- Hey, y'all, come on in
the kitchen and have a seat, because I'm gonna share with y'all today, remember, I'm filling requests that we get a lot of questions about. So, we have gotten a lot
of requests for lasagna. So I'm gonna share with y'all today, The Lady and Sons lasagna recipe, and I'm not leaving out a thing. You know, it took me
years to get this recipe really the way I wanted it, because over the years I would taste different people's lasagna, and so I finally figured out what it was I wanted in the lasagna. So, here goes. Well, I'm gonna start with a pound and a half
of ground beef, y'all. And I'm gonna brown that off a second. And this is ground chuck, so it shouldn't have
much fat in it at all. So I suspect that we won't
even have to drain it. So, here we go. (spoon banging) All right, we've kind
of browned our meat off almost all the way. So now I'm gonna put a
can of tomato sauce in it, and let's see, how many
ounces is that, Eddie? I don't have my glasses on. - [Eddie] It's 15. - [Paula] Okay, a 15-ounce
can of tomato sauce. Let me rinse that out with a little water. You know I want to get every drop. And you will notice that I
did not drain my ground beef, and I didn't drain that
for a reason, y'all, because that's where the flavor is. And we're gonna take full advantage of our flavors. And most of that in there is water. I think that comes from the ground beef. All right! So, that's already looking good. Now I'm gonna add my onions. I'm gonna add my green bell pepper. I'm gonna add two bay leaves. I'm gonna add a teaspoon
of seasoning salt. I think that's a teaspoon,
that looks like a lot. - [Woman] It's actually
a teaspoon and a half. - [Paula] Okay, so I'm gonna
add one teaspoon of that, and I'll come back to the
other half should we need it. And I'm gonna put the
whole 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of house seasoning in. And we're gonna put just a little sugar. Done. Knock the tartness down of the tomatoes. And now we're gonna use,
is that two teaspoons? - [Woman] That's actually
another teaspoon. They're all 1 and 1/2. - Okay. - [Woman] Teaspoons of everything. - And that was a tangin' seasoning. Now you may find that
you, and this is garlic. - [Woman] And those were two cloves. - Two cloves of garlic. And you may find, as you taste, that you will want to add
more Italian seasoning, because I really, really like the flavors that that gives it. All right, now for something green to go along with our bell
peppers is our parsley. And that's gonna give it some flavor and a pretty, pretty color. So now we're gonna cover this, and we're gonna let it cook until I think it's right. Probably about an hour. And this is a good dish to
cook in your slow cooker. You can throw all this
together in the morning and come in and put your lasagna together. And you've got dinner within 30 minutes. So I'm gonna leave this here, because when I taste I may find that it needs more, more salt. So, we gonna kind of let
that come back to a boil. And then I'm gonna cover it. Then we're gonna simmer it. Well, actually, I'm gonna put it on low. We're gonna do a little
bit more than simmer, for about an hour. And then we're gonna put
our lasagna together. Okeydokey. Our spaghetti sauce has
been cooking for one hour. Ooh, gosh, that scared me so bad! - [Eddie] Scared me too. - You all jumped too? - [Woman] And so did Albert. - I'm gonna take out our bay leaves. I know I probably told
y'all this story before, but our little Anthony. Mm. Our little Anthony. Michael tells me that he was invited to spend the night with a friend. And the next day he came
home, he said, "Daddy... they put grass or something, some kind of leaves in
their spaghetti sauce." And he said, "I didn't
know what to do about it. I didn't, I didn't eat it, but I just tried not to
say anything about it." And his daddy said, "Anthony, that was bay leaves, honey." (laughs) - [Woman] But you're not supposed to eat bay leaves, are you? - No. They're just for the flavor. All right. So, I've got my 13 by 9 by 2 pan. I'm gonna give it a little spray just to keep it from sticking. And I will show y'all
the greatest invention in the way of convenience foods. This is what we actually
use at the restaurant. They were just available
