(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . What's For Dinner? v.18.13: Lasagna Soup [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-09-30 What’s for Dinner? is a Saturday evening get-together where friends share recipes, talk about good food and help others answer culinary questions. We welcome you to our virtual table every Saturday evening 4:30 PT/7:30 ET. If you would like to write a post for an upcoming date just send a message to ninkasi23! So yeah, this is about lasagna soup, but I also want to highlight a memory. So first the memory. The other day I was shopping and found some pork steaks on sale. And I was taken back to something both my parents used to make. Super simple, and we all loved it. What was it? Baked pork steaks with onions, served with mashed potatoes and gravy. But naturally, I went for a combination of super cheap and foodie bougie. First I roasted a head of garlic. It came out perfect, and the cloves just popped out. While the garlic was roasting, I sliced an onion. A GIANT sized onion. Almost softball sized. What can I say? I only cook once a week, and a bag of regular sized onions would go bad after a few weeks, and the only onions sold individually are the giants. Anyway, I put some chicken broth in the bottom of my roaster, most of the onions, then seasoned my pork steaks with salt and a LOT of pepper (just like dad used to like) and put the rest of the onions on top. Into a 350 degree F oven for about an hour and a half. Then I browned mushrooms in a lot of butter, added flour, and made a gravy using beef stock. For the mashed potatoes, I used instant with a little extra butter, and whisked in the garlic when they were done. It didn’t fully blend, so I had little garlic nuggets scattered about. Anyway, the pork came out looking so good. I added some of the drippings and most of the onions into the gravy. Such memory. So good. And I remembered that for the longest time, I could not stand the texture of the cooked onions. Now I love them. This is a super easy recipe with minimal chopping. It’s a good option for a weeknight meal. But this trip down memory lane is not why you came. You came for lasagna soup. Evidently there are many recipes out there since it’s become almost a viral trend. But as always, the best comes from Chef John: So, since I didn’t have jarred sauce, I made my own. Sautee shallot and garlic, then add red pepper flake, some salt, Italian seasoning (I couldn’t find any fresh basil) and both tomato and anchovy paste What I did have instead of sauce was passata. I added it, and some water to get out the last bits in the jar, brought it up to a simmer then let it thicken for like 20 minutes or so. Add S&P to taste, et voila! Marinara. I used Stephen Cusato’s Weekday Sauce as the base But before I started the sauce, I par boiled the lasagna noodles and placed them in a bowl of very cold water. As the sauce was simmering, I put them on a parchment lined sheet, then brushed them with butter, making sure to get between the noodles. That went into a 425 degree oven for like 15-20 minutes. Why this step? To make the crunchy edge bits that everyone loves in a lasagna. I could have let them gone a few minutes and rotated my sheet pan, but as you can see, there’s lots of crispiness. Next came putting everything together. I browned ground beef and sweet Italian sausage in my Dutch oven. Then I added onion, garlic, both tomato and anchovy paste, S&P, red pepper flake, and Italian seasoning. I cooked that then in went the marinara and some chicken broth and let it simmer for around an hour. After that, I added the noodles and boiled them for like 10 minutes. The result is the picture at the very top of the diary. Now this is where people would stop if they were going to serve it immediately. This was meals for the upcoming week, so I had to do things differently. I made my cheese mix of ricotta, mozzarella, and pecorino Romano and stirred it directly into the soup instead of serving it as a garnish on top. This of course turned the soup super thick and the color of a vodka cream sauce. I used a LOT of cheese. The final result was almost a stew or a very wet regular lasagna. But oh, was it good. So, in conclusion, I love making new and interesting recipes, but every once in a while I’ll break out the nostalgia and make stuff like my parents used to make for us and have happy memories. Tonight’s WFD is another new Chef John creation: Lentil “Gumbo” Soup. And yes, if there’s an open date between now and Christmas Eve, I’ll tell you all about it. So, in addition to WFD at your place tonight, what’s a food you cook that takes you back to your folks cooking for you? 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