LASAGNA

I decided to make some lasagna yesterday. I don’t often make it because there are only two of us eating and it’s impossible to make a ‘mini-lasagna’. It simply isn’t worth the time. Besides, I had bunch of late-season eggplants and tomatoes that needed to be used up and lasagna seemed a good way to incorporate all those things. Of course, I still had to go to the supermarket to get fresh ricotta and sweet sausage, and a box, (yes, I said box) of tomatoes. Not to sound too much like a commercial, I LOVE Pomi tomatoes in the box. Anyway, back to the lasagna. After slicing, breading and baking the eggplant, and cooking each component separately, sausage, onions, mushrooms, and tomato sauce, I began to “build” my lasagna, as they say on the Food Network. Layers of mozzarella and ricotta separated layers of sausage, onions, mushrooms, and pasta, all surrounded by the tomato sauce and baked for one hour. Out of the oven came this gorgeous, lightly browned, fragrant, huge pan of lasagna. Betty and I each enjoyed a square with a nice burgundy, but now what? Our two helpings were a meager subtraction. There was still one heck of a lot of lasagna to dispose of. Well, okay,  I’ll freeze some, I thought gamely.  I cut four more helpings and put them in two freezer bags. Great. Now I only had enough to feed a small bar full of drunks at last call, arguably the hungriest group of people in the world. If I froze all that was left, I’d have an entire freezer full of lasagna. It was good, but really, how much could we eat? While it’s true we were both once hungry drunks at last call, neither of us can eat the way we used to. I left a couple of helpings in the refrigerator, so we could have it one more time this week. That still left a goodly chunk, which Betty suggested we give to our neighbor, who gave us butterfish in return. I’m going to cook the fish tonight, and our neighbor has already eaten and applauded the lasagna. I love this town.