Lol, if you haven’t had it made with cottage cheese, it probably does seem rather scandalous!
Once you add egg and parsley to it, it really tastes just fine. To me, the only difference is the texture. I didn’t know about the reduced calories and fat until two days ago, when I found the article about the pros/cons.
All the Italians will be aghast but my mil had a very old better homes and gardens recipe. Calls for cottage cheese and cubed Swiss cheese. That is the version my husband likes because he likes how his mom made everything lol!
That’s how I make mine. Although I usually use ziti noodles and just mix everything up.
My daughter who is married to a man of Italian descent, hers is very different. Very cheesy, ricotta, very little meat sauce, the red sauce is ladled on top after baking.
It’s very good except that my daughter eats meat free most of the time and now uses impossible meat. They think it tastes just like meat, spoiler alert it doesn’t and is very salty. It’s all good because I’m not cooking!
Oh another no-no for me - egg in lasagna - never
Why does she bother with fake meat? I’ve never mixed dairy with Me products but no one seems to miss the meat.
That’s a good suggestion. I think it would be better.
Texture is definitely different with cottage cheese, and my husband prefers ricotta. Since I was raised with lasagna (my mother’s go-to for church pot luck dinners) made with cottage cheese, I like it either way. I do find the cottage cheese easier to spread.
I always put an egg in the ricotta mixture. Ive know a couple of second generation Italian Americans who put hard boiled eggs in lasagna, I think it’s a Sicilian thing.
Yes, I put an egg in the cheese mixture as well.
Who else has practiced the “bachelor” method of making 1 huge pot of meat sauce and from that base have pasta, lasagna and chicken parm (shake and bake of course) as menu items for the week?
We always do this. When we make a big pot of meat sauce - we turn it into 2 distinct meals - first meal isjust the meatballs in the sauce (with a nice Italian bread) then the second meal is pasta with the rest of the sauce.
My 22 year old browns a pound of beef, mixes with a box of cooked pasta and a jar of sauce. But it lasts him one dinner and maybe one lunch lol.
I’ve never made sauce with ground beef, just with meatballs, sausage, Braciole, or just marinara. I didn’t like ground beef in it as a kid.
We do two styles of meat sauce - one with meatballs and possibly other meats (like braciole) and one that is a quick Bolognese (using ground beef).
We do this (the cook a base once, turn into multiple things) with chicken. Specifically, the freakishly huge rotisserie chicken from Costco. Night one is actual rotisserie chicken. Night two is chicken enchiladas, “pulling” chicken for the remains. If I only make a small dish of enchiladas, there’s enough for night three - either chicken salad sandwiches or mix with BBQ and have chicken BBQ sliders or make chicken soup with the carcass and leftover chicken pieces.
(Sorry to sidetrack from Lasagna. And to stay on topic - we make a giant thing of meat sauce. I’m usually not patient enough to make lasagna with it, but we’ll do pasta/meat sauce for dinner, then a sort of ziti with meat sauce casserole type thing that I can throw the extra in and put in the freezer to pull out whenever. I’m just not patient enough to layer nicely with pasta noodles, so I mix it all together.)