When you come back to Los Angeles from break, you never know
exactly how your apartment will look or what your roommates have
been up to while you were gone.
But knowing your roommate, you have a pretty good idea.
That’s why you’re only a little bit surprised when
your very first step through the door yields a crunchy crackle.
“What did I step on?” you wonder. Dark yellow
fragments carpet the floor, and you shatter more of them as you
slog through the jumble toward your roommate, who is dejectedly
slouching in the kitchen.
“I was trying to cook something,” he mumbles.
“For your contest.”
The crunchy splinters used to be lasagna noodles.
If a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters could
eventually re-create the magic of Shakespeare, he continues, then
he alone with a thousand noodles would definitely be able to come
up with a good lasagna recipe by the end of vacation.
“Because I’m way smarter than a thousand
monkeys,” he explains.
Judging by the tomato sauce on the ceiling and the pervasive
smell of molding cheese, that isn’t exactly the case.
Fortunately, while your roommate has spent his break
systematically destroying the apartment, you’ve been testing
lasagna contest entries. If he promises never to try this again,
you say, you’ll be happy to share the winning recipe.
Andrew Fraser, who graduated from UCLA in 2004 with a degree in
international development studies, sent in a recipe that was the
cheapest to make, the easiest to prepare and the fastest to
cook.
Most importantly, Fraser’s lasagna dominated the taste
test judged by some of the Daily Bruin’s finest writers and
the cast of UCLAtv’s “The Mike & Ben
Show.”
“Here’s what you need,” writes Fraser:
– 15 ounces of ricotta cheese
– One and a quarter cups of Parmesan cheese
– Half a cup chopped fresh basil
– One egg, lightly beaten
– Half a teaspoon each of salt and pepper
– Nine to 12 fresh lasagna noodles (available at Trader
Joe’s)
– Two to four cups of mozzarella cheese
– One 32-ounce jar of your favorite marinara sauce
And here’s everything you have to do to keep those
ingredients from becoming your apartment’s new interior
design scheme:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix ricotta cheese, one cup of the Parmesan cheese, egg,
salt, pepper and chopped basil until creamy.
3. Spoon marinara sauce into the bottom of an eight-inch square
lasagna pan. Cover the sauce layer with three lasagna noodles, a
thin layer of ricotta mix, a quarter of the mozzarella cheese and
another layer of sauce.
4. Repeat these layers until only three noodles remain.
5. Top the last noodles with the remaining marinara sauce,
mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.
6. Cover the lasagna with aluminum foil to keep the top from
burning.
7. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake 15 minutes
more.
8. After taking the lasagna out of the oven, cool for 10 minutes
before serving.
Don’t take Raab’s word for it; judge for yourself. To read
the second- and third-place recipes, e-mail Raab at
lraab@media.ucla.edu.