commercially for awhile, but these are fresh pasta sheets. They are wonderful. And this is what they, they look like in your grocery store. You know, I've never had any luck like balling the noodles. They would just tear all
up and just aggravating. And so when we moved to our
first restaurant downtown in 1996, I discovered
that our food purveyors actually carried lasagna sheets. So, it was a while, though, before the grocery stores
carried it for the public. But this is great. So I hope that y'all will try that because it will make
your life so much easier. Now I'm gonna. I'm gonna taste our sauce, because you know I didn't
put all of the salt in it. So I'm gonna taste it, make
sure it's seasoned right. It is. It's delicious. We are ready to go. And I'm just gonna put a little thin layer of the meat sauce down. I'm gonna spread it out because we want our noodles to have like a little bed to lay on. Just a thin little bed. A little bit more. Okay, there we go. So, we're gonna lay our lasagna noodles. You know, I think that we might be better laying them that way rather than long way. Or we're gonna have to
do a lot of cutting. Okay. Take my scissors. Oops. I'm gonna take my scissors and just trim a little bit of that off. So we'll be able to see
the layers in our dish. Doesn't take much, and I'll save these in case
we need them somewhere else. So, there we go. That's perfect. All right. I'm gonna come over here now. And I'm gonna take, this is a 16-ounce of cottage cheese, and I'm gonna take it, and I'm gonna mix it with eggs... and Parmesan cheese. Now, that egg will help
find that cottage cheese. So to kind of make little, little nicely formed
piles of cottage cheese. Now, you can use ricotta. Ricotta is to me a little
bit more flavorful, and it's definitely thicker. So, in goes the Parmesan. Oh, which one was I
supposed to use, Theresa? - [Theresa] Parmesan Gruyere. - Okay.
- You did the right one. - [Paula] Oh, yeah, this is Gruyere. All right. So, you know, by now, you know that you use the
cheeses of your choice. And we all love Gruyere around here. So, that's what I'm gonna use. So, we've got that... mixed together. And then we've got our cheeses. We have, gosh, help me, Teresa. I know we got Swiss and we got cheddar. - [Theresa] And mozzarella. Oh, that goes in here. - [Paula] Oh, okay. - [Eddie] The Parmesan. - [Paula] Was that two
different kinds of Parmesan? - [Eddie] One was Gruyere
and that one's Parmesan. - [Paula] Okay, but the
Gruyere went in here, right? Okay. You can, you know, you can really do this any way you want to. Normally I just use ricotta and an egg. So, but extra, yes, we are. So, this is gonna be even better with that cheese and that ricotta. - [Eddie] That's almost
like a manicotti stuffing. - [Paula] Yes, yes! Stuff this between some big noodles. I'm starving, y'all. Uh-oh, who's that coming
in that garage door? - [Theresa] I'm sure it's Pete Paul. - All right. Now I'm gonna put another
layer of meat sauce. Look, our pasta is curling up. All right, and then
we're gonna start using all those good things over there that makes it lasagna. All right. So I'm gonna pile. So, see, by putting those
cheeses in there, Eddie. (knock on door) By putting those cheeses in there, it made it as thick as ricotta, if I was using ricotta. Oh, my gosh. I just love biting into this. And I'm gonna kind of leave
'em in heaps like that. Doggies! That is lookin' so good. All right, now I'm gonna layer a little cheddar cheese over that. You can see that I like cheesy lasagna. Come in, Pete Paul! - [Pete Paul] Hey, Paula. - It is almost time, and I hate so bad that you're
still on that crazy diet, and not gonna be able
to join us in lasagna. But maybe you can just
have some of the sauce, a bowl of the sauce. - [Pete Paul] Yeah, maybe I will. Save me some. - [Paula] Okay. All right. So I'm gonna, now that I know, as we trim, I'll do that before... I lay them down. All right. Mm-mm! Indeed! All right, now I'm gonna
share my secret ingredient that a friend, Becky Deere... told me about years ago. Because she had had lasagna, had us over for lasagna one night, and I thought it was so delicious. And I said, "Okay, Becky, what makes this so stinking good?" And she said, "Well, Paula,
I put cream cheese in it." So I have never to that
