Lasagna

This week I made my lasagna recipe, which is my only savoury recipe from my collection. Although I mostly bake, there are a few meals that I used to cook for my family (usually lasagna or pasta). I started making this recipe because I wanted to eat lasagna that didn’t have ricotta cheese in it. I have always been a picky eater and was never a fan of the texture of ricotta. So I decided to make it in the way that I like.

Above is the recipe from my folder. I realized once I had already made it’s page in my new recipe book that there are some things that I usually add in that are not in the ingredients for this recipe. For example, I usually add in oregano and basil to the sauce before beginning the layering process. Although I’m disappointed that I didn’t think to add them in as ingredients, this serves as a good reminder to me to think about what has channged in my recipes since I started making them.

I started my process as usual: by cutting a piece of paper for the background and gluing it down. Then I wrote down the ingredients, instructions, and title of the recipe. For this page, I went to Michael’s to look for a patterned piece of paper. I have some background paper that could work but they are all lighter and mostly pink. I associate Lasagna with the colour red (maybe because of the tomato sauce), so I wanted to find a special piece of red paper.

Next, I worked on some drawings to add as decoration on the page. The first thing that I drew was a piece of lasagna. I tried my best, but I am no artist. It ended up looking more like a piece of cake to me, but hopefully because the recipe is named “Lasagna”, it will be clear. Then I started arranging the elements on the page and made some more drawings.

My next drawings were an onion, and a lasagna noodle. As opposed to my recipe last week, I was struggling to think of memories or associations that I have with this Lasagna that I could channel into my little drawings. So instead I just drew some of the ingredients.

The final image is of the finished lasagna (after I cut out a piece for my dinner). The lasagna turned out great and reminded me of home, which was the best part. I love this recipe because it’s simple and things can easily be changed, added in, or removed. For example, If you like ricotta cheese in your lasagna, you could add it as a layer. I have also experimented with adding different vegetables into the sauce like carrots and bell peppers, and for this most recent time, I added zucchini. I also imagine that it would work to change the ground beef for a different kind of meat. Or even make a vegetarian lasagna!

Stay tuned for next time, when I make my blueberry muffin recipe!

— Sofia 🎀