Meat Archives – Page 2 of 4

Let Me Show You How To Do Shabu Shabu

This fun, cozy dinner may become one of your favorite simple meals.

Ready for a fun, cozy dinner that will have you lingering around the table with loved ones? Try Shabu Shabu, a Japanese hot pot of vegetables and beef cooked at the table. All you have to do is wash and chop the vegetables of your choice and prepare the savory dipping sauces. Once everyone sits down, they dip their own meat into the simmering pot to cook their own. It’s one of my favorite simple meals.

I like carrots in there too, but they missed the photo opp as I had already put them into the pot to give them a head start on cooking…oops!

I offer 1/4-1/3 pound of beef per person. It must be top quality and sliced paper thin. Pictured below is wagyu ribeye purchased from a Japanese market.

thinly sliced wagyu beef ribeye on a black plate with shabu shabu dipping sauces in small bowls

The only special equipment needed is a hot plate at the dining table. Plug it in and fill a big pot with some stock. Traditionally you would start with some dried kelp, but I prefer to use beef stock flavored with some garlic and ginger. The dipping sauces are very flavorful, but why not add even more flavor to the pot?

Shabu Shabu Sauces

You can buy the sauces premade, but I prefer to make my own. The sauce on the left is for dipping your cooked vegetables. It is equal parts soy sauce and ponzu (citrus vinegar). I used lemon juice once when I was out of ponzu. It was great too. I enjoy the tartness of that ratio, but Michael prefers to add a little more soy sauce to his. The sauce on the right is called goma and it’s flavored with sesame. Dip your cooked meat in this one.

Ingredients for Beef Dipping Sauce (Goma):

1/4 cup tahini (sesame seed paste)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup mirin (sweet rice wine)
1/8 cup olive oil
1/8 cup beef broth
1 clove of minced garlic

This is what I measured according to my taste for 4 people. I put it into a small food processor and let it sit for an hour before dinner. Your palate may prefer the addition of some miso or a little more of this or that. Experiment and see what suits you.

Cooking and Eating

Add vegetables to the pot a little at a time. Each person takes what they like as it cooks. Diners dip their own raw meat into the boiling pot and cook to their own liking. No more taking orders of rare to well done. Everyone is in charge of their own! What’s not to love about this meal? I love it so much that I neglected to take pictures of the meat that had been cooked and dipped in sauce…but you get the idea, right?

The beauty of taking a little bit of food at a time rather than loading up a plate all at once is that it makes one more aware of their satiety. You tend to check in with yourself to see if you’re still hungry or if you’re getting full. It also slows down consumption, leading to a pleasant dining experience. That’s what simple meals are all about, don’t you agree? I like to save some room at the end for cooking some yam noodles in the remaining broth.

You can certainly cook these noodles along with the vegetables, but they tend to disappear if overcooked, so it’s my preference to add them at the end…if anyone still has room to eat them!

For another family style Japanese meal, read How To Make Sushi Family Style next.

What does a festive, slow meal look like for you?

Why Not Buy Tri-Tip? It’s Hot!

Cooking tri-tip is as simple as preparing a steak.

What do you do when organic steaks are not available? Buy something else. Last time I went shopping, the only organic beef I could find aside from ground was tri-tip. I always enjoy tri-tip at restaurants, so why do I often neglect to buy it at the market? I guess I think of it as a barbecue meat, and since I don’t have a grill, I decide to leave cooking tri-tip to someone who does.

This reasoning doesn’t have any merit obviously. The main thing to understand is that tri-tip is a lean cut, so you really don’t want to overcook it. There are lots of recipes out there suggesting that a dry rub will help tenderize it. Let me know which is your favorite preparation.

Cooking Time for Tri-Tip

Examining my unusually small tri-tip, which was only a pound, I decided that I could treat it like a steak. For me that means heating a skillet in the oven at 500 and then putting the seasoned, oiled tri-tip on that hot skillet under the broiler. The steaks I usually buy take about 4 1/2 minutes using this method. As the tri-tip was bigger and thicker, I decided to start with 6 minutes and then evaluate. At that point, I decided to flip it over and cook an additional 4 minutes and then let rest on a warm plate for 15 minutes covered with foil. Learning to cook intuitively means you can gain confidence in cooking without a recipe.

