(english) Childhood memories in the kitchen

Don’t know about you but I really like to prepare something that other people can enjoy.
Looking back I think it depends on my wonderful and numerous family.
When I was a child we used to be eight of us seated at the table and now many more The family enlarged and we are twenty-five . You can imagine all the fun and joy of our family reunions which are always held during holidays hence lunch and dinner with delicious dishes rich in tradition and flavors of the past.
I grew up in the perfect harmony between the pleasure for good food and passionate cooking.
The respect for good food,the search for quality and always fresh products, the pleasure for absolutely wholesome food of my dad perfectly blend with the skills and passion for cooking of my mom.
I watch her cooking and I realize how carefully she is in preparing everything. The way she prepares vegetables, how she cuts the meat not to speak how she makes the dough. Each ingredient is prepared as if it were a ritual all perfectly in order. Not too much salt or too little,just the right amount of oil all always perfectly combined and yet no cookbook and no scale Just Passion, insight experience and her love for us.

The recipe I propose today reminds me of childhood memories, of holidays, of my mom cooking and of pleasant smell spreading in the kitchen.
Smells bring with them memories: the bread baked in the wood oven,the non-tart tart for the out of town excursions that notwithstanding my efforts in trying to replicate it, it’s never like her tart.Then there is the famous sauce with small meatballs that she used to prepare for feast days LASAGNA. These meatball needs to be tiny and all the same size. Oh how many evenings spent preparing lasagna and meatballs. These days the grandchildren prepare the meatball when she cooks lasagna.

To prepare you will need
400 g of minced meat
200 g of breadcrumb (prepared by blending some slices of bread)
100 g of grated parmesan cheese
2 eggs
a bunch of parsley, finely chopped
a few drops of lemon

lot of patience 🙂

Mix all ingredients together and ….use patience 🙂 actually  if you have someone willing to help you it’s even better …..

To prepare the sauce:
1 carrot pieces
1 small onion
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1.5 l tomato sauce
salt
In a large saucepan place the oil, the diced carrot, onion cut in half, let heat slightly and add the tomato sauce. Let simmer about 30 minutes and then add the meatballs and simmer another 15 minutes. If the sauce seems too thick dilute it with a ladle of water, should not be too often.

Now that your sauce and is ready if you feel like it  you can try to prepare the pastry. I assure you that is not not that difficult , it depends on the time you have available and the desire to try.
You will need:
2 eggs and 200 g of flour:

put the flour on a work surface, make a well in the center, Put the eggs in the well add  a pinch of salt. Mix the ingredients and knead until dough is smooth and homogeneous. Let stand at least 15 minutes covered, so it does not dry, (it will be more easy to roll). Prepare the dough with a rolling pin or with the pasta machine.

To assemble your lasagna:
the sauce with meatballs
the dough
500 g of mozzarella cheese
200 g of grated Parmesan cheese (more or less, adjust  according to your taste)
cook the dough for 3 minutes in salted boiling water, roll on a tablecloth kitchen.
Put a couple of tablespoons of sauce into the pan and line the bottom with the dough, a tablespoon of meatballs, mozzarella and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. Cover with another pasta and continue until exhausted all the ingredients. Finish with a layer of pasta covered only with a few tablespoons of sauce, parmesan cheese and some butter (for a golden crust and deliciously crispy).
Bake in preheated oven at 200 C for 25 minutes, making sure not to burn the surface. Allow it to cool a little before you slice it, but serve it hot.

It is an elaborate dish but it’s not impossible.

To make these lasagna for 8-10 people you will need 1 hour for the  meatballs preparation 50 minutes for the sauce. Then you will need half an hour for the dough, 15 minutes to fill it and 30 minutes in the owen.

I assure you it’s worth, I invite you to try it, prepare it in a day of celebration for a special occasion, if you need some distraction for  few hours.  Be patient, slow down the pace of your day, no anxiety. Invite people you love to come over. It will be a good for stress relief , for your mind, your mood and a joy to the palate as well.
Cook for the pleasure of cooking and the pleasure of sharing

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