The holiday season is upon us! I tend to do at least a classic holiday meal or two. This year I am completely slammed. Between life and work, the thought of making an entire Thanksgiving feast is a little daunting! I'll never give up on opportunity to cook a ridiculous amount of food, though. I could care less what the actual holiday is supposed to be about. What holidays really are for me are an excuse to dress up and make a big fuss a meal. Whether I'm surrounded by friends and family or a little more socially distanced over the last couple of years. There's something about an extra day off of work and an excuse to make an enormous meal. That having been said, I lazy dayed this entire thing and combined my two favorite holiday dishes: mashed potatoes and lasagna.
Gallery
The photos may get worse and worse as I progressed through this lasagna. Although this one is HEAVY and I have no tables near a window that I can get any sort of natural lighting in. Not that this looks much like it has natural lighting! Because the lighting in this place is absolutely atrocious. But, trust me, it's better than the alternative. Regardless, this lasagna is a hefty one. And I honestly struggled to hold it upright with one hand while taking a picture of it with the other. What can I say? The food blogging life isn't always as glamorous as it seems. I also lost the light about halfway through the cooking process because, despite being ready to eat by 5pm? There's no daylight this late in a Wisconsin winter.
I also had to squish it down throughout the process in order to get the toppings to actually fit in the dish. Which I recommend doing on the layers with noodles. I cannot begin to describe how large this lasagna is.
Variations of Potatoes Lasagna
Mashed potatoes might be my new favorite obsession in anything and everything during this holiday season. Although I frequently make all sorts of lasagnas. They're one of my favorite things to toss together. A lasagna might seem like a timeless dish, and it is. But lasagna is really fun to mess around with and mix and match in your own favorite ingredients and flavor profiles. Even if that might be Potatoes Lasagna.
This lasagna consists of mashed potatoes, sliced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, spinach, ricotta, and a gouda-parmesan blend. You can easily mix and match your own cheese. I just so happened to have gouda-parmesan in the fridge. Although any parmesan, romano, or other hard cheese substitutes just fine.
Place in a large pot and cover with 2 inches of water. Bring to a boil over high heat and boil for 10-15 minutes, or until tender. You should be able to stick a fork in them and have it break in two pieces.
Drain and place back in the pot. Add the milk, butter, salt, and pepper. Mash with a potato masher until light and fluffy.
Lasagna Noodles
Prepare lasagna noodles according to the manufacturer's instructions. This typically entails boiling a pot of water, cooking for about 10 minutes, or until al dente. Drain and set aside.The pasta will cook another hour in the oven, so make sure not to overcook them during this stage!
Prepare Ingredients
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Lightly coat the bottom and sides of a large baking baking dish with olive oil and set aside.Mine is 13x9 inches, but any larger-sized baking dish will do. You can always cut the lasagna sheets to different sizes.
Slice the tomatoes and finely chop the spinach. I sometimes don't like to break out the big cutting board, so I'll pulse the spinach in a food processor. Although, you can easily just chop it up.
Grate the gouda-parmesan cheese.Make sure to reserve about 1/2 cup of the ricotta, fresh mozzarella, and gouda-parmesan. This will go on top of the final layer.
Assemble Lasagna
Arrange noodles in the bottom of the baking dish. They should slightly overlap to keep the noodles from separating.
Top with a layer of mashed potatoes, sliced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, 1/2 of the ricotta, and 1/3 of the gouda-parmesan.
Repeat layering noodles and the same amount of toppings.
Top off with a final layer of noodles and the reserve amount of ricotta, fresh mozzarella, and gouda-parmesan.
Bake for 50-60 minutes. The lasagna should be thoroughly heated throughout and the cheese on top will begin to brown. Let cool slightly and cut into 2-inch squares. Serve immediately.
This Page Contains Edited Images
As a general rule, I don't like to edit my images and I am firmly against alteration of images in food blogs. It's not something that we generally think about when it comes to recipes. But food styling, editing, alteration, and even faking entirely is just as rampant a problem in the recipe realm as anything else! Cooking is a very visual art and you can tell when a lot of foods are cooked based on the color. So, when this is altered and you can't use the coloration as a gauge, it makes it quite difficult to follow some recipes. I have an entire article about Food Styling and Unrealistic Expectations of Recipes.
Because of this, I try very hard not to alter any of my photos. I like to take photos with natural sunlight during the day. Ordinarily this is very true to color and I don't edit the photos at all. However, since my place is very warm with a lot of yellow lighting, sometimes my camera overcompensates and ends up with an unnatural blue tone. In the following images on this page, I adjusted the levels and hue to try and make this more true to color. In the interest of transparency, these are the before and after photos.
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