I had considered searing and baking the tri-tip, but for one this small one, I decided it was unnecessary. I have seen general guidelines for handling a bigger tri-tip in that manner to be 10-15 minutes per pound and in this case 10 minutes under the broiler was just right.

tri-tip with potato salad, carrots and asparagus on a white plate

The time allowed for the meat to rest gives me a chance to put some vegetables on a cookie sheet to roast in the oven. And then of course I couldn’t waste the browned goodness left in my skillet. That’s a sauce waiting to happen. Diced onions and water help scrape up all that flavor. Wine or stock would be great instead, but I decided there was plenty going on here without it. Minced garlic and sliced mushrooms finish it off. Season with salt and enjoy the masterpiece you cooked without a recipe.

The tiny bit of leftovers topped a delicious salad for lunch the next day. Served with guacamole and chips, it was also a simple and satisfying meal.

Leftover tri-tip on a bed of greens with asparagus, carrots and potatoes with a side of guacamole on a white plate

Read Make Steak next for more on broiling steak and glamming up some veggies.

Shockingly Good Pork Chops For All

Moist, flavorful pork chops will become one of your favorite simple meals.

When I was first married, I made the mistake of overcooking pork chops. Since then they haven’t been on my husband’s top ten list. Too bad…I enjoy them occasionally, but like anything that’s been overcooked, I don’t want them to end up dry and tough. Thankfully I learned how to make them moist and flavorful and you can also add them to your repertoire of simple meals.

Brining them has been a game changer and it’s the only way I prepare pork chops these days. I discovered this method on thekitchn.com a few years ago and will be forever grateful because since then, my pork chops are amazing.

Brining

A couple hours before cooking them, I make a brine (salt and water combined with spices) and let the pork chops marinate in it in the refrigerator. The ratio is 1 Tablespoon of coarse salt to 1 cup of water. Use less salt if it’s finely ground.

Start by heating 1 cup of water with 3 Tablespoons of salt to dissolve it along with any spices you choose. Here I added a bay leaf, rosemary, fennel and some red pepper flakes. I often use coriander and garlic.

Pour that solution into a shallow dish and then add 2 more cups of cool water. Let that come to room temperature and then submerge your pork chops in the brine. Refrigerate until ready to cook.

Making lots of pork chops? Make more brine following the same ratio. Heat the total amount of salt needed to dissolve in one cup of water and then add the rest of the water needed to complete the brine and cool the solution.

Cooking the Chops

To cook, preheat the oven to 400. Then heat an ovenproof skillet on the stove. Once hot, pat pork chops dry and smear some oil on them. Place them into the skillet on the stovetop for a few minutes. Once they have gotten a bit of color on the underside, turn them over and place the skillet into the oven to finish cooking. My boneless pork chops only required 6 minutes in the oven. You will need a bit longer if your pork chops are thicker or contain a bone. Intuitive cooking without recipes starts with paying attention.

I really like something fruity with pork, so I decided to zest a mandarin orange and cook the zest in a skillet with olive oil and sliced onions. Seasoned with a little ground fennel and rosemary. Wilted spinach in there before tossing with pasta. I enjoy those flavors, the slight bitterness of the citrus zest juxtaposed with the sweet onion and spices. Michael requested mashed potatoes and gravy for next time…Am I surprised? LOL. He knows what he likes in these simple meals!

For an unexpected twist on those mashed potatoes for next time, please read No Small Potatoes next.

My Simple and Comforting Shepherd’s Pie

A great way to reinvent leftovers, shepherd’s pie is comforting and easy to make.

Ready for a comforting dinner for a cool evening? Michael likes to order Shepherd’s Pie along with a black and tan (Guinness Stout layered on top of Bass Ale) at a local British pub. You can make your own shepherd’s pie using leftover roast or other meat by adding vegetables, gravy and mashed potatoes. Bake it in a casserole dish and enjoy this simple meal tonight. It’s easy.

If you’re like me and try to dirty as few dishes as possible, you can start everything in an oven-proof skillet and bake it in said skillet. What could be better than a one pot dish using leftovers? It’s easy to decide what to cook for dinner tonight!

shepherd's pie on a white plate with greens. skillet in the background full of shepherd's pie

I had some pan juices left from a previous lamb roast and stock I had made using the bones, so that was the jumping off point for this dish. You can use beef stock or whatever style of gravy you have or can easily make. Don’t worry about what’s traditional. Just use what you think will taste good. My lamb stock had some tomatoes in it, which wouldn’t normally appear in a shepherd’s pie, but it created the base for a delicious gravy and that’s all that matters to me. That’s the foundation of zero waste cooking.

