The Wholesome Steward

The night before last I had tacos but as I cleaned up the kitchen from that night’s dinner, I decided wanted something else the next day, and not the regular turnaround of tacos to nachos or burritos. I wanted something more along the lines of comfort food and also something fast. Although I wouldn’t mind repeating my favorite food on repeat for about a week or two straightn until I burn out, my family, especially my dear husband, really appreciates and prefers more variety! Lasagna was in the plans for the near future with all that delicious gooey melty cheese, but for me, that always feels like a chore to carefully layer everything! So, I figured I could make a mash up something like that Pinterest famous million-dollar spaghetti. and layer goulash with the cheesy lasagna filling. That night, as I cleaned up the kitchen, I boiled the noodles in some salty water, taking them off while they were still on the firm side of El dente. put in one jar or spaghetti sauce, one can of tomato paste, and the left-over ground beef (roughly one pound). then put it in the fridge for the next night.

The next day, all I had to do was make the cheese mixture, so I got a little fancy! I had a tub of ricotta, half a block of cream cheese, some mozzarella, and a tub of cottage cheese. The kids saw the cottage cheese and needed a snack. *Edit: a little more than half a tub of cottage cheese* Since I saved so much time, I thought I’d try this thing I heard: if you blend cottage cheese and cream cheese you make ricotta. It sure seemed like ricotta to me *Sidenote: immersion blender and cream cheese are not friends! so I mixed all 4 cheeses and then threw in some garlic herb seasoning! Whew wee, I was feeling pretty creative!

So, as the kids play, baby is in the bouncer, and the sink filled with water, I start layering into my Dutch oven. Pasta, cheesy, pasta, cheesy, pasta then I top with plain mozzarella. Since all I really need to do is reheat and melt cheese it shouldn’t take long to bake. I think 45mins to an hour. I set a stopwatch and took advantage of not having to really cook and loaded up the dishwasher from the day’s dishes. then sat with kids until I smelled the dinner about 55minutes, and it was perfect not over cooked, and everything was all melty and delicious very much like lasagna flavor. took the lettuce leftovers from tacos and made a side salad and stole a couple slices from the French bread I was going to use to make French toast. and it turned into a perfect dinner, and I had plenty of bread for French toast a couple pieces to spare!

This was so simple and delicious! We voted and we are calling it Gousagna! Everyone loved it, it’s a keeper! But it hardly feels like a recipe. When I do most cooking I just kind of throw stuff together so that how this “recipe” is. I sure hope there will be other people out there like me, who appreciate my measurements. I did plan to write this blog post, so I took down a few notes of what I was doing, and sizes of packages. Here we go, my first attempt at writing out a “recipe” blog! there will be a ”recipe card”.

• Gousagna
• -Pasta Mixture-
• 1 lbs. Ellbow Macaroni noodles
• 24 oz. jar spaghetti sauce
• 12 oz. can tomato paste
• 1 lbs ground beef
• -Cheese Mixture-
• 15 oz. Ricotta cheese
• 1/2 block Cream cheese
• 15 oz. cottage cheese
• 2 large handfuls mozzarella cheese
• garlic and herb seasoning to taste

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2) Pull out leftover taco ground beef, or brown ground beef season with garlic, onion and salt as desired. maybe a little Italian Herb seasoning.

3) Boil water with a good-sized pinch of salt. add elbow noodles. under cook a bit, on the firmer side of eldente. strain off water in a colander, shake and toss pasta was water come out of noodles. *Pro-tip: save a little of the starchy pasta water in a cup

4) Add pasta sauce and tomato paste to the warm pot. to get all the tomatoey goodness out of the jar and can… use a bit of that starchy water. it doesn’t water the sauce down so much! Mix with whisk till tomato paste has blended evenly into a thicker sauce. add pasta and meat mix.

5) In a new bowl, add cottage cheese and cream cheese, mix or blend to your preferred texture, add ricotta and combined well! fold in shredded mozzarella, and garlic and herb if desired!

6) In a Dutch oven lay alternating layers: pasta, cheesy, pasta, cheesy, pasta. Then top with shredded mozzarella.

7) Bake with lid on for 45 minutes to 1 hour until its warmed thro and cheese is melty!