You would never know it if you walked into my house now, but I like things to be very neat and tidy. I hate clutter. And messes. I like everything in its place, and I love organization. Then I became a mother to 2 young children who hate to sleep. Now my house, and my person, perpetually look as though they have just been ransacked. I'm too tired to try to tame the shitstorm that develops every day, so I just try to ride it out and make sure my kids are still alive at the end of the day. I've had to reach a place where I can at least tolerate, if not appreciate, a little chaos and messiness.
This is even evident in my cooking. Back in the days of entertaining friends as a young, childless wife, if I had been asked to make a lasagna, I would've made a long simmered Bolognese sauce and lovingly layered it with a béchamel sauce and perfectly par-cooked lasagna noodles. It would've been a thing of beauty. But a lot of things in my life are a lot less beautiful now. (Not my kids though; they're flipping adorable.) So have I come to tolerate enough chaos and clutter that I can abide by a pile of lasagna components in a big sloppy mess on my plate? Heck yeah, I can. Well rested people can boil lasagna noodles and patiently layer them into a masterpiece while sipping a fine Chianti. The rest of us can break uncooked noodles into pieces and chuck them into a pressure cooker while we refill a plastic cup of boxed wine from Target. When your life is messy, I think it's totally cool if your food is, too.
Deconstructed Pressure Cooker Lasagna
I used my 8 quart Instant Pot and made a lot of this because I was feeding 4 adults plus wanting leftovers for lunches. So this makes a lot, as written. To use a 6 quart cooker, cut the ingredients in half (including the water) but keep the cooking time the same. If you use Italian sausage, expect that you may need to drain the grease after you cook the meat. That can be slightly annoying, so if that step bothers you, just use a very lean ground beef and you shouldn't need to drain it, but the flavor is obviously a bit more interesting with the sausage in there. FYI, I think this would be great with a bunch of curly leaf spinach thrown in after cooking and wilted down briefly. Definitely going to try that next time.
1 Tbs. oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 yellow and 1 red bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic
1 lb. lean ground beef (or 2 lbs. if you're not using Italian sausage)
1 lb. Italian sausage (optional)
28 oz. diced tomatoes seasoned with basil, oregano, and garlic (do not drain)
24 oz. jar of spaghetti sauce of your choosing
4 cups water
1/2 tsp. salt
1 lb. lasagna noodles, uncooked and broken into approx. 1" to 2" pieces
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup ricotta cheese
Turn the pressure cooker on saute mode and add the oil. Once the oil is very hot, add the onion and bell peppers and cook about 5 minutes until the onions are softened. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the meat and cook until no longer pink. Drain away the grease, if needed. Add in the diced tomatoes and their juice, spaghetti sauce, water, salt, and uncooked lasagna noodles. Give it a good stir so that all the noodles aren't sitting in a big pile on top of each other or they may stick together. I like to try to get them as submerged in the liquid as possible. Lock on the lid and change from saute mode to manual and cook on high pressure for 4 minutes, then do a quick pressure release.
Stir in the Parmesan and mozzarella cheese until well distributed and melted. Add salt to taste, dollop spoonfuls of the ricotta on top, and serve.
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