Preparation

First, boil your potatoes until fork tender. Drain, season and mash the way you usually would once they’re done. I use butter and plain yogurt. If you have leftover mashed potatoes, here’s a great way to reinvent them.

Then, I browned some ground beef in a skillet, added some minced garlic and some dried herbs: rosemary, French thyme and oregano. If your stock/gravy needed some more flavor, I would start with onions. In this case, my pre-existing pan juices/stock already had plenty of onion, so I skipped that.

Add whatever vegetables you like. I chopped up some carrots and tossed in some frozen peas. After pondering adding corn or mushrooms, I decided my skillet was already full enough especially after adding the stock.

I wanted to thicken up the stock, so I ladled a bit into a small cup and whisked in a dash of flour to combine. Added it back to the skillet. If you’re starting with gravy that’s already thick enough, that step would be unnecessary.

Finally, I plopped ice cream sized scoops of mashed potatoes on top of the surface and smoothed it out a bit with a spatula. Baked in the oven until everything had cooked down to the right consistency and the top was golden. How long was that? Probably about 50 minutes at 350. You know, I just keep an eye on things and timing will depend on the size and depth of your baking dish and how much and how thin your liquid was when you began. I call it intuitive cooking without a recipe.

Basic Ingredients:

ground beef or lamb
gravy base (i.e. lamb stock and pan juices)
mashed potatoes
peas
carrots
garlic
dried herbs( i.e. rosemary, French thyme and oregano)

What do you think of this simple shepherd’s pie? Ready for more comfort food and cooking without a recipe? Learn to Lighten Up Old School Comfort Food with my take on Beef Stroganoff.

How Do You Make Your Slab of Ribs?

Smart grocery shopping and cooking basics lead to a memorable, simple meal.

I don’t often make ribs. Michael loves them, but we usually order them from a takeout restaurant. So when I saw a slab of pork ribs on sale at the supermarket, I decided to buy some and try my hand. That’s smart grocery shopping.

I couldn’t remember the last time I made ribs, so I called a couple of friends who had served them in the past to find out their method. They said, “Barbecue.” Since I don’t have a barbecue, I searched the internet for an oven method. Ah, then I remembered. Low and slow in the oven makes the tenderest ribs that I like best. Why? I don’t particularly care for messy things that I have to pick up with my hands only for it to get stuck in my teeth. I think it’s much more civilized when you can cut the meat off the bone and it melts in your mouth.

So that’s what we have here. Michael doesn’t mind messy food, so he instinctively brought extra napkins to the table for this meal. But I am happy to say that they weren’t needed. Try it. You’ll like it.

Ribs with baked cheesy orecchiette and vegetables on a white china plate alongside coleslaw in a white cup

Yes, Michael is the real ribs lover in our household. Once he saw me preparing them, he started talking about the sides we usually order from our favorite place. So, to make him happy I made some coleslaw and a slimmed down version of mac and cheese. I had wanted to use some corn, green beans and carrots, so I mixed them together with some cooked orecchiette and a cheesy white sauce and popped that into the oven. I think this is about the easiest way to sneak some extra veggies on your kids…or husband. Who doesn’t like pasta and cheese? Anyone can learn how to eat more vegetables even if they think they don’t like them.

Preparing the Ribs

So, here’s how I handled the ribs: First I removed the excess fat and the membrane from the underside. Then I seasoned both sides with salt and garlic powder. Wrapped the ribs in foil and put them on a cookie sheet. Baked at 275 for 2 1/2 hours and then opened the foil to check on them. They were tender, so I opened the foil, poured some barbecue sauce on them and baked at 350 for another 30 minutes. I put both the ribs and the cheesy veggie pasta under the broiler for a couple minutes to get a little color on them.

I must say that I really enjoyed these and I didn’t even put barbecue sauce on mine. Michael is a saucy guy, but I didn’t find it necessary.

The only thing missing above were some barbecued beans and greens…so with the little bit of ribs left over, we had that the next night. I took some pinto beans out of the freezer that I had previously cooked. After defrosting in the refrigerator, I added some barbecue sauce to them. Voila! Another simple and tasty dinner without any fuss. For details on those delicious pinto beans, please read Pinto Beans Mean Big Win For Me. Smart grocery shopping starts with fresh ingredients and stocking a pantry well.

Pork ribs with braised kale, pinto beans and biscuit on a white plate

The Way to Amazing Bolognese Sauce

Patience and a few quality ingredients are worth it if you want an authentic bolognese sauce.

While I was ordering porcini and every local specialty that I had read about while in Italy, my husband ordered bolognese at dinner on several occasions. I laughed and said, “You’ve been eating spaghetti your whole life! Why do you keep ordering bolognese? Don’t you want to try something new?” Not until our trip was ending in Rome did I decide to try it. Wow! I had completely missed the boat on this one in my ignorance. An authentic bolognese sauce is not your mother’s American-Italian spaghetti sauce. It is in a league of its own.

Upon returning home, I sought to replicate that sauce by trying all kinds of recipes…and falling short. Why? I was attempting to make a leaner version than what the instructions told me. Lean ground sirloin just will not cut it in this case. This sauce is really all about the fat…and slow simmering all afternoon. You really can’t skimp on either one. Do you want an authentic bolognese sauce?

Once I realized the error of my ways, I began buying chuck roast at the supermarket and asked the butcher to grind it fine. That was a turning point. Chuck has the right amount of fat, which equals flavor. Principles matter in cooking without recipes. That’s how you develop your intuition in the kitchen.

Today I decided to use some ground meats that I had in the freezer: 2 pounds of ground beef (15 % fat) and a pound of ground wild boar, which to my surprise was rather lean. The boar meat that I had purchased previously was much fattier, so I imagined it would work well in this sauce. No matter. It’s all good.

I also took out of the freezer a couple of chicken livers and an inch of bacon. Pancetta is traditional, but I really like the smokiness of bacon and I usually have some in the freezer.

Chop Ingredients

If you have a food processor, it is very useful for making this dish because you want everything to be chopped up very small in order to create a very silky texture. So, here’s what I chopped and put into separate bowls first:

one huge onion
3 stalks of celery
2 carrots
6 cloves of garlic
2 organic chicken livers
one inch of bacon
1 2/3 cans of tomatoes (28 ounce cans)

The Rest of the Ingredients:

2 pounds ground beef (15% fat)
1 pound ground wild boar
butter
olive oil
milk
dry white wine
1 Tablespoon tomato paste
less than 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
salt

Why these amounts? Because it’s what I had on hand. Another carrot or stalk of celery or a couple more chicken livers would have been great, but I was using up what I had in the refrigerator/freezer. I usually use a tiny bit less tomato too, but I had part of a can open, so why not finish it?

How To Make the Sauce

So, here’s how I do this in my favorite big pot: Melt a tablespoon of butter and add the ground chicken livers and bacon. Trust me on this. The flavor is great and no one will say it tastes like liver.

Once that mixture is no longer pink, add the onions and let them help you scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Cook those for a few minutes before adding the carrots and celery and a little olive oil. Keep stirring and cook for a few minutes.

Then, add the meat and continue to cook while stirring. Pour a cup or so of dry white wine into the pot at this point, which Lidia Bastianich says helps to break up the meat into smaller pieces. Although I used to put the wine in later, I think this makes more sense. Additionally, you can better eyeball the necessary amount. The wine should just cover the meat. Let that cook down a bit and add the garlic.

Then add about a cup of milk. For this dish, I specifically buy whole milk. It’s the only time I do so. Don’t tell my husband, but I used 1 % this time because that’s what I had…so that’s why I used so little in comparison to the other ingredients. If I had whole milk, I might have used up to another cup. I decided there was enough going on between the bacon and the butter and a little extra tomato…

Grate a little nutmeg in there and add the tomatoes and about a tablespoon of tomato paste. Season with salt. Reduce heat to simmer and stir frequently for 4 hours. Yes, it really does need that long, in my opinion. If you don’t have all afternoon to devote to this, don’t bother. Don’t worry. It’s totally worth the investment of time and it freezes well, so you won’t have to do this again for a while. The amount of sauce I made here would easily serve 10 people.

A glass of Rosso di Montalcino with the original bottle and a wedge of parmesan on a plate in front of a picture of Tuscany — Make sure you have a good red wine with this dinner!

To Serve

You could serve this with any pasta that you desire, but we like a fresh, eggy tagliatelle if we can get it. Otherwise, dried is fine, but I think it must be eggy. Dried egg noodles will even do if you can’t find anything else. We might toss the cooked pasta in butter before combining it with the sauce. Yes, it’s not a low-fat meal…but it’s worth the calories once in a while…especially if you don’t eat a heaping plate full. I know that it’s hard to exercise self-control when an authentic bolognese sauce is this good, but in Italy pasta was merely the first course of our dinner. Can you believe we actually lost weight there? That’s what happens when you walk everywhere. Note to self: walk a little extra tomorrow…

Ready for another authentic pasta sauce I learned about in Italy? Read Skillful With Shellfish next for another simple meal idea.

