Is that a cupcake? Or is it lasagna?

Over the weekend, I sort of went on a shopping rampage at East Village Cheese. I picked up brie, monterey jack, cheddar cheese, mozzarella and ricotta cheese. Hopefully, green furry things won't start sprouting on the cheese before I figure out what to do with it.

I decided to make my own version of Dweezil and Lisa's Lasagna Cupcakes. I say modified, since I sort of changed things around-- I combined the recipe with one that I found on epicurious for one-step lasagna. It actually turned out okay, and I learned that you can use dumpling wrappers instead of lasagna pasta. Pretty neat.

So I started by preparing the tomato/meat sauce.

Heat up a pan, then add olive oil.


Toss in some chopped garlic.

After the garlic browned for a while, I threw in

some chopped onions. (I am thinking about buying a food processor, since I feel like I spend so much time chopping. But, maybe I should improve my chopping skills first?)


After the onions had softened and turned slightly clear, I threw in half a pound of ground pork. I would normally use beef, but mad cow has me a little freaked out. Plus, I like pork anyway.


After the pork changed color, I opened up a can of tomato sauce and tossed it in. I wanted to add some chopped tomatoes too, but at that point, I was too tired to do more chopping.


Here are the spices I used. Let's see there's red pepper flakes, oregano, basil (fresh is always better, but hey I have the dry stuff too), and bay leaves.


Then I let it simmer for about five minutes.


Here are all the cheeses. There's the fresh ricotta, low-fat mozzarella (I wanted to buy regular, but it actually cost more!) and parmesan. It took me a while to grate all that cheese. Blah!


Then here is the first cupcake. I used cupcake wrappers, which in retrospect, I sort of regret. After the cupcakes cooked up, the lasagna got all stuck to the wrappers! In any case, first I added one layer of won tons.


Then I added a cheese layer, putting in half ricotta, a lot of mozzarella and a dash of parmesan.


Then I put a layer of tomato sauce. Yum, I love tomato sauce.


Then, after realizing that the won ton wrappers were too big for the cupcake tins, I cut the won ton wrappers up into quarters. I put a layer of these on top of the tomato sauce.


So more cheese, more tomato sauce, more won tons, you get the idea. I topped it off with a layer of mozzarella and parmesan. Here's the final product before I put them in the oven.


All done! Don't they look yummy? The tasted pretty good, just like normal lasagna. I guess the won ton wrapper was a little thinner than normal lasagna pasta though. Maybe in the future I'll add two layers instead of one.

So that's the lasagna. Homer took some to work the next day, and when he was taking them out to heat up for lunch, someone mistakened them for real cupcakes! Heheh. I guess the trickery worked!!

But should you try this recipe, remember, do not use cupcake wrappers. They get all stuck!

So now I still have another half pound of ricotta cheese to use. What to do?! Maybe I'll make up a pan of regular lasagna, since I have a million dumpling wrappers left also.

Another day, another delectable duck.