Mama Fresina's Elena Piccola Lasagna

Traditional and a staple recipe. This is the epitomy of "Nonna's" lasagna. Lasagna featured on John Folse’s cooking show “A Taste of Louisiana” and captures the true authentic flavor of this old time recipe.

Fun Fact

Originally, the word lasagna was used to describe a pot in which food was being cooked rather than the pasta itself. Our Elena Piccola just means "Small" lasagna, meaning it is not as wide as a normal sheet of lasagna and therefore capture more sauce. Lasagna recipes have been around for ages, dating back to as early as the thirteenth century. Today, lasagnas come in all kinds of varieties from veggies and cream sauces to traditional sauce and cheese lasagnas as well as meat lasagnas.

45 Min | Serves 6

Ingredients

24 oz D’Agostino Levigato Sauce

1 pkg D’Agostino Elena Piccola

1/2 cup water

1/2 lb Ricotta cheese

1/2 lb Mozzarella cheese

1 1/2 cups Romano cheese

3/4 lb ground round or sirloin

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 small onion, chopped

2 tbl seasoned bread crumbs

1 large egg

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Add onion, garlic cloves, bread crumbs, egg, salt and pepper into meat. Mix well by hand. In a skillet cook meat mixture until no longer pink. Pour pasta sauce into a medium size pot and bring to a boil. Add meat to mixture and simmer for 10 minutes.

Preheat oven at 400 degrees.

Spread 1/2 of the sauce mixture on bottom of a lasagna pan. On top of the sauce mixture, arrange a layer of Elena Piccola Pasta side by side and place another piece in the center of the two layers. Spread 1/2 of the Ricotta cheese over the pasta layers (stir a small amount of sauce mixture into Ricotta cheese to make it easier to spread).

Sprinkle 1/2 of the grated Tolibia Romano and 1/2 of the shredded Mozzarella cheese on top of Ricotta spread. Pour remaining sauce mixture over cheese. Add another layer of Elena Piccola Pasta. Spread remainder of Ricotta cheese over pasta and sprinkle remaining 1/2 of grated Romano cheese over pasta.

Cover lasagna pan with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove foil, turn oven to 475 degrees. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 of shredded Mozzarella cheese evenly on top. Bake 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and browned on the edges. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting the squares.

* If serving the next day, remove when ready, set aside to cool, cover with foil and place in fridge. When ready place in 350 degree oven still covered for approximately 20 minutes and serve.

Buon Appetito!

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