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We love Italian food and decided to try and put a new twist on lasagna by using ground venison AND cooking it on my smoker. By building a big oak fire in the fire box, we created a wood fired oven that turned out the best lasagna I've ever had!
Here's what you'll need:
Olive oil
2/3 cup chopped onion
1 lb. sweet Italian sausage
1 lb. ground venison
3-4 cloves of minced garlic
2 14.5 oz cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes
2 cups tomato sauce
12 oz. of tomato paste
1 cup water
1 tsp fennel seed
2 tsp basil
2 tbs fresh parsley
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp black pepper
lasagna noodles
24 oz. Ricotta cheese
1lb grated mozzarella cheese
I turned my offset smoker into a wood fired oven for this cook by building a bigger fire than I normally would in the fire box. I used red oak and brought the temp up to 350-375 degrees, which is hotter than I would use to smoke a rack of ribs but perfect for this application. You could do this recipe with any kind of grill or smoker that you have. The goal is to be able to maintain a 350 degree fire for around an hour, so build your fire accordingly. Once the fire is burning and coming up to temp, prepare the lasagna by browning the Italian sausage and the ground venison in a pan with olive oil, the chopped onion and the minced garlic. Once the meats have browned, stir in the fire roasted tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste. Once mixed well with the meats, onion and garlic, add the fennel seed, basil, parsley, salt, Italian seasoning and black pepper and stir to thoroughly mix the ingredients. Let the sauce simmer on low to medium low heat for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Boil the lasagna noodles in water to al dente. Add a teaspoon of olive oil to the water to help prevent sticking together. When the noodles are ready, coat the bottom of a baking pan with a light coat of olive oil and spread a layer of the meat sauce in the bottom. Next, place a layer of noodles, ricotta cheese followed by mozzarella.
Repeat the layering process, leaving the final lasagna noodles and mozzarella cheese for the top layer. Cover the pan with foil and place on the smoker.
When the smoker temperature has leveled off at around 350 degrees, place the lasagna on the smoker and cook covered for 25 minutes. If you suspect you have a "hot spot" on one side or the other, rotate the pan around using oven mitts. At the 25 minute mark, remove the foil and cook uncovered for another 25 minutes, or until the top has browned slightly and the top layer of cheese is melted.
Let the lasagna stand for 10 minutes or so before serving. The faint wood smoke gives it the extra flavor to make this a classic!
