‘MURICAN SMOKED BBQ LASAGNA

Now time for the apex of my July cooking ventures for this year. It was initially planned for Independence Day but got moved because the plan was to go to the grocery store only once this month and, as a result, other things needed to be used first. I’m not exactly sure what got this idea rolling in the first place, but I’m fairly certain it was the cheese because... one would not think to use processed cheese food in a lasagna.

 

Sauce

Meat

Cheese

Lasagna

 

Like most lasagna, there are just four major components - sauce, meat, cheese, and pasta. All four of these are going to be fairly simple.

 

BBQ TOMATO SAUCE

I was going to use a more traditional tomato sauce but somewhere along the line bbq sauce just seemed right. So, I omitted the tomato sauce and added BBQ sauce to the crushed tomatoes and tomato paste instead.

 

454 g. (16 oz.) BBQ Sauce (favorite)

411 g (14.5 oz.) Crushed Tomatoes

170 g. (6 oz.) Tomato Paste

2-3 Garlic Cloves (finely chopped)

Salt & Pepper

 

* Whisk until consistent

 

57 g. (2 oz.) cubed Thick Cut Smoked Bacon

454 g. (1 pd.) 90/10 Ground Beef

454 g. (1 pd.) Italian Sausage

15 g. (1 tbsp.) Steak Seasoning

 

* Brown bacon and drain onto a paper towel

* Thoroughly brown beef and sausage with steak seasoning, drain if necessary

* Add bacon to beef and sausage

 

454 g. (16 oz.) Queso Blanco Cheese Food (brick)

113 g. (4 oz.) Shredded Mozzarella

113 g. (4 oz.) Cream Cheese

240 ml. (1 c.) Whole Milk

 

If you're lucky, you won't be able to find blanco (white) processed cheese food blocks without chiles in it, which means it will have chiles and some spiciness to it and that is perfectly alright because it goes really well with what is going on with this lasagna.

 

* Melt and whisk cheese food with mozzarella, cream cheese, and milk until consistent

 

And now you see why I wanted to use the processed cheese food.

 

227 g. (8 oz.) oven ready Lasagna Noodles

 

pan: Lasagna Pan or 13" x 9" (lasagna pans are slightly bigger 13" x 9" pans with more depth, you will not use all of the noodles if it is a standard 13" x 9" pan.)

 

* Spray bottom of plan with cooking spray

* Reserve one cup of bbq tomato sauce and cheese sauce

* Spread about 1 cup of BBQ tomato sauce in bottom of dish

* Lay three noodles evenly atop the sauce

* Add another cup of sauce

* Spread a little less than one cup of cheese sauce atop sauce

* Evenly add about one cup of meat

* Repeat as many times as possible

* Finish with noodles on top with sauce and cheese that were set aside

 

170 g. (1 1/2 c.) fresh grated Mozzarella

 

* Sprinkle mozzarella evenly over top

* Bake covered @ 375 degrees for 25 minutes, then uncovered for another 25 minutes

 

I did something a bit different and cooked this on the smoker. To do that I used one starter stack of charcoal and dumped it evenly over one 6" chunk of solid wood arranged on a small bed of charcoal. This got hotter than I was expcting, around 450 F degrees so I opened the lid and let it cool down a bit before putting the lasagana in and closing it. Also, I didn't cook it over direct heat and I think that was a good idea. I checked it and rotated it away from the side the coals were on every twelve minutes before deciding to move all the coals out of the middle and just set he pan there, I think it came out okay.

 

* Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting, but I gotta be honest, I let lasagna cool for longer than that before cutting into it.

 

'Murican Smoked BBQ Lasagna, just like Davy Crockett woulda wanted it. There's only one thing to drink with 'Murican Lasagna and alll these 'Murican dishes I've been cooking up this month - 'Murican Root Beer.

Done