World's Best Lasagna

What's the secret to the World's Best Lasagna? Well, my mom sure knows it. She's been making the world's best lasagna ever since I was a kid, and everyone who ever has a bite of it agrees � it's definitely the world's best lasagna! But here's another recipe for the world's best lasagna that I haven't tried yet � it looks so good it might even rival my mom's! I can tell you right now there are a few special ingredients in this Italian lasagna recipe that my mom has never even thought of. Do you think I should tell her? Maybe I'll try making this deliciously spicy lasagna recipe first, just to see how it turns out � and if it really IS that good, I might give her a piece and see what she says. After all, it can't hurt, can it? I just don't want my mom to ever stop making her amazing lasagna.

What are the special ingredients in this world's best lasagna recipe that my mom has never used? Well, the first one is sweet Italian sausage, the second one is sugar, and the third is ricotta cheese (my mom only uses Mozzarella and Parmesan), oh, and eggs � she never uses eggs either. So I've honestly got to wonder � will these simple ingredients really make a big difference in the lasagna's flavour? I can't wait to find out! Just in case you didn't know it, lasagna is a kind of past that originated in Italy in an area known as Emillia-Romagna. As far as the pasta shape goes, it's wide and flat, and as far as age goes � it could very well be one of the oldest pastas in existence.

Lasagna consists of several layers of pasta noodles with delicious sauce and fillings in the layers in between. In the old days, the pasta dough preparation was made in Southern Italy using just water and semolina. In Northern Italy, however, where semolina was not in great abundance, eggs and flour were used instead! As far as we know the first recorded lasagna recipe is from the thirteenth century. Cheese was definitely used at that time, but tomatoes hadn't been discovered by Europeans yet, so there was no tomato sauce. Hard to imagine lasagna without the sauce, huh?

Once upon a time, in an age not long ago, it was necessary to boil lasagna noodles before creating all the layers that go into the lasagna pan. These days, however, we have something called �no-boil� noodles! That means we can just throw the uncooked lasagna noodles in the pan and they will cook all by themselves when you are baking the lasagna. Are you familiar with the Garfield cartoon? Well lasagna was Garfield's favourite food of all time. I can't blame him! I think it's pretty much mine, too. What about you?

One other very little known fact about lasagna is that you can actually make it in the dishwasher. Whaaat?! Yes, it's true � I read it on the Internet. Apparently, all you've got to do is prepare the lasagna recipe as usual then cover it up with aluminum foil and throw it in the dishwasher. Put the dishwasher on the �dry and sanitize� cycle and voila, you don't need an oven to cook your lasagna anymore. Um, I think I'll still use the oven to cook the World's Best Lasagna recipe, though. I really don't want to mess this one up. First I'm going to try making it with all of the proposed ingredients, then I'm going to try to make a vegetarian version using a few substitutes for the meats, possibly even loading it up with mushrooms and peppers. When I go to potlucks these days there are always so many different kinds of diets to accommodate, so I always try to please all parties by bringing something for the meat lovers and something for the vegetarians. World's Best Lasagna is a relative term, right? Have fun with this recipe!