medtran49
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Long ago, when I was working in a doctor's office, 1 of our patients was a very elderly Italian lady. More often than not, she would bring lasagna for us. It was the BEST I'd ever had at that time. One of her secrets was how she made her cheese filling. Finally got her to tell me after describing my failures to her. We use this for lasagna, stuffed shells, manicotti, and ravioli.
The recipe I'm giving is enough for an 8x8 pan of plain cheese lasagna. We use whole milk cheeses, but if you want to use skim, that's up to you. The recipe can be easily doubled or tripled. When we make stuffed shells, we triple or quadruple the filling, fill a bunch of shells, then freeze them in single layer, then bag and put back in the freezer, then can take out as many as we want and have a fairly quick, easy meal.
Cheese lasagna
Stuffed shells
1-1/2 cups ricotta, drained if really wet
3 cups shredded mozzarella, packaged, not fresh
2-3 Tbsp dried basil, more to your taste if desired
3/4 cup freshly grated parmigiano reggiano (not the green can stuff)
2-3 tsp salt to taste
1 to 1/2 tsp black pepper to taste
1 or 3 eggs, beaten to mix, (2 eggs at minimum for lasagna for spreadability)
Optional: you can add a pinch or 2 or 3 of red pepper flakes if you want a spicy filling.
Mix all ingredients, taste and adjust seasonings. If you don't want to eat raw egg, mix everything but the egg(s) together, taste, then mix in the egg(s).
The recipe I'm giving is enough for an 8x8 pan of plain cheese lasagna. We use whole milk cheeses, but if you want to use skim, that's up to you. The recipe can be easily doubled or tripled. When we make stuffed shells, we triple or quadruple the filling, fill a bunch of shells, then freeze them in single layer, then bag and put back in the freezer, then can take out as many as we want and have a fairly quick, easy meal.
Cheese lasagna
Stuffed shells
1-1/2 cups ricotta, drained if really wet
3 cups shredded mozzarella, packaged, not fresh
2-3 Tbsp dried basil, more to your taste if desired
3/4 cup freshly grated parmigiano reggiano (not the green can stuff)
2-3 tsp salt to taste
1 to 1/2 tsp black pepper to taste
1 or 3 eggs, beaten to mix, (2 eggs at minimum for lasagna for spreadability)
Optional: you can add a pinch or 2 or 3 of red pepper flakes if you want a spicy filling.
Mix all ingredients, taste and adjust seasonings. If you don't want to eat raw egg, mix everything but the egg(s) together, taste, then mix in the egg(s).
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