Many of you in the fitblr community have been trying this Paleo Lasagna recipe that's being traded back and forth. I got mine from Billdoeslife, but I'm pretty sure it's the same one everyone has by now. Everyone raves about how delicious it is, but I have to be honest, it may taste good, but it wasn't looking too appetizing to me. First of all, I never saw anyone cutting their zucchini the long way, like a lasagna noodle. They were cutting them into little circles. Doesn't change the taste obviously, but if I'm gonna eat lasagna, I want LASAGNA! So I decided to make my own version and see if I can improve on it some.
The best lasagna I ever tasted, Nona (Grandma) Elvira's Lasagna from the LA restaurant Angelini Osteria, had a meat mixture of ground beef, veal, and chicken livers ("Chicken livers, dude, please, you're not at Katz's Deli anymore, I thought you loved Italian food!"). Relax, chicken livers is very Italian, the grandmother who created that lasagna dish was from Northern Italy. Besides, I'm never against trying something new whether I fail or not. Plus, I've been saving chicken livers in the freezer, leftover from all those Friday night roast chickens I've made this past year, and they have to get used eventually. Anyway, I took a combination of things I loved from Nona Elvira's recipe, and parts from the Paleo Lasagna recipe. My meat mixture was beef, pork, and chicken livers.
Let's talk about the pork for a moment. The Paleo Lasagna recipe calls for "Italian Sausage." Well, I know I'm more hard core than a lot of you tumblr cavemen when it comes to salt, and if an organic sausage exists on the market without added salt, then I haven't found it yet. So I make my own (click for recipe). In this case, most of the ingredients I make my sausage with was already in the sauce, so I just added fennel seeds to the whole mixture (or "ragu"), along with the other herbs, spices, and goodies (all ingredients, all organic, all the time):
1/2 pound Grass Fed Beef
1/2 pound Organic Ground Pork
1/2 pound Organic Chicken Livers
Fennel Seed (I don't measure the rest of the crap, I just go by feel)
Fresh Basil
Fresh Oregano
Garlic
Onion
Mushrooms
Celery
Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
Black Pepper
Like the Paleo recipe, I sauteed the veggies first, then browned the meat with it together. I added a can of that tomato paste, and a jar of those strained tomatoes I've told you about before (see: Ten Condiments). Ragu, done.
I took some zucchini and, using a mandolin slicer, I cut them the long way. I also sliced some eggplant (I bought extra, so I can try Susie's pizza recipe!), and made the bottom layer with that to give it some bulk, and added flavor! Layer of eggplant, layer of ragu, layer of zucchini, layer of ragu, topped with a layer of whatever zucchini and eggplant I had left. Then a thin, light spread of ragu for color.
But still, I'm not happy. Lasagna is not lasagna without cheese! Well, then, I'm f@#$%*! But I used my best kitchen tool (the Internet) and found a paleo mock parmesan cheese recipe! I don't know if this will work, but it's worth a shot! All it's made from is:
1 cup Brazil Nuts
2 Cloves Garlic
Throw it into the food processor until it's fluffy like parmesan cheese, and that's it! Hmm, looks good. Let's taste. Tastes good! Not like cheese, but the texture is right, and the raw garlic chopped so finely gives it a great flavor! Okay, I just tried toasting some, and it tastes too much like nuts now, so let's go with raw!
Well, the lasagna is done, and I've sprinkled the Paleo Parmesan on it. Take a look (sorry, I already cut into it before taking a photo):
Here, you can really see the layers with this cross section:
Not bad. Still... I love mozzarella. F@#$%* again! Okay, let's try one last thing. I saw Tinaeatsdonuts eating some leftover Paleo Lasagna the other day with an egg on top! Okay, it wasn't the best looking thing in the world, but like Anthony Bourdain says, "I'm a total egg slut." Or maybe he said "egg whore." Either way, put an egg on almost anything and I'll like it. So Tina inspired me to try to use a sunny side egg, with the yolk broken at the end, as an alternative to mozzarella. I mean, it's rich, creamy, firm, and white, so let's give it a shot. Plus, I was encouraged that Susie's pizza came out well, also using egg as a cheese substitute. I cooked an egg, threw it on a slice, added some more Paleo Parmesan, and this is how it looked:
Not bad. Kind of, sort of, maybe with squinting, looks like traditional lasagna. Or maybe it looks just as crappy as everyone else's and I'm in major denial. Whatever, let's taste it already! By now, I'm starved, so I'll have one slice with the egg, and one without as a taste test:
Tastes.... good. Great? Eh. In retrospect, I would have either grilled the eggplant first to bring out the flavor more, or skipped it altogether and just went with zucchini. But the chicken liver is a nice subtle difference, it blends in nicely with the rest of the meat. But if I didn't have chicken liver in the house, I probably wouldn't have added it, and probably won't again in the future, especially if I'm looking for a more traditional flavor. The egg? I tasted a slice both with and without the egg, and although the egg adds texture, the taste takes away from the lasagna flavor a little too much for my taste.
But the Paleo Parmesan is a keeper! Truthfully, the lasagna is very flavorful, but without the heavy cheese presence normally associated with lasagna, and with the work involved in both cooking AND cleaning up afterwards, I think I'd rather just have the meat sauce with my fauxghetti, with the Paleo Parmesan sprinkled on top.
