Since my mother is Italian, I grew up eating all sorts of Italian food when I was young. My mom cooked pasta, alfredo and eggplant parmesan. One of my favorites being lasagna. I loved when my mom made homemade lasagna because of all the rich flavors layered together.
My mom makes this meal on holidays and social gatherings. My mom learned to make authentic lasagna from her mother. My mom’s mother was an immigrant from Italy in the 1960s so she brought several Italian dishes and traditions with her to America. As my mom grew up she taught my mom to make these dishes which now my mom makes for the family. When I was younger my mom and I would make this dish together. It was my job to put a layer of pasta in the pan as my mom put down the other layers.
We used to make lasagna with meat between the layers, but since now I don’t eat meat anymore, she has modified the dish so that I can still enjoy it. It must have been difficult for her to accept that I didn’t eat meat anymore since I grew up eating it. But my mom never backs down from a challenge. Since she had only learned to make it with meat, this allowed her to become creative. After several trial and errors she finally perfected the dish. She uses different ingredients such as vegetables like tomatoes, onions, and red peppers as layers in the dish instead of meat. Even though it is still not the traditional lasagna recipe her mother taught her, it has become its own tradition with me and my mom. My moms still wanted to keep this recipe in the family, even though she had to modify it. My mom has always enforced the importance of family and keeping family tradition alive. I believe it was a good challenge and change for her because my mom always loves trying new things in the kitchen.
Recipe:
- Onions
- Garlic
- Red peppers
- Mushrooms
- Canned whole tomatoes
- Parsley
- Ricotta cheese
- Mozzarella cheese
- Eggs
- Salt and pepper
- Lasagna noodles
- Bread crumbs
