If I ever get really bored and decide to collate my recipes into a cookbook that my mother, sister, godmother, and maybe a couple friends will buy...I think it will be called: A Girl, A Skillet, and A Slow Cooker.
Poor Man's Lasagna is misc. tomato sauce, one, maybe two types of cheese, ground meat product, and noodles. So how does one make that expensive, delete misc tomato sauce and add homemade red pepper sauce.
Ingredients:
5 large red peppers
1/2 small yellow or white onion
2 small Roma Tomatoes (optional)
25 basil leaves
2 cloves garlic
6 oz. shredded mozzarella*
1/2 pound hot Italian ground pork*
1/4 tsp sea salt**
1/2 tsp ground pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
12-15 lasagna noodles
Serves 8
1***. Cook Italian Pork in skillet. Cook all the way through. It is pork, you do not want to leave it to the slow cook gods when you are trying not to over cook noodles.
2***. Remove pork from skillet and leave a small amount of pork fat in skillet (you may want to place the pork in the refrigerator during steps 3&4.)
3. Cut up red pepper (it can be big chunks theses are headed to a food processor).
4. In a skillet, mix/cook red pepper, olive oil, salt, pepper, 1/4 of small onion, 10 basil leaves and 2 cloves of garlic over medium low heat. Stir periodically for about 30-40 min. The peppers will not be all the way cooked - that is OK.
5. Let peppers cool a bit. Transfer to a food processor and process until about the consistency of sauce (no chunks). It will be more watery than sauce b/c there is no paste. That is good, we need the water to cook the noodles.
6. Slice the Roma tomatoes very thin and chop remaining 1/4 onion.
7. Layer. I had four layers if you count the top, which I did not include meat. It will vary for you depending on the size of your slow cooker and your lasagna noodle breaking skills (mine were not that great). That being said divide the pork into three portions. Divide sauce into four portions, plus a little bit on the side for the bottom. Divide cheese into four portions, I would recommend saving half of the cheese for the last layer to be added in the last 15 minutes or so.
7.1 Place the little bit of sauce on bottom of slow cooker.
7.2 Place noodles on top (break noodles to fit).
7.3 Cover in one portion of sauce. Sprinkle one portion of pork. Tear five leaves of basil and sprinkle (I only did this on two layers). Add a bit of the onion. Add a few slices of tomatoes (tomato slices I used sparingly and placed in different spots on each layer). Cover with one portion of cheese. Repeat.
7.4 Top layer - cover in sauce. Strategically place remaining basil leaves and tomatoes to be pretty. Only use half the cheese. Add the last of the cheese when there is only 15min remaining.
8. Cook on low for 3-4 hours. (The top layer of noodles may not look done, they are edible. To check if done place knife through lasagna, should cut nicely).
*I don't think I need to mention this - but read the ingredient label - there is no need to have phosphorus or potato starch additives in your cheese and pork. There are enough natural occurring phosphorus and adding calcium phosphate to cheese is an oxymoron. Also, I may be lucky enough to have pork for sale that does not have added salt, if you are not, you may want to make your own hot Italian seasoned ground pork.
**You don't really need to add the sea salt if you do not wish. All the salt is for is to help bring out the water in the peppers. As far as taste goes, there is enough salt in the mozzarella for the actual lasagna.
***You can do Step 1 after Step 4 and throw away all the pork fat in step 2 if you prefer - I like pork fat, I realize not everyone may enjoy pork fat...you only live once, I'd recommend using pork fat.
****You are responsible for understanding the nutritional and mineral content of the food you consume. Not me, which is why it is not posted. I do not claim that any of the recipes in this blog necessarily meet the renal diet restrictions. I am NOT a certified dietitian.
