remove the foil and add some shredded cheese on top to get it browned and gooey (yum).

You can serve this dish with bread, a salad, with yogurt banana parfaits on the side, or whatever. Or just serve it alone; it’s a complete dish.

Here are some extra ideas for customizing this dish: