I Hate that I Love Cooking with Onions: Lasagna Night!

          First of all, let me just explain the title of this post. I love onions and I love cooking with them, almost as much as I love cooking with garlic; however, they hate me, specifically, my eyes. I don't just tear up, my eyes BURN within minutes of beginning to chop that wonderfully strong, smelly vegetable. Of course they were going to go in the lasagna tonight, so the eyes were on fire. But, just as 'pain is beauty,' I guess 'pain is delicious cooking'? But, I digress.

          Since poor J will still be in his cast for a while longer (hopefully only the hip-cast till Thursday), he stayed home from school again today, so I spent the day with him and baby girl. After lunch, while J was watching TV and playing with the iPad for a bit, I started to prepare dinner for later so I wouldn't have to rush to get everything done this evening, since I had to pick M up from school in the bakfiets (another very Dutch thing: a bike with a front car compartment for carrying up to four children/groceries, etc.).

          I gathered all of my ingredients. I couldn't just do simple lasagna with sauce, meat, cheese, and noodles. I had to spice it up a bit with lots of spices and veggies. Though just plain ole lasagna, like the kind we make in a Dutch oven over the campfire every year at summer girl scout camp, is good too. 

          Then I chopped all my vegetables. If you're like me and onions set your eyes aflame, you'll need to chop your onions efficiently as to minimize exposure time. If you haven't figured out how to do this, my method is the quickest I've found yet. Note: I sometimes waste a bit of the outer layer of the onion because i simply pull it all off instead of taking forever to meticulously peel the onion. First, I chop the ends of the onion off and peel it. Then, I chop the onion in half so that each half can lie flat when I ben to chop it. Next, I slice the onion length wise, being careful to keep the slices together so as to easily slice in the opposite direction. Then, I hold the slices together and slice width wise. Since onions are already in layers, this is all you have to do to chop them as fine as you want. 

          Once all of my vegetables were chopped, I added them to a skillet with some olive oil and cooked them down, adding the parsley, green onions, and garlic after the onions, tomatoes, and zucchini had cooked down a bit. 

          If you don't own a garlic press, I suggest purchasing one. SO much easier than finely chopping the garlic. I never had one before this year because it's not something a cheap college student tends to buy (though I did buy springform and bundt pans... I'm pretty sure normal college students don't buy those either...) and I'm not really sure why my daddy never bought one. 

         

          On the topic of how to easily peel and chop things, it's a lot easier to peel garlic if you first chop the ends of the clove off, then place the clove under the flat of a knife and hit the flat of the knife with the heel of your hand one good time. The skin will then pretty much just fall off. 

          After all the vegetables were cooked down until soft, I added and browned the ground beef. I also added lots of salt, pepper, onion powder, basil, and garlic powder. Garlic powder is my FAVORITE thing to use in my cooking. I go through a ton of it. I love really strong flavors. If you don't, just don't use as much, obviously. 

                                    

          I then added the spaghetti sauce and a bit more salt and garlic powder.    

  

                                   

          Next, I layered the lasagna in the casserole dish. ALWAYS do sauce first on the bottom or the noodles/cheese will stick to the bottom of the pan: a mess you don't want to deal with scrubbing up. I did meat sauce, noodles (uncooked, instant noodles), shredded cheese (at home I would use mozerella, here the host family buys something called 30+ cheese, which tastes a little bit like a cross between parmesan and cheddar to me), then repeat. 

          When I got to the top, I ran out of meat sauce and I wanted another layer of sauce on the top, so I mixed a can of tomato paste we had in the cabinet with hot water from the instant boiling water tap (a very convenient appliance, I might add), salt, pepper, onion powder, basil, and, of course, garlic powder. I spread that over the top layer of pasta, then sprinkled the remaining 30+ cheese, along with some grated parmesan over the top. 

 

          I then covered it in tin foil. Later, once J, K, and I got back from picking up M from school, I gave them a snack and then preheated the oven and baked the lasagna, still covered with the tin foil, at 350° F/180° C (European ovens, as well as all other temperature gauges, are in Celsius) for about 35 minutes. Finally, I removed the tin foil and baked for an additional 10 minutes until the cheese on top browned slightly. 

          And viola! Lekker! The kids loved it and I'm sure I'll find out soon how the host parents liked it. I liked how it turned out. The real tomatoes and zucchini gave it a nice fresh taste and the garlic and cheese just made it delicious. 

           I originally wanted to add ricotta or another type of cheese as well, but since I'm home this week with J and his broken leg, I was unable to go to the Albert Heijn (Dutch big chain grocery store) this week, and I forgot to ask F to pick it up when she did the shopping. I think it turned out well enough without the additional cheese, though! 

          Poor J wanted to help clean up, but his leg is still keeping him from doing too much. He sat on the counter and helped me wipe them down though! Such a big helper! 

          That's about it for my second post! I won't post every day, but I will be trying to as often as possible. Hope you continue to read and enjoy my food/au pair blog! 

Recipe:

Fresh and Easy Lasagna

Ingredients: 

- 1 pkg. uncooked, instant lasagna noodles

- 1 lb. ground beef

- 1 large can/jar of spaghetti sauce

- 1 pkg. shredded cheese (mozerella or of your choosing)

- grated parmesan cheese (to taste)

- 2 medium yellow onions

- 1 zucchini 

- 8 (or so) cherry tomatoes 

- fresh basil

- 3 green onions

- 3 cloves of garlic (or to taste)

- olive oil

- tomato paste

- salt & pepper (to taste)

- garlic powder, onion powder, and basil (to taste) 

Directions:

1. Chop all vegetables finely.

2. Sauté onions, zucchini, and tomatoes in olive oil over medium heat until soft.

3. Add green onions, garlic, and parsley and sauté until the garlic is fragrant (about 30 seconds).

4. Add ground beef and brown.

5. Add seasonings to taste.

6. Combine beef and vegetables with pasta sauce. 

7. Layer casserole dish with meat sauce, pasta, and cheese, in that order, repeating until you have a final layer of pasta on top.

8. Combine tomato paste with hot water and season to taste.

9. Spread mixture over top layer of pasta.

10. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and parmesan. 

11. Cover with foil and bake at 350°F/180°C for 35 minutes.

12. Remove foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until parmesan begins to brown.