One love, one heart, one pot
Michelle Phetlhe | Tuesday August 8, 2023 06:00
It is easy to substitute ingredients and achieve equally desirable results. Baking, on the other hand, requires exact tools which will ensure measurements are precise to ensure bakes don't stick, burn or simply to bake evenly.
We came across a One Pot Lasagna recipe and thought it was quite interesting. I have been craving an amazing pasta dish since recovering from that crazy flu, but haven't had much of an appetite or pocket readiness to get some from one of my favourite local eateries. Just as well I got inspired to do the absolute most with this dish, to create a restaurant quality dish right in my very own kitchen with just a few ingredients. Now the thing is, I have a few pots, small, medium, large and extra-large, and non-stick pans.
All stainless steel. A lot of recipes called for a cast iron pot. Which didn't faze me too much, until I pictured my final product. For sure I wanted to stick the lasagna in the oven after sprinkling some cheese on top to get a golden perfection.
The only pan I have that fits the description has a handle that feels more plastic than iron as opposed to the rest of the pan. This sure knocked my enthusiasm a little, till I decided to use it anyway for the dish, and at the end I'd figure out how to protect the handle for the few minutes it goes into the oven. I am definitely not encouraging this line of brazen unhinged adventure in the kitchen...lol.
Rather, I encourage us to invest where possible and keep adding new tools, pots and pans as and when the pocket allows. Let's get back to the cooking, this dish is easy to customise to your liking. You can add finely chopped or grated veggies or your favourite herbs to give it a personal touch. Feel free to use any kind of mince, maybe it is your favourite, maybe it is the only thing available at the time. Make a call to your friendly butcher to make special orders of, chicken or pork mince, which might not be readily available. I have made chicken mince at home using a blender. It broke a while ago so what I did was pound the chicken breasts using a rolling pin; this worked wonders, it broke down the meat and because the fibres in chicken are not very tough, it turned to mince quite easily. This pasta dish scratched my itch, it was absolutely delicious.
I had leftovers for lunch the next day. I love how easy it is to make and because I don’t much like dirty dishes, I appreciate that there isn’t a bunch of them to get through. This dish is doing rounds on TikTok and in this day and age, it means it’s that COOL. Give it a try and let us know how it goes. Share on our Facebook Chellzkitchen page, we’d also love to know what dishes you are looking forward to this Spring
INGREDIENTS
500g chicken mince
3 tbsp oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1l carrot, finely diced
1 tbls Oregano
1 tin canned tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 cups stock or water
1/2 tsp black cracked pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar 250g ready-made lasagna sheets
2 cup cheese sauce (store bought) 200g mozzarella cheese, slice
INSTRUCTIONS
Heat the oil in a large, deep, oven-proof pan on medium heat. Add the onions, garlic and carrot, and cook for 5 minutes until softened. Increase the heat to high. Add the chicken mince and cook for 5 minutes until browned. Add Oregano and when fragrant, proceed to the next step. Add the tomato paste, canned tomatoes, sugar, stock, pepper and salt. Cook for 10 minutes. Tear or snap the lasagna sheets in half. Using tongs, submerge the lasagna sheets into the sauce, changing directions and distributing the sheets as evenly as you can (although it doesn’t need to be perfect!) As you continue to construct the lasagne, create pockets and load them full of cheese sauce. Leaving some over to spread on the top layer before putting the pasta in the oven. Place the lid on, and cook on the lowest heat setting according to the lasagna sheet packet instructions (mine took 20 minutes). Preheat the oven grill. Use a fork to check the pasta is cooked (the fork should pierce the pasta easily when Al Dante). Top the lasagna with slices of mozzarella and grill for 5 minutes until golden and bubbling. Sprinkle with basil leaves and serve (optional)