That's just one caveman's opinion. But hey, I gave it a try, and I think I at least improved on the looks of the dish. That's one small step for caveman, one giant Ugga-Bugga for caveman kind.
The best lasagna I ever tasted, Nona (Grandma) Elvira's Lasagna from the LA restaurant Angelini Osteria, had a meat mixture of ground beef, veal, and chicken livers ("Chicken livers, dude, please, you're not at Katz's Deli anymore, I thought you loved Italian food!"). Relax, chicken livers is very Italian, the grandmother who created that lasagna dish was from Northern Italy. Besides, I'm never against trying something new whether I fail or not. Plus, I've been saving chicken livers in the freezer, leftover from all those Friday night roast chickens I've made this past year, and they have to get used eventually. Anyway, I took a combination of things I loved from Nona Elvira's recipe, and parts from the Paleo Lasagna recipe. My meat mixture was beef, pork, and chicken livers.
Let's talk about the pork for a moment. The Paleo Lasagna recipe calls for "Italian Sausage." Well, I know I'm more hard core than a lot of you tumblr cavemen when it comes to salt, and if an organic sausage exists on the market without added salt, then I haven't found it yet. So I make my own (click for recipe). In this case, most of the ingredients I make my sausage with was already in the sauce, so I just added fennel seeds to the whole mixture (or "ragu"), along with the other herbs, spices, and goodies (all ingredients, all organic, all the time):
1/2 pound Grass Fed Beef
1/2 pound Organic Ground Pork
1/2 pound Organic Chicken Livers
Fennel Seed (I don't measure the rest of the crap, I just go by feel)
Fresh Basil
Fresh Oregano
Garlic
Onion
Mushrooms
Celery
Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
Black Pepper
Like the Paleo recipe, I sauteed the veggies first, then browned the meat with it together. I added a can of that tomato paste, and a jar of those strained tomatoes I've told you about before (see: Ten Condiments). Ragu, done.
I took some zucchini and, using a mandolin slicer, I cut them the long way. I also sliced some eggplant (I bought extra, so I can try Susie's pizza recipe!), and made the bottom layer with that to give it some bulk, and added flavor! Layer of eggplant, layer of ragu, layer of zucchini, layer of ragu, topped with a layer of whatever zucchini and eggplant I had left. Then a thin, light spread of ragu for color.
But still, I'm not happy. Lasagna is not lasagna without cheese! Well, then, I'm f@#$%*! But I used my best kitchen tool (the Internet) and found a paleo mock parmesan cheese recipe! I don't know if this will work, but it's worth a shot! All it's made from is:
1 cup Brazil Nuts
2 Cloves Garlic
Throw it into the food processor until it's fluffy like parmesan cheese, and that's it! Hmm, looks good. Let's taste. Tastes good! Not like cheese, but the texture is right, and the raw garlic chopped so finely gives it a great flavor! Okay, I just tried toasting some, and it tastes too much like nuts now, so let's go with raw!
Well, the lasagna is done, and I've sprinkled the Paleo Parmesan on it. Take a look (sorry, I already cut into it before taking a photo):
Here, you can really see the layers with this cross section:
Not bad. Still... I love mozzarella. F@#$%* again! Okay, let's try one last thing. I saw Tinaeatsdonuts eating some leftover Paleo Lasagna the other day with an egg on top! Okay, it wasn't the best looking thing in the world, but like Anthony Bourdain says, "I'm a total egg slut." Or maybe he said "egg whore." Either way, put an egg on almost anything and I'll like it. So Tina inspired me to try to use a sunny side egg, with the yolk broken at the end, as an alternative to mozzarella. I mean, it's rich, creamy, firm, and white, so let's give it a shot. Plus, I was encouraged that Susie's pizza came out well, also using egg as a cheese substitute. I cooked an egg, threw it on a slice, added some more Paleo Parmesan, and this is how it looked:
Not bad. Kind of, sort of, maybe with squinting, looks like traditional lasagna. Or maybe it looks just as crappy as everyone else's and I'm in major denial. Whatever, let's taste it already! By now, I'm starved, so I'll have one slice with the egg, and one without as a taste test:
Tastes.... good. Great? Eh. In retrospect, I would have either grilled the eggplant first to bring out the flavor more, or skipped it altogether and just went with zucchini. But the chicken liver is a nice subtle difference, it blends in nicely with the rest of the meat. But if I didn't have chicken liver in the house, I probably wouldn't have added it, and probably won't again in the future, especially if I'm looking for a more traditional flavor. The egg? I tasted a slice both with and without the egg, and although the egg adds texture, the taste takes away from the lasagna flavor a little too much for my taste.
But the Paleo Parmesan is a keeper! Truthfully, the lasagna is very flavorful, but without the heavy cheese presence normally associated with lasagna, and with the work involved in both cooking AND cleaning up afterwards, I think I'd rather just have the meat sauce with my fauxghetti, with the Paleo Parmesan sprinkled on top.
That's just one caveman's opinion. But hey, I gave it a try, and I think I at least improved on the looks of the dish. That's one small step for caveman, one giant Ugga-Bugga for caveman kind.
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