Need the perfect side for your next family party? This pasta salad is sure to please with its tangy touch of pickle paired with spicy Polish kielbasa sausage.
I’ve been eating this family recipe for as long as I can remember. It makes me remember warm summer nights paired with my dad’s barbecue chicken.
Its easy enough, anyone can make it! And we have most of the ingredients on hand.
Polska Pasta Salad
Meals for a Crowd, Pasta, Salad, Sides
Ingredients
2lbs ditalini pasta, prepared (You can use any short pasta)
2 red bell peppers, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 Polska kielbasa sausages, quartered and chopped
3 large whole dill pickles, cubed
1 can black olives, sliced
2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup mustard
1/2 cup dill pickle juice
Instructions
Combine all ingredients
Serve fresh
Notes
**If you are not serving the pasta immediately, prepare another recipe of mayonnaise, mustard, and pickle juice in a separate bowl. Over time the pasta will absorb the dressing, so you may need to add more when it comes time to serve.
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Now, I don’t throw the word “extreme” around lightly. So when I tell you this lasagna is extremely cheesy, you can take that to the bank! You may need to go to the bank, actually, and get a loan to afford all this cheese!
We don’t indulge in this lasagna very often. We look all year long for major deals and then we buy in major bulk. A local restaurant supply liquidation store we frequent recently had huge 6lb blocks of mozzarella on sale for $8 a piece! So we grabbed a couple. The next week we came back and they still had a ton, and because the sell by dates were getting close they had them for…
…wait for it…
2 for $8! We grabbed as many as we could, cut them into 1 lb blocks, and bagged them up for the freezer. We’ve been slowly working through the cheese. This lasagna made a dent in our stash, but it was sooooo worth it!
Its got 4 pounds of cheese. Four pounds! It was almost hard to take out of the pan.
This traditional Italian dish is perfect for your next family get together. Big enough to feed a crowd and please them all!
Extreme Cheese Lasagna
Cheese, Dinner, Italian, Meals for a Crowd, Splurge
Ingredients
For the Pasta
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups of flour
If you are not making your own pasta 1 box of lasagna noodles
For the Sauce
64 oz tomato sauce
2/3 cups of Italian seasoning
1/8 cup of garlic powder
1/8 cup of onion powder
Layering ingredients
2 lbs of ricotta cheese
2 lbs of mozzarella cheese
1 lb Italian sausage links
1 lb ground Italian sausage
Instructions
Homemade Noodles –
Put the flour into a mixing bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour.
Crack eggs into the flour, pop yolks and mix flour into the eggs in the well using a fork. Then thoroughly combine mixture until you have formed a dough. If it sticky, add small amounts of flour until the desired consistency. If dry and cracking, add small amounts of water until the desired consistency.
Use an adjustable pasta roller to finish the dough. Place the dough through the roller at the largest size setting. Adjust the roller down a size and roll pasta sheet through again. If holes form in the sheet fold in half and place back into roller at the same thickness you just used. Continue rolling pasta, adjusting to next lowest setting until desired thickness. Cut noodles to desired width and about 1” longer than the pan you are going to use to make the lasagna.
Dry flat – pasta will shrink slightly as it dries. Store in an air tight container until ready to use. Do not pre-cook noodles before adding to the lasagna.
Make the Lasagna
In two separate pans, fry ground sausage and sliced link sausage. Once fully cooked, remove from heat and set aside.
If cooking immediately, preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
It’s time to layer! Begin with a light layer of sauce on the bottom of the pan. Place first layer of noodles, covering bottom. Do not worry if there is space between noodles as long as it is less than half an inch between each one. Add half of the remaining sauce. Layer on 1lb of ricotta cheese in 1TBS sized dollops, then spread evenly. Layer on 1lb of mozzarella cheese. Layer on half of the ground sausage and half of the sausage links, spread out evenly.
Repeat layers with remaining ingredients except for mozzarella. Place remaining mozzarella on top, making sure to cover completely.
Place loose layer of aluminum foil over pan.
If freezing – tightly wrap entire pan in plastic wrap. Freeze flat. Before cooking, thaw in refrigerator overnight. Once thawed bake as normal.
When ready to bake, place lasagna pan on cookie sheet to prevent dripping messes in the bottom of your oven.
Bake covered for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 25 minutes.
