Buffalo Meat Lasagna

Buffalo Meat Lasagna?
Add Portobella Mushrooms and Mangia!

Buffalo meat lasagna is unique, flavorful and naturally low in fat. On a recent ski trip to Park City I was asked to make a casserole for the Super Bowl party.

Casserole? How do you make a casserole?

I suggested a meat lasagna and the hostess loved the idea. "How about Buffalo Meat?" she said. WOW! Great idea. I've never tried a lasagna recipe with Buffalo meat. This is gonna be good!

I started to put together the ingredients in my head and Arrivadierchi I was out the door to the local gourmet specialty store. I picked up...

3 lb. freshly ground Buffalo Chuck roast. (buy it whole and have them ground it fresh for you)

3 cups Good quality Ricotta cheese

6 large balls of Bufalo Mozzarella

3 large Eggplant

1 White Onion Chopped

12oz Shredded Parmegiano Cheese

2 lb Porto Bella Mushrooms

6 cloves Garlic

1/2 cup Red Wine

2-3 tbsp Olive Oil to used saute ingredients

Vegetable or cooking oil to fry the eggplant

4-5 cups of my Marinara sauce recipe

Salt and Pepper to taste

Now I'm ready to start my buffalo meat lasagna masterpiece.

Step One:

Boil water and Salt

Add lasagna noodles and cook al dente. Continue with other steps but when the pasta is done you are going to take them out of the water and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking process. Toss in Olive Oil and set aside.

Step Two:

Thinly slice Eggplant about 1/4 inch thick slices and sprinkle with salt on both sides and let sit. This makes the Eggplant sweat and eliminates a lot of water. It makes a better fried eggplant.

Chop Porto Bello Mushrooms into 1 inch cubes
Chop the onion and garlic.

Slice the bufalo mozzarella in 1/4 inch slices (Don't cheat and use the regular mozzarella in a block!)

Set aside all this prep stuff.

Step Three:

Heat cooking oil (enough to fill a large pan half way with oil) in a Pan at high heat. When it's very hot add the sliced Eggplant but only enough to one layer on the pan.

Step Four:

Slice and saute the garlic cloves and onion in a separate saute pan until translucent occasionally splashing with Red Wine. Then add the Porto Bello Mushrooms.
Add the Buffalo meat with Basil and Oregano, Salt and Pepper.
Cook until all the liquid has steamed off. This will keep your meat lasagna from being too watery. You won't get a lot of fat from this meat so don't worry about draining any fat from the pan.

Step Five:

Now let's make the Bchamel

4 tblspoons Butter
4 Tablspoons Flour
4 cups milk

Melt Butter the butter on a low heat but don't boil.
Add flour little at a time while whisking.
Continue to whisk until pasty.
Now drizzle milk in a little at a time.

Flour will automatically expand and it will become more thick and pasty. Don't panic. Just continue to whisk and drizzle.

By the time you add half the milk you can pour the remaining 2 cups in at once. Keep on low heat for about 3-5 minutes at a level just below boil stirring occasionally until thick. You can keep this on a very, very low heat till you are ready to use.

Now would be good time to bring a pot of your Marinara sauce to a simmering boil.

Now your ready to layer your Buffalo Meat Lasagna

Layer 1: Lasagna noodles. Cover the bottom of the pan with the Lasagna noodles.

Layer 2: Place the eggplant on top of the Lasagna noodles in one layer. Now top the eggplant with the Buffalo Meat and drizzle with Tomato.

Layer 3: Lasagna noodles.

Layer 4: Ricotta Cheese.

Layer 5: Lasagna noodles.

Layer 6: Eggplant topped with Buffalo meat and drizzled with Tomato Sauce.

Layer 7: Lasagna Noodles.

Layer 8: Bufalo Mozzarella drizzle with Tomato Sauce and top with Parmegiana.

Layer 9: Lasagna Noodles.

Layer 10: Eggplant topped with Buffalo Meat and drizzled with Tomato sauce.

Layer 11: Lasagna noodles.

Layer 12: Bechamel Sauce.

This will create a 6 layer Buffalo Meat Lasagna.

Now preheat oven to 350

Place buffalo lasagna in the oven for at least 1 hour but you should see it bubble from the sides. That will tell you that it's ready.