Southwestern Lasagna
As the picture above shows, I still need to figure out how to remove casserole servings from the dish without making a big ol’ mess! Any tips?
I don’t know what it is about casseroles. I realize that they’re very 1950’s and not too sophisticated, but I just love the comfort and simplicity and melding of flavors that comes from a one-dish meal.
Thus, I’ve had my eye on Lisa’s recipe for Southwestern Lasagna ever since she first posted it in October. I finally whipped it up the other night with several modifications. I changed out the lasagna noodles for tortillas and used only pinto beans instead of black. I also added some diced green chilies to the cottage cheese mixture as well as some corn to the bean mixture. A little avocado to garnish and you’re good to go.
Thanks for the recipe idea, Lisa!
Southwestern Lasagna
Adapted from Lisa at In a Nutshell
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 45-50 minutes
Serves: 6-8
1 10 oz. can enchilada sauce
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 6 oz. can tomato paste (no salt added)
2 16 oz. cans pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 small can of corn, drained
12 corn tortillas
1 small can diced green chilies
1 pint (2 cups) cottage cheese
3 cups (12 oz.) shredded cheddar cheese
sliced ripe avocado and chopped cilantro to garnish
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, combine enchilada sauce, tomatoes with their juice, and tomato paste. Mix to blend well. Stir in drained pinto beans and corn.
Combine cottage cheese and chilies in a small bowl.
Spoon one-third of tomato sauce mixture over the bottom of a 13×9 baking dish. Top with a layer of 4 tortillas. Spread evenly with 1 cup cottage cheese mixture and sprinkle with 1 cup cheddar. Spoon on half of the remaining tomato sauce mixture.
Add another layer of 4 tortillas, remaining 1 cup cottage cheese, then sprinkle with 1 cup cheddar.
Add remaining 4 tortillas, remaining tomato sauce, and remaining cheddar. Cover tightly with foil.
Bake 45-50 minutes. Let stand at least 5 minutes before serving. Garnish with sliced avocado and serve.
oh my gawd…slurp, drool, drip drip drip…my mouth is seriously watering for some of that. ;o)
Comment by Alicat — February 16, 2006 @ 2:22 pm
Why on earth would you want to serve it without making a mess? That would totally ruin the mouth-watering effect.
Comment by Georgia — February 16, 2006 @ 9:03 pm
mmmm… that sounds so good! I might have to try that sometime
Are you going to PCOM as a student, or going there for treatments?
Comment by Melissa — February 17, 2006 @ 9:31 am
Now that just looks yummy and now I’m jonesing for some!
The only thing I can think of, is taking a picture of it still in the casserole bowl for presentation purposes. Or maybe use the smaller individual casserole bowls to bake them in? To garnish with avocado slices, those slicers made specifically for avocados can create a beautiful ‘fan’ effect, but I would go for something a bit darker green personally, to complement the dark reds and yellows.
I think I’ll make this tomorrow. That’s comfort food, right there! Mmmmmmmmm!!!!!
Comment by Tess — February 17, 2006 @ 11:07 am
First, being a casserole fiend from growing up with that as a cornerstone of my culinary knowledge, let me say: If it tastes good, it don’t need be purty.
But I will concede that there are occassions in which a soupy mess doesn’t necessarily fill the need, so here’s a couple suggestions:
1) This one is a basic: Let the dish rest a bit after cooking to make sure that things have a chance to integrate after the relative violence that is a 45 minute torture session at 375 degrees. 5 minutes might not be enough. Considering the relative density of the final product, it could go longer (20 minutes, perhaps?) without getting near the danger zone of microbial invasion, much less an unappetizing lukewarm state. Get an instant-read thermometer if you’re worried about these things. It’ll come in handy for a plethora of dishes.
2) Recipe alteration: The only binder here are corn tortillas, which aren’t terrible porous and won’t easily take on much moisture. Consider the addition of a starchy ingredient (such as cooked or par-cooked rice) that will both add their own thickening powers as well as take on some of the liquid. It isn’t even necessarily out of theme as once it integrates with the sauce, you should get something approximating the seasoned rice dishes known as Spanish or Mexican Rice in there. Bonus: It’s a dirt-cheap addition.
3) Recipe alteration: After peering at the photograph, the sauce does look a bit thin. (check the northeast edge. Maybe the cheese is throwing the coloration off.) Consider draining the diced tomatoes, but reserving the liquid and only adding as much as necessary to get things to a moisture level you want. Be a bit conservative, when you consider that there’s a fair amount of liquid being added by the cottage cheese and the green chiles (both of which have solids that will tend to wring out even more liquid as they heat) as well as the oils that the cheese are going to bring to the mix, it might just be too much, and there might not be enough evaporation in the baking time to concentrate the flavors the way you want anyway (especially if things start getting trapped within the stratified layers, typically causing vapor bubbles rather than actually escaping)
4) If you’ve got a good cheese source, consider queso blanco in place of the cottage cheese. It isn’t a big melter, so the texture will be similar, totally appropriate for the dish, and crumbling up a similar volume instead would also aid to the sauce looseness problem. If you’ve not got a good cheese source, consider folding up some cheese cloth to line a sieve and letting the cottage cheese curds drain out a bit.
5) Separate a portion of the beans and mash them up to be incorporated with the liquid ingedients to serve as a thickener. They’ve got their own thickening powers to match the same purpose as my first suggestion, but wouldn’t require alteration of the recipe for seasoning.
Just some ideas.
-transiit
Comment by transiit — February 17, 2006 @ 9:06 pm
This looks SO delicious, the fact that it’s not square makes no difference. YUM!
Comment by Erin — February 18, 2006 @ 1:57 pm