Hank's Lasagna

OK, I love Italian food but lasagna isn't my favorite.  Don't get me wrong, I like it, but given the option I will usually go for some other variation of pasta, meat/veggies, and cheese.  However, if none of you have noticed, it's gotten cold (!!) and last Thursday I was seized with the inspiration to make lasagna.  Usually I will look up a recipe in a cookbook or online but I knew that I had to call Hank for this one.  Hank is a great experimenter in the kitchen and our styles are radically different but he also has several "go-to" recipes and lasagna is one of them.  So, I called Hank to get a little refresher course on lasagna a la Hank and here's what I learned:

• 1st, you make a bechamel (once again, a wonderful, and easy, base for a lot of great recipes) with butter, flour, and milk.  I seasoned mine with salt, pepper, and a teeny tiny bit of nutmeg.  Then you add your ricotta cheese to the bechamel.  For all of you in the cottage cheese camp, I cannot go there and I remain firmly in the ricotta camp.

• In the meantime, get the meat sauce going as well.  I made mine with onion, garlic, red bellpepper, tomato sauce, ground beef, some sundried tomato chicken sausage that I had in the freezer, and spinach.  I don't really like spinach in my lasagna but I find that it's much better (read:  less noticeable and offensive) if you mix it in with the meat sauce. Alternatively, my mom mixes hers with the cheese which is also very acceptable (it is still spinach, after all).  Add secret herbs and spices till your heart's content.  Hank did make sure to remind me that the most important thing when making lasagna is that each individual component is well seasoned.

• Layer meat sauce, cheese mixture, and lasagna noodles in the pan.  For those of you in the uncooked noodles camp, I also can't go there for this lasagna.  In some lasagnas I think that uncooked noodles work ok but not in this one.  And, yes, it's an extra step and an extra dirty pot but as long as you're spending the time in the kitchen making everything else, I don't think it takes that much extra work or time in the long run.  Repeat the layering process as space in your pan will allow.  Make sure that you finish with sauce and then top with cheese.  I think that mozzarella or provolone in standard.

• The verdict:  it made a ton of lasagna but I was sort of aiming for that because I wanted Dudley to be able to have leftovers while I was in Boston with my parents and he was watching Lucy for me.  If it were truly singleton lasagna I'd cut the recipe down a lot.  However, as you may have noticed, there isn't really a recipe per se.  That's standard with Hank recipes, by the way.  It's very Amelia Bedelia, a little of this and a pinch of that and there you go!  I liked it as much as I like lasagna and I wouldn't change a thing! Hank dominates the lasagna!