Lasagna Cupcakes

I was reading through my food blogs on Flipboard one night and I found a recipe for these lasagna cupcakes. I modified it a little bit because I have made lasagna quite a few times and I know what I like in it. The original recipe is from Tablespoon.com but I changed it so much that I am going to just re-write it in my own words here. I chose to use gyoza skins instead of wonton ones because they are already round. I liked the way they came out when I used them whole but they can also be cut to size to allow you to see the layers a bit better when you take the cupcake out of the liner to serve it. The gyoza skins end up being soft like regular noodles.  If you use a whole one, the top layer skin sticks out of the sauce just a little bit and becomes crunchy, just like the edges of a lasagna baked in a 9×13 pan!  I used my family’s classic ricotta mix from our lasagna recipe I have been making since I was a kid. The sauce, I kind of made up as I was going along but it is the basic meat sauce I always make really. I love these so much and I am currently dreaming up all the different recipes I can turn in to cupcakes now!

Lasagna Cupcakes
Makes 22 cupcakes

For the Sauce:
3 8oz cans no salt added tomato sauce
1/2 a large, yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp fresh basil
1 tsp fresh parsley
1 lb ground turkey, browned
salt and pepper to taste

For the Filling:
1 8oz container ricotta cheese
a handful of grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried parsley
salt and pepper to taste

44 gyoza wrappers
mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preheat the oven to 350F.

To begin, brown the onions and garlic in a little bit of olive oil. While they cook, put the sauce into a medium saucepan. Add the onions and garlic to the sauce and use the same pan to cook the ground turkey. I seasoned the turkey itself with salt and pepper and a little bit of garlic powder as well but you don’t HAVE to do that. Once the turkey is done cooking, add it to the sauce as well. Let the sauce cook while you mix up the ricotta cheese and until you are ready to assemble. I left it for a good hour while I made dessert tonight. The longer it cooks on low, the better it will be.

Mix the ricotta, Parmesan, parsley, garlic powder, and salt/pepper in a bowl. Taste it. If it needs more of anything, you can add it now.

To assemble the lasagna cupcakes, line your cupcake pan with foil cupcake liners. I found these to be much easier clean up than spraying the pan itself and building them that way. Spray the liners with a little bit of cooking spray. Place one gyoza skin in the bottom of each well. Add a tablespoon or so of the meat sauce, then about a teaspoon of ricotta, then a sprinkle of mozzarella. Place another gyoza skin on top of that, then another teaspoon ricotta cheese, a tablespoon of sauce and another sprinkling of mozzarella. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, until they are golden on top and bubbly.

When I got to the last 4, I ran out of ricotta cheese. Instead of ricotta, I layered gyoza, meat sauce, pepperoni slice, mozzarella, gyoza, meat sauce, pepperoni, mozzarella. These were a touch smaller than the other ones but still just as tasty! Now for the pictures.

In the beginning…

First layer, complete:

Baked!

Close up!

Plated:

I can’t wait to make some more of these to freeze for lunches. It is such a great idea that can be applied to a bunch of different recipes! I might actually do this with shepherd’s pie for tomorrow night’s dinner. Hope you enjoy!

 

Failed Lasagna, Awesome Brownies

So, I decided that I wanted to try this lasagna recipe that looked amazing in photos and in theory. It turned out to be not so awesome, even though it looked exactly like the pics from the website. A little word to the wise: Just use cheese. Beschamel sauce is shitty and makes the entire lasagna taste like cooked milk (think pudding without the sweetness from flavorings)
The recipe can be found here (maybe you can try it and it will come out better?): Mediterranean Greek Vegetarian Lasagna

Pictures!

Really good greek salad! 😀

I made the brownies before I made the Lasagna but I wanted to get that abomination out of the way in the beginning of the post. These have to be some of the best brownies ever and I totally overcooked them. I used my brownie pan that has the insert but its only an 8×8 pan and the recipe called for a 9×13 pan. I ended up overcooking the outside brownies while the insides were still a bit raw. They still taste awesome though. I could not find any instant espresso powder so I got some instant coffee instead. It worked the way it was supposed to and the brownies tasted rich and delicious. These brownies were recommended by a Shacker (multisync)and his girlfriend, who writes a fantastic food blog called Amy Blogs Chow I had promised them I would make the brownies this past weekend and just never got around to it. I was so happy that I made them last night because after that failed lasagna, I needed the pick-me-up that only chocolate can provide 😀 The recipe originally came from BAKED in Brooklyn, NY (BakedNYC.com) and the recipe can be found HERE.

Pictures!

My webcam setup while waiting for the chocolate to melt

So the brownies and salad came out awesome but the lasagna was an EPIC FAIL. I hate when that happens 😦 I don’t know what to do with all this leftover lasagna. I don’t want to give it to anyone because it’s so bad.