Tasty Lasagna Tuesday
My husband and I spent seven years living in the UAE, building a life, raising our children, and making so many memories. I was teaching when we first moved there and would later become Head of School. During one season of those years, though, the expenses just seemed to keep piling up and it was hard to catch up. We had four children in private school at the time, along with all the regular expenses of raising a family, and we could use a little extra income.
My friends were always complimenting my lasagna and telling me it was the best lasagna ever, so one day I decided to put those compliments to work. And that is how Tasty Lasagna Tuesday was born.
What made this lasagna especially good was something I discovered after moving to the UAE. I went looking for ricotta cheese one day and could not find it. At the cheese counter, though, there were all these creamy cheeses that looked like they might work. I started sampling them and discovered labneh. Plain labneh, labneh with black seeds, labneh with za’atar. Eventually, I tried them all in my lasagna, and they were absolutely fantastic.
Paired with seasoned kefta, lots of sauce, mozzarella, and a little pesto on top, it became the lasagna my friends and family knew and loved.
So here it is, the Tasty Lasagna Tuesday recipe. And if you make it, please come back and tell me how you and your loved ones liked it.
Tasty Lasagna Tuesday
You’ll need:
Lasagna noodles, either oven-ready (my choice) or the kind you need to boil
Ground lamb or beef kefta
Olive oil
Fresh garlic, minced
Garlic powder
Salt and black pepper, as needed
Your favorite pasta sauce
Labneh
Mozzarella cheese
Pesto
Make the Meat Sauce
Go to your favorite halal meat store. I say halal meat store because that is the only kind of meat store I know about, LOL. If you have an Arab meat market near you, there is a good chance they will have kefta, which is ground lamb or beef that has already been mixed with herbs and spices. I usually used lamb, but beef works beautifully too.
Add a little olive oil to a pan and begin browning the kefta. The texture may be a little chunkier than regular ground meat because of the herbs and spices ground into it, and that is exactly how I like it. Taste the meat before adding much seasoning because your butcher may have already done most of the work for you. I usually add freshly minced garlic, a little garlic powder, and salt and pepper only if it needs it.
Once the meat is cooked, add your favorite pasta sauce and let everything simmer together until you see some gentle bubbling and the sauce begins to thicken.
Layer the Lasagna
Spread a little meat sauce across the bottom of your baking dish.
Add a layer of lasagna noodles.
Cover the noodles generously with meat sauce. I like my lasagna really saucy.
Add large dollops of labneh across the sauce.
Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the top.
Continue layering noodles, meat sauce, labneh, and mozzarella until your dish is filled.
For the final layer, add noodles followed by plenty of sauce and mozzarella. Add a few dollops of labneh across the top and finish with small dollops of pesto.
Bake
Cover the lasagna with foil and bake for about 45 minutes. Check the center with a knife or fork. It should slide through easily and the noodles should be completely tender.
Remove the foil and bake for another 15 minutes, allowing the cheese on top to get a little color.
Then take it out, let it settle for a few minutes, and enjoy.
Sending special love to all my friends and family who supported Tasty Lasagna Tuesday, ordered these lasagnas, and told me again and again how much they loved them. This recipe will always remind me of our years in the UAE, feeding my family, and finding creative ways to make things work.