So, the week before Thanksgiving, one of our local supermarkets was running a sale on chuck roasts. Since there are tons of things to do with chuck, Toys got several of them towards the end of the week.
When I got home from work on Saturday totally exhausted, she suggested being lazy and making pot roast. Not our normal weekday pot roast. Nope, we were going to do it old school. All afternoon in the Dutch oven. And it was mighty good. We had a little bit of meat left and a bunch of potatoes carrots and parsnips left.
Along comes Sunday. We needed to get rid of as many of the containers in the fridge as we could, so we could make room for new containers of leftovers. And then the idea started.
We had vegetables. We had meat. We had gravy. And we had pasta sheets from work. Pot roast lasagna! It could be the ultimate in comfort food. And we could make it happen.
First thing was the meat.
There wasn’t enough left to use as meat in the lasagna. But we could use it to make the gravy beefier. In the food processor it goes to be shredded fine.
It then gets stirred into the gravy and left to come to a gentle simmer.
Next, in batches, the vegetables get a few pulses in the food processor, just to make sure that everything is about the same size and consistency.
The vegetables all go into a bowl along with a little fresh thyme from the garden, some salt and pepper, a little Parmesan cheese, an egg and some ricotta. Not a lot of cheese, just enough to hold everything together.
The pasta sheets get cut to the right size.
A pizza cutter is the perfect tool for the job, by the way.
We’re all set to assemble. In the bottom of a deep disposable foil pan, goes some of the gravy.
Then however many pasta sheets you need to cover the bottom of the pan go down.
Next is a layer of the vegetable cheese mixture. Followed by more gravy.
And repeat until you have no more filling left. We got three layers. Before the last pasta sheets went down, Toys had one more idea. The last of the scallions in the fridge got a quick chop and went on the last layer.
To finish it off, we made a bechamel sauce for the top. Lots of people do that for lasagna. And we couldn’t think of a reason we shouldn’t either.
The finished lasagna got covered in foil and put into the freezer. It weighs a lot. And sometime soon, we will be too lazy or too tired to make dinner. And all we’ll have to do is put the frozen lasagna in the oven to be able to enjoy what could be the next hot culinary thing, fusion comfort food.
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