By July 2020. Birthday week. Twenty-seven. The fifth miyeokguk. This year the soup was made in the Fremont kitchen with James beside me — the first birthday soup made with a partner present, the first birthday where the honoring of the mother who bore me was witnessed by the man who loves me. James watched me make the soup (he has watched me cook a thousand times but the birthday soup carries a different weight) and said, "What are you thinking about?" I said, "The woman in Korea." He said, "I hope you find her." Not "you will find her" (he does not promise what he cannot control). "I hope you find her." The hoping is the partnership.
The birthday was small — James and me, Sujin and Daniel (outdoor, distanced), and a Zoom call with Karen and David and Kevin. The food: miyeokguk, James's beef noodle soup, a Korean green tea cake from a bakery that is doing pandemic delivery. The cake was beautiful and slightly squished from delivery and we ate it with chopsticks because forks felt wrong at a Korean-Taiwanese birthday.
Karen sang Happy Birthday on Zoom. Off-key. The tradition. The constant. I am twenty-seven and my mother sings to me off-key every birthday and the off-key is perfect because the key of love is never the right key, it is always slightly off, always human, always Karen.
Saturday: Bellevue birthday dinner. Karen's lasagna — the tradition that predates all other traditions. My miyeokguk. David's brownies. The birthday table in Bellevue, five years of Korean food around it, the miyeokguk that appeared in 2016 and has been at every birthday since. Karen said, "Every year this soup means more." She is right. The meaning accrues. The soup gets deeper. The birthday gets fuller. The twenty-seven is just a number. The fullness is the everything.
The miyeokguk is the newest tradition, but Karen’s lasagna is the oldest one — it was at the Bellevue table before the Korean soup, before James, before any of this fullness I am still learning to hold. When Karen sets that pan down, something in me settles. This is her recipe, the one she has made for every birthday that predates all other traditions, and I want it here because the birthday table is never just one story: it is lasagna and miyeokguk and a squished green tea cake and off-key singing, all of it at once, all of it meaning more every year.
Donna Lasagna
Prep Time: 30 min | Cook Time: 1 hr | Total Time: 1 hr 30 min | Servings: 10
Ingredients
- 12 lasagna noodles
- 1 lb ground beef (80/20)
- 1/2 lb Italian sausage, casings removed
- 1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 jar (24 oz) marinara sauce
- 1 can (14.5 oz) crushed tomatoes
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 32 oz whole-milk ricotta cheese
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- 3 cups shredded low-moisture mozzarella, divided
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan, divided
Instructions
- Cook the noodles. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles 1–2 minutes less than package directions (they will finish in the oven). Drain, drizzle lightly with olive oil, and lay flat on a baking sheet to prevent sticking.
- Build the meat sauce. In a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, brown the ground beef and sausage, breaking into small pieces, about 8 minutes. Drain excess fat. Add the onion and cook until softened, 4–5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook 1 minute more. Add the marinara, crushed tomatoes, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Simmer uncovered over medium-low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Mix the ricotta filling. In a large bowl, stir together the ricotta, eggs, parsley, 1 cup of the mozzarella, 1/4 cup of the Parmesan, and a generous pinch of salt until fully combined.
- Layer the lasagna. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spread 1 cup of meat sauce across the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish. Layer 3 noodles over the sauce. Spread 1/3 of the ricotta mixture over the noodles, then 1/3 of the remaining meat sauce. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup mozzarella. Repeat layers twice more (noodles, ricotta, meat sauce, mozzarella). Finish with a final layer of noodles, the remaining meat sauce, the remaining mozzarella, and the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan.
- Bake covered. Cover tightly with aluminum foil (tent it slightly so it doesn’t stick to the cheese) and bake for 35 minutes.
- Bake uncovered. Remove the foil and bake an additional 20–25 minutes until the top is golden and bubbling at the edges.
- Rest before serving. Remove from the oven and let the lasagna rest at least 15 minutes before slicing. This is not optional — it is what holds the layers together.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 480 | Protein: 31g | Fat: 22g | Carbs: 39g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 720mg