Lighten Up Old School Comfort Food

Beef Stroganoff with yogurt is easy to make for dinner tonight.

I often don’t like to call dishes by a particular name because if you’ve had that dish before, you might be expecting it to be done in a specific way that is different from how I have prepared it. So we’re going to call this Beef Stroganoff for the sake of simplicity, but in this case I made a lighter version than what is typical.

I liked eating the vegetables separately as a kid

The Beef

You can use whatever kind of beef you like. Just adjust the cooking method to suit the cut. Longer, slow cooking for tougher cuts. Quick cooking for more tender cuts. You could use ground beef or turkey too.

I had some shaved beef here, so I thought I would cook it quickly at the end of the preparation. I think the texture and flavor would have actually been better if I had started with searing the beef, then removed it from the skillet before adding the mushrooms and onions. Live and learn. Cooking without a recipe means experimenting and making adjustments.

The Sauce

To this I added some white wine and let the sauce reduce. I would usually add some beef broth too, but in this case I didn’t. You could add some herbs too. I put some plain yogurt in there once the egg noodles were nearly done. (I don’t want to overheat my probiotics or curdle the yogurt.) Mixed everything together and served. I love simple meals.

Yes, usually this dish is made with sour cream, but I buy yogurt more often and it works fine for me. I often have trouble finishing an entire carton of sour cream unless I turn it into onion dip for chips…in which case I could easily eat the entire carton…and live to regret it. Yogurt is more versatile in my opinion. It can be sweetened up with fruit for a quick snack or plopped onto granola or oatmeal. It works in many savory dishes like this one as well.

The Tool

A spider that you will be happy to find in your kitchen

A spider is perfect for removing the noodles from boiling water to go into the sauce. Tossed some asparagus spears into the boiling water for a minute and retrieved them with aforementioned spider. I love using as few pots as possible…

Here’s how I roll these days: all mixed up. It was even more delicious this way

The Ingredients:

beef
onions
mushrooms
white wine
plain yogurt
asparagus
egg noodles

What else to do with yogurt? Please see No Boring Leftovers for one suggestion.

Love Food

Simple meals don’t necessarily require cooking.

We call this “Love Food”. When I am too tired to cook or feeling under the weather, Michael picks up Italian deli meats and arranges them beautifully on a platter. We heat up some crusty bread, open a bottle of wine and and call it a day. Antipasto also works well for a celebration. Hooray for simple meals!

Sliced soppressata, red onion and tomato on a painted platter with provolone, parmesan, kalamata olives, pepperoncini and fresh basil

Soppressata is pictured above. Ever heard of finocchiona? It’s another fantastic salami flavored with fennel seeds. Michael loves putting it on pizza instead of pepperoni. Imported Italian mortadella with pistachios is another that we enjoy. What are your favorite deli meats?

If you want to add some veggies, you can slice up some tomatoes or roast some cauliflower with red pepper flakes. Hey, Giardiniera counts too! (Italian pickled vegetables)

What happens when we have leftovers? It can go into the freezer unless I quickly find another use for them such as in this salad below. Zero waste cooking!

A pepper shooter stuffed with feta and prosciutto is the star of this antipasto salad

What’s your favorite no-cook simple meal?

What else can you do with leftover deli meats? Make a fabulous breakfast like eggs and salami or an Effortless Benedict.

Focus On Spicy, Almost Sausage

A few simple ingredients provide the easy answer of what to cook for dinner tonight.

Pasta is your answer for what to cook for dinner tonight. It’s easy! The possibilities are endless and you can hardly mess it up…as long as you don’t overcook it. I love it with sausage, but I don’t buy it often because I figure I can imitate its basic flavor in a healthier way if I desire it. Ground meat of any kind and some dried herbs and spices work rather well in my opinion. You can start cooking without a recipe by developing your intuition in the kitchen.

orecchiette and tomatoes with ground turkey on a white plate

Begin with browning your ground meat of choice (I used turkey) in a skillet with some olive oil. Add some minced garlic and some dried spices. In this case, I wanted to mimic the flavor of an Italian sausage, so I chose paprika, fennel, chile flakes, basil and oregano. I was in a spicy mood, so I used a lot of chile pepper flakes, but you could eliminate them and make it a sweet dish altogether. It’s up to you! Taste as you go and see what works. That’s the key to cooking without a recipe.

