My First Crack at Moose Meat!(plus a great pasta sauce recipe)

Sorry no pictures :( I was trying to do too many things and just didn't think about taking them...

I ended up making lasagna, as the only meat that was ready to go was some ground moose from undesignated areas. The meat was a pretty rough grind, it reminded me of cube steaks, if they were actually cut along the perforations on those. This is a pretty rough recipe, I didn't think about posting it until afterwards.. But this turned out so nice I thought I'd share :) I'm sure this would work with any meat, just use matching broth.

Moose Meat Lasagna

For The Sauce:

2T Olive oil

2 Mild Italian sausages

(I prefer using the uncooked brats and taking them out of the casing to use as ground pork as opposed to the Italian spiced ones because I don't like fennel, but this is what we had, so this is what I used)

1-1 1/2lbs roughly ground moose(or whatever meat you're using)

2t garlic powder

1/4-1/2 cup fresh Italian parsley chopped

1 medium yellow onion diced

4-6 cloves garlic

5 Roma tomatoes

2 15oz cans of tomato sauce(not pasta sauce!)

1-3 cups of broth(I used a moose broth I had made today as well, how much you add depends on the consistency you want. I used closer to 2 1/2 cups because the uncooked noodles need extra. If you are using this as a regular tomato sauce I might only use 1/2-1 cup)

Small handful of fresh basil

For the Other Parts os Lasagna:

1-10 oz Bag of Spinach(I wilted this in a pan and added it with my other layering ingredients, but you could also add it to the sauce)

3/4lb Mozzarella(shredded)

1/2-1/4lb Parmesan(shredded)

1/3lb Asiago(shredded)

1 box Ronzoni lasagna noodles(I used the ones you're supposed to boil first, but I just added a little extra juice from the sauce and baked it, and it came out perfectly)

1. Heat up the oil in a cast iron skillet and turn your crockpot on to high

2. Take the sausage out of it's casing and chunk it into smaller pieces and brown it in the skillet, while the sausage is browning mix your ground meat in a bowl with the parsley, garlic powder, and salt and pepper

3. When the sausage is done browning, take it out and put it in the crock pot along with the 2 cans of tomato sauce

4. Brown the ground meat in the skillet with the sausage fat. You'll either need to do this in batches, or drain excess liquid in order to get a good crust on the meat. While this is browning, dice your onion and garlic, but keep them separate.

5. Remove ground meat from skillet and transfer to crock pot. Add onion to the skillet and cook until translucent, then add garlic and cook until you can start to really smell it ~1-3 minutes?(Not sure on the timing)

6. Remove onions and garlic to the crock pot, and add chopped roma tomatoes, use their juice to scrape the bits from the bottom of the skillet. If they are not very juicy(like mine were) use a little water or broth to help you scrape the pan.

7. Pour everything(including the liquid you're using) into the crock pot and leave it for a couple hours

Assembly!

Preheat your oven to 350F

Pour ~1-2T Olive oil into a glass casserole pan(9x13) and spread it around with your hand

Layer your lasagna however you like. For the bottom I just put a little sauce down first, then the first layer of noodles.

After the first layer, I do: spinach, sauce, cheese, noodles

I could only fit 3 layers of noodles with sauce and cheese on top.

As far as the cheese ratios go, I use mostly mozzarella, with a light sprinkle of the parmesan and asiago.

Bake at 350F for ~1 hour? I'm not sure how long mine took to finish baking all the way through... My roommate came home and I made her watch it while I showered. Keep an eye on the top, the cheese on top got super browned before it was done, I caught it in time and just put some foil over the top to let it finish cooking. I imagine it would take less time with the "no boil" noodles or if you boiled the noodles like you're supposed to before assembling, but I'm not sure how great the difference would be.

When you can easily insert a knife through the noodles in the middle it should be done!

The recipe for the sauce is one that has been passed down to me from my Nonna, she immigrated here in 1969 from Castro Di Volsci, Italy. This is honestly the best sauce I have ever had, I haven't found a canned, or restaurant sauce I like even half as much. Although, I am probably just a tidge biased....

The sauce can also be made in a pot on the stove.Make sure to make it BEFORE you start everything else, so it has time to let the flavors meld together. Just brown the meats at the same time(I would use smaller amounts for a regular pot) then add the onions and garlic, once the onions are becoming translucent add all the spices and tomato sauces(the whole tomatoes are optional in this) then bring it to a boil, and reduce to simmer. Simmer it while your water boils for your pasta or whatever it is you're using sauce for.

This is also the way we make lasagna, with no ricotta. Don't get me wrong! I love ricotta, just not in my lasagna. We also use home made noodles when we have the time. But I was NOT feelin that today, along with cleaning the rest of the moose diaphragm, making this sauce/lasagna, and making stock.

I hope you all give this a try! Enjoy!

bon appetit