Beef and Sausage Lasagne

After getting hold of the copy of Gourmet from the library, I knew I want a copy of the book myself. But (there is always a "but"!) since space restriction is a big issue these days, I thought maybe it would be a wise idea to sample some of the recipes first before buying it. I did the same with JOC and never looked back since.

So I jotted down 4 recipes to try this week, and the first was this lasagne. The first thing I noticed when going through the recipe was that it calls for many ingredients, 14 actually, excluding salt and pepper (see below for the complete list). This was one of the sticking point raised by the reviewers of the book, and the other complaint being that this book tends to use ingredients that cost a bit more than the regular version.

A quick punching of the calculator shows this:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed - $5.34
1/2 pound ground beef chuck - $2.50
1/2 pound ground veal - $2.56
2 (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes in juice, chopped and juice reserved - $7.00
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 pound fresh ricotta - $16.25
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (1 1/2 ounces) - $13.75
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley - $0.75
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
16 oven-ready (“no-boil”) lasagna noodles (two 9-ounce packages) - $7.70
1/4 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (3/4 ounce)
1/2 pound fresh mozzarella, coarsely grated - $6.35

Grand total: $62.20 (for 10 servings), this is excluding items that are already in my pantry.

So after blowing a week's worth of grocery on this meal, how does it taste?

Meaty, homey and every bite filled with soft cheese. This is what I would call a soul satisfying lasagne.