It’s An Italian Kind Of Day!

How many of you out there love PASTA as much as me?!?!?! In my opinion, there’s nothing like a warm pasta meal in the winter. Add some salad, bread and wine – I’m pretty much in heaven. Not to mention, pasta meals are so EASY to make and EASY to freeze! So for this cold, rainy week, I whipped up some of my favorite pasta meals and of course…. put them in the freezer. In the chaos of the day, I did not take pictures of my Baked Ziti. But I will happily put up some links for recipes on my Pinterest page .

Lasagna with Mushrooms

*Note – this recipe makes two 9×13 trays*

Ingredients:

1 onion, diced
1 package of portabella mushrooms, diced
butter or oil
2 cloves of garlic
2 boxes of no-cook lasagna noodles
2 teaspoons of parsley
2 teaspoons of basil
2 teaspoons of oregano
salt & pepper
3 jars of marinara sauce (or your favorite pasta sauce) *there is only 2 in the picture, but I discovered I needed more*
32 oz ricotta cheese
4 cups mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Directions:

Heat 2 tablespoons of butter OR oil in a saute pan on medium/low heat
Saute onion, mushrooms and garlic until tender – turn off heat to cool
In a seperate bowl, mix together the ricotta cheese, oregano, parsley, basil and parmasean cheese
In a separate bowl mix together pasta sauces and mushroom mixture – add salt and pepper if needed

Time to layer the Lasagna!

Put a small amount of sauce on the bottom of the pan
Place 3 noodles across the pan (leave some space in between, the noodles will expand)
Layer the top of noodles with cheese mixture
Add sauce mixture on top
Sprinkle Mozzarella cheese on top
Layer with noodles and repeat.
When you get to the last layer sprinkle the top with mozzarella and parmesan cheese
Cover with foil and plastic wrap to freeze OR bake covered at 350 for 40 min until bubbly

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Eggplant Parmesan

*Makes two 8×8 trays*

Ingredients:

2 large eggplants
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup parmasean cheese
2 eggs
2 tablespoons water
2 cups mozarella cheese
2 jars pasta sauce
Vegetable oil

Directions:

Slice eggplant in 1/2 inch slices – lay out on paper towel and sprinkle with salt. Let sit for 20 min.
Mix egg and water in a bowl
Mix breadcrumbs and parmasean cheese in seperate bowl (I like to use a pie plate)
Heat oil in saute pan (enough for the eggplant to float when fried)
Dip eggplant in egg mixture, then breadcrumb mixture
Fry in oil on both sides until golden and eggplant is tender – then transfer to paper towel to soak up oil
Once eggplant it cooked, begin to layer in pan – sauce, eggplant (overlapping), sauce, mozzarella cheese. Layer 2 times.
Cover with foil and plastic wrap to freeze OR bake covered at 350 for 30 minutes