Monthly Archives: March 2025

Deconstructed Lasagna

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I made this a few months back and I keep thinking about it. I need to make this deconstructed lasagna again. It’s calls for all of the standard ingredients for the body that gets combined into one messy mixture, but it’s topped with blobs of creamy spinach dip instead of a ricotta filling or a bechamel layer between the pasta and meat sauce.

Pros of making this dish: I found I used about 1/4 of the normal cheese blend I would have used for a traditional lasagna, and there was a speedier assembly of ingredients since I wasn’t stopping to do any layering. And I didn’t have to wait for a bechamel sauce to be made. I bought and used a spinach dip from the grocery store. I also didn’t have to wait as long for the layers to set up when it came out of the oven.

Cons of making this dish: I couldn’t find one because I didn’t have any Italians eating this with me. 😀 I didn’t like the tang of the spinach dip as much as I thought I would. I will have to source a different brand, or buy a different type of dip next time.

I can’t remember how long I baked this or at what temp, but I’ll use my best guess here. I’d say about I cooked it 30 mins at 350-375 with the casserole lid on.

Colcannon

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This traditional Irish dish doesn’t last long in our house. I’ve been making it for a few years now (TY to an old friend for giving me her mother’s version that I tweaked a bit). It’s so good. And if you’re lucky enough to have leftovers, this makes fabulous pan fried fritters the next morning.

Colcannon:
2 lbs Yellow Potatoes, peeled and cubed 2″
1 tbsp Salt

1 pack Bacon Strips, 1″ cuts, pan fried, drained

Half a head of Cabbage, shredded up
S&P

1 1/2 C Milk
1 bunch Green Onions, chopped up
2 tbsp Unsalted Butter

Prep all of the veg and bacon. At this point, if you know how to make mashed potatoes, jump to heating the dairy and frying the bacon and cabbage.

Rinse the potatoes under water twice and then fill the pot with them in it along with a heaping tablespoon of salt to start cooking over med-high heat. It should take between 12-15 mins to cook the potatoes.

In a small sauce pot, heat the milk/onion/butter mixture on low on a back burner. Don’t let the dairy mixture get scalded on the bottom of the pot. Keep it moving every minute or two. Heat it up until tiny bubbles along the outer edge start to form. Kill the heat and rest the sauce pot on the cold burner for a few minutes.

Get your biggest frying pan hot and drop the bacon cuts in to fry. When the bacon crisps up to your liking, remove the bacon to drain on paper towels. Drop the cabbage in over that bacon fat and hit it with pepper. Stir and move the cabbage around often. It it starts to burn, drop the heat a bit an move the pan off half the heat source to control the cooking. When it’s softened, remove the pan from the heat to cool it down. Add the bacon back in to keep warm until needed.

At the ten minute mark, spoon lift a few of the potatoes and look at their edges. It they look sharp, the need more time in the bath. If the edges are fuzzy, they are probably done. At this point, push down on a few of them with a fork. It there is resistance, they need another two or so mins. If they mash down immediately, kill the heat and drain the water out.

Return the pot to the same burner to start mashing them as they dry off for 1-2 mins from the residual heat.

At this point, you can start the assembly off the burner with a big knob of butter, cracked black pepper and half of of the dairy mixture. Give the mash a good stir before adding the rest of the dairy and stirring that in. And finally, fold the cabbage and bacon in to combine everything.

Give the mash a taste and adjust the S&P if needed. Remember, potatoes can really drink up salt (so can cabbage), so add a bit more than you are comfortable with.

Plate the Colcannon with a butter pat over top. Let it melt before you dig in.