My Favorite Lasagna. The Secret is...

Image: Recipes Recommended/Lisa Schattenkirk

Probably in the top 5 favorite foods of many Americans, lasagna is without a doubt a crowd pleaser. Nobody has ever groaned after asking, "What's for dinner?" when the answer is maybe the most delicious Italian casserole you can think of. And yes, it's definitely a casserole. Also, lasagna can be adjusted to fit just about anybody's taste and dietary restrictions. I have had plenty of vegetarian and non-typical lasagnas which were on equal footing, taste-wise. Also, being a dad, I know that this is also the type of dish you can get your kids to help with. Who doesn't love piling up layer upon layer of cheesy awesomeness? And when it comes to cheese, this recipe I found sometime in the last year blew me away. I love it so much that it has replaced - almost entirely - my go-to pork and ground beef, classic lasagna. With some fun and unexpected twists, this recipe will have you asking where you can incorporate some of these ideas when making your other favorite recipes. Allow me to tell you a little bit about this cheesy tomato lasagna.

I'm not sure why I first decided to make this recipe. I think I'm wired to look at similar recipes and always choose the meat version over the vegetarian version. So, it must have been something else. Maybe what caught my eye was that almost every element was familiar, but changed significantly. What the heck am I talking about? Well, lets start with the cheese sauce, or cream element which almost all lasagnas have. I almost always expect these to be comprised of something along the lines of the following ingredients:

• Egg

• Grated Parmesan Cheese

• Salt

• Pepper

• Ricotta Cheese

• Chopped parsley

• *periodically something less common, but not all together wild like nutmeg

This simple sauce sounds great. But also kinda uninspired. It's totally fine and I'll make plenty more recipes with exactly these ingredients many more times, I'm certain. But the cheese sauce for this one isn't just different, it doesn't look like it belongs. But it does. Trust me. It has you mix corn starch, as a thickener and also to add a silkiness (instead of eggs), cottage cheese, heavy cream, raw garlic (wowza!) and pecorino romano cheese instead of parmesan. Turns out there's zero parmesan or mozzarella in this whole recipe. Bananas, I know. Off to a heck of a start.

Image: Recipes Recommended/Lisa Schattenkirk

If you were scratching your head with the cheese sauce, the tomato sauce will get you super excited for where this is headed. There's a not-so-secret ingredient. But I'll get to that and, of course why it's important. We start with finely chopped onion. In the corresponding video for this recipe we made, I regret that I didn't chop it finer, because when you do, the texture is a little bit better in my opinion. And after that's cooked down in some olive oil with typical seasoning: salt, pepper, oregano and chili flake, the magic starts to happen. First a good amount of minced garlic joins the party, as you might expect. But all of this is just prelude to the next ingredient. An umami explosion, which for some reason belongs in more dishes, but remains an ingredient some people are timid to use: Anchovies. Seriously, I thought it would be utilized for some salt and a little brininess, but oh no, my friend, this is the glue that holds this recipe together and the only reason I keep coming back. You add about half a tin of anchovies, minced and cooked with the onions for several minutes before adding the tomato products. After that point, it melts into the sauce, and you promptly forget about it until you taste the sauce later for seasoning....which you definitely won't need.

Image: Recipes Recommended/Lisa Schattenkirk

While I was researching anchovies, I came across a factoid which I think pop culture is to blame for: Apparently anchovies, at 50% are the most hated food by Americans, followed closely by black licorice at 45%. I guess I'm lucky that I like both. I also have a strong suspicion that most people who try this recipe wouldn't have a clue anchovies were the crucial ingredient. I blame the movies from the 80's, always emphasizing no anchovies on pizza. If you're old enough to remember those days, I'm sure you saw a movie starring Patrick Dempsey and Kirstie Alley called, Loverboy where practically the whole movie revolves around women ordering pizzas from Señor Pizza with "Extra Anchovies." I can't remember if I've ever even seen a pizza with anchovies, let alone seen it as an option as a topping. I'd totally try one if offered.

Open a big red wine with this beast and luxuriate in all it's goodness

The last clever cooking technique applied to this recipe is in the cooking of the noodles. While the sauce is cooking, this recipe will have you soak your lasagna noodles in hot water instead of par-cooking them. I really like this method, not only because it works, but you can and should soak the noodles in the casserole pan you’ll be cooking the lasagna in later.

Assembly is super easy and aligns with every other lasagna you've likely made. However, instead of mozzarella cheese, we use fontina in its place. The flavor of the cheese works way better than mozzarella would here, and you definitely notice that when you finally dig in. Plus, fontina cheese deserves more of a spotlight. It's great on pizza bagels, sure, but it's also totally legit here, too.

After finally coming out of the oven, let it rest, hard as that may be, for at least 30 minutes. This is true with other similar recipes. If you fail to heed this warning, you'll most certainly end up with a sloppy slice of lasagna, falling apart and not the tight and decadent slice you worked so hard to make.

Open a big red wine with this beast and luxuriate in all it's goodness. It's hard to really describe the taste. It's so rich and, although it's cheesy and garlicy, the tomatoes and anchovies really do all the heavy lifting. Did I say it's rich? So share this with friends, family, your neighbor... hopefully someone who says that they hate anchovies.