During my childhood, holiday dinners at our house were always somewhat chaotic. We were a family of six so the kitchen table was quite crowded already, and with company added to the mix, things became really tight. Before Thanksgiving dinner, my father would go into the cellar and bring up ‘the board’ while my sister and I set the table. Then the arguments about who had to sit on the dreaded board began. This narrow board was placed on two chairs, bridging the space between to create and extra 'chair' for the loser. The second of four girls, I was a shy and skinny kid, quite invisible at times. As you might guess, I was always the loser who sat through those special dinners, feet dangling, being ever so careful not to lean backwards. There was only one extra chair in the house that would fit at the table, a little antique ice cream parlor chair with a poorly padded seat; that was my mother's chair since most of her time was spent running back and forth serving people and, for her, comfort was not an issue.
The traditional Thanksgiving meal at the Sorrentino house never varied; it began with individual antipasto plates, then turkey soup, followed by a huge pan of my mother's homemade lasagna. She worked for days preparing all the ingredients, from the perfectly seasoned meatballs to the fresh crepes that she used in place of packaged lasagna noodles, and every year she would call my Aunt Lena to ask her the exact same question, "What goes on the top layer?" By the time we finished the first three courses, no one really wanted the turkey with all the trimmings. Most years, the turkey was put on hold for a few hours while we lazed around, too full and tired to do much more than watch our tiny TV. Lin’s Labor of Love Lasagne Pizza is a tribute to my mother's labor intensive lasagna which was only prepared twice a year. I prepared this pizza with freshly made dough, home made marinara sauce and freshly baked meatballs. You, however, can cut the labor and keep the love by using purchased dough, sauce and meatballs when making this pizza.
We were amazed at this pizza's sheer deliciousness. It had the depth of flavors one would expect from a nicely baked square of lasagna, yet was not overly heavy as lasagna
can sometimes be. The ricotta melted enough to soften all the way through, yet held its shape and browned perfectly. My only suggestion would be to have enough ingredients on hand to make two of these pizzas, especially if you are feeding them to a hungry group of Italians as I did for the initial testing! One bite of Lin’s Labor of Love Lasagne Pizza brought me right back to the ‘good old days’ and I had to resist the temptation to say, “Get the board!”
You may have noticed a discrepancy in the spelling of the word 'lasagna' throughout this blog. The word as I have spelled it in the name of this pizza is the accepted Italian spelling - which is the way I learned it. The accepted American spelling is lasagna. I am torn since I feel a greater pull to use the spelling I learned as a kid, but did not want to offend my non-Italian readers; whether you spell it with an e or an a at the end, it still means the same thing - Italian comfort food at its best.
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