day ever made lasagna that it didn't have cream cheese in it, because it takes it to another level. When you bite into that soft cream cheese, it is just so good. All right, now I think we
need a little bit more cheese. The triplets. (laughs) I've said so many times to them that they think it's what it is. I'll say, "You want mo?" And they'll say, "Mo, mo?" (laughs) I said, your mama and
daddy's gonna whip Guinea. Teaching y'all such incorrect English. All right, now you see I'm
just dividing my cheese. Up, up, up. Alrighty. This dries out pretty quickly, y'all. So you don't want this to sit out very long... on the counter, because you saw the way that the ends were curling up. That is just perfect. I love these size sheets. Those sheets at the
restaurant were like this big, you know, for a restaurant size pan. Okeydoke. Here we go. This is our last layer. And that package did perfectly. Let's see how many sheets it has in it. Six. So we know that six of those are perfect for a 13 by 9 by 2. Now, at this point, you could put this in the refrigerator and let it sit. Say, if you're having company tonight, just put it in the refrigerator and pull it out. Look. Look how much sauce
I'm gonna save Michael. That much right right there. (laughs) At least I can tell him
that I did save him some. (chuckles) Poor thing. But he's the one choosing to diet and I'm happy for him. Okay, so we're gonna come back. I love a dollop of ricotta on that top and final layer. I really, really like that. So that 16-ounce container gave us... two layers of ricotta and Gruyere. Perfect. Perfect! Now I'm gonna bake this off. I don't know, maybe about 45 minutes. I can't remember. I just cook it till it's done. Let's see, it's gonna be on 350. - [Theresa] You want me
to come read it for you? - Wait. I'll use my glasses. All right, let's see. If you have decided to refrigerate it, you're gonna need to bake it a longer because it's gotten cold. Okay, for about 40 minutes
we're gonna bake it. And I'm not gonna add the
rest of the cheese right now. I'm gonna let it cook
for about 45 minutes. And then I'm gonna top it with this cheese and put it back for five to 10 minutes so it gets gooey and melty. - [Theresa] Yummy. - And I think this would be fine frozen, too, at this point. Okay, y'all. Our lasagna has cooked
for about 40 minutes. So now I have combined my cheddar, my mozzarella and my Swiss. Wasn't that Swiss we decided to use? - [Theresa] Yes, ma'am. - [Paula] All right, now, I
didn't want to put this in when we first made it, because I don't like cheese
to get real, real hard. I want it just to melt. So we're gonna stick it back in there and give this a second to get ooey gooey. Almost didn't hold out enough
cheese for the top, y'all. So I found a little bit
more extra sharp cheddar... in my refrigerator after I conked my head and burned my arm. But you know what, that's all right. We want perfect lasagna. So, this is working out great. Get to use that little piece of cheese up. Okay, so back in the oven, and like I said, maybe 10 minutes, y'all. This time I'm gonna make sure
I open that door all the way. Because when I opened
it a little while ago, I burnt me self. Okay. And remember, that was at 350. Okay, the timer just went off letting us know that it
had been 10 minutes, y'all. That would take the
skin off of our mouths. - [Theresa] Yes, it would. (Paula laughs) - But if y'all are game, I'm game. - [Eddie] Maybe just
cut a piece out of it. - Yeah. I'm gonna get a little bitty piece so everybody can see what that lasagna looks like. And if you've never used
those fresh noodles... you are gonna fall in love with those. I'm just gonna get out
a little paper plate. (cheers) You really need to let
it cool for a minute so it'll cut nicely. But... I'm impatient. (laughter) We are short on patience today. I'm getting out three spoons. - [Theresa] Okay. - Uno, dos, tres. - [Theresa] Look how hot it is. - [Paula] I know. I know, I know. Eddie, you wanna take that one? No, here, you can have that one. I'll dip me another one. Okay, if you insist. Mm. Oh, Teresa. Mm. It is delicious beyond belief. It's been so long since I've had mine. - [Theresa] I know. I haven't had any forever. So they need to go to the (mumbles) - Mm-Hm. (spoon clatters) Mm. Perfect.