Season with salt and add some tomatoes. I had part of a can that was opened and a few fresh grape tomatoes, so I tossed the canned ones in to simmer with the meat while the pasta was cooking. Added the fresh ones in near the end just to warm them and add a different texture. Zero waste cooking using what I had on hand.

I told you this was your easy answer for what to cook for dinner tonight. Yes, grated parmesan on top will finish it off. As in Italy, a few quality ingredients combine for a simple meal that is sure to satisfy.

Ready for another fantastic pasta with ground turkey? Please read Tally Your Umami Savvy next to gain more confidence in cooking without a recipe.

Love Ya Lasagna

You can easily cook lasagna for dinner tonight. It’s a simple meal using a few basic ingredients.

I remember years ago that a friend called as I was preparing lasagna for dinner. When I told him what I was making, he was so impressed because he thought it to be an elaborate meal for a weekday. Hmm…lasagna is a casserole. As long as you have all the ingredients, it’s one of those simple meals you can make anytime.

Everyone loved my mother’s lasagna growing up, so I make it basically the same way…with a couple of minor alterations. These days we can buy no boil noodles, which really streamlines the process. Also, cottage cheese seemed to be the thing in the 70’s/80’s…not exactly sure why. I do prefer ricotta and fresh parmesan cheese…not the powdered stuff you shake out of the can.

Ingredients:

ground beef
marinara sauce
ricotta cheese
mozzarella cheese
parmesan cheese
lasagna noodles

I usually start with browning some ground beef and adding it to a quality jarred marinara sauce. But in this case, I didn’t have a ready made marinara. Simple enough to make my own. Put some diced tomatoes into the food processor and simmered in a pot with some sauteed garlic, dried basil, oregano and French thyme.

Mix the three cheeses together in a bowl, reserving some grated mozzarella for the top. I gotta tell ya, this has always been a favorite combination. I could eat a bowl full of ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan for dessert. So I make sure to save myself some! BTW, I was a tad short on the mozzarella, so I mixed in a little cheddar. What??? Yes, you can. No one noticed because I buy white cheddar when possible. Use your intuition and use what you have. Simple meals like this are the best when you start cooking without a recipe.

Cheddar?

A few years ago, visitors from Australia asked me why “our” cheese was orange. “What do you mean?” I tried to understand. They had ordered a cheese burger at a restaurant and were shocked when the cheese served them was orange. “Oh, it’s cheddar,” I replied, as if that explained everything. The Aussie raised his eyebrows and suggested, “American cows make orange milk?” Only then did I realize something so obvious that I would have never considered until a foreigner brought it to my attention. Obviously he was right and when I went home, I researched the subject. Indeed, Americans expect their cheddar to be a darker color because during this country’s infancy, adding color was a way to differentiate cheese made in America from that of the Brits. Our cows don’t produce orange milk obviously. So, I don’t have an issue with the added color per se. But buying a white cheese makes it easier to mix it with something else if needed in a pinch. I’m just saying…Think ahead and keep it simple.

Assembling Lasagna

It’s a pretty straight forward process. Put a little sauce in the bottom of the casserole dish so the noodles don’t stick. Put a layer of lasagna noodles down. Then cover with sauce. Then crumble some cheese on top. Another layer of noodles and repeat. You can make it with as many layers as you like and it’s up to you if you like more cheese or more sauce. Michael’s family are all about the sauce, so in this case I made a thin lasagna because I could see that I needed to put the remainder of sauce on top of the final layer before topping with mozzarella and parmesan. Cooking without a recipe means adjusting according to what you have on hand.

Cover and bake for about half an hour. You want the noodles to steam and everything to be hot and bubbly. Then remove the lid and cook an additional 5-10 minutes. Let it rest 15 minutes once removing from the oven. I know it’s difficult to wait because it smells so good, but there’s nothing worse than ruining an otherwise perfect lasagna by slopping it all over the plate because the cheese didn’t get a chance to set up.

Guess what! In addition to being simple and delicious, it’s even better the next day and it also freezes well like most casseroles. Simple meals like this are a win, win!

Find out why I sometimes used a jarred marinara by reading Cheater Sket.