Seafood Lasagna

Today, we had my family over to celebrate Thanksgiving. I made two kinds of lasagna, one traditional with ground beer, and the other - a seafood lasagna. Served with two kinds of salad (Caesar and tossed) and garlic bread. All and all - I think it was a success! :)

Travis found this seafood lasagna recipe for us to try. It is from Paula Deen, and I think that should speak for itself! It's really easy to make and SOOOOOOOO delicious. Definitely adding it into our meal rotation!

Paula Deen's Seafood Lasagna

• 12 lasagna noodles
• 3 T unsalted butter
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced (or about 2 t of minced garlic)
• 3 T all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 cups half and half
• 1 cup grated romano (HEB carries this preshredded)
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 black pepper
• 3/4 pound medium shrimp (peeled and deveined)
• 3/4 pound sea scallops (cut in half or quartered if very large)
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees (F). Spray 13x10 aluminum foil pan with cooking spray.
2. In a large pot of boiling water, cook the lasagna noodles until they are done (about 8-10 mins). Drain and set aside.
3. Melt butter in a large, heavy skillet and cook onion over low heat until very soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook about another minute or two. Over medium-low heat, stir in the flour with a whisk (stirring constantly).
4. Gradually add in the half and half, allowing the sauce to thicken slightly before adding more. When the sauce has thickened to the consistency of whipping cream, add the cheese and stir well.
5. Add the salt and pepper and stir again. Add the scallops and cook for about 3 to 4 minutes, then add the shrimp and cook for 1 to 2 minutes (or just until the shrimp turn pink). Turn off heat.
6. Tricky part: Make sure you are watching your sauce distribution so you have enough for each layer and some for the top! Spoon about 3 T of the sauce (with no seafood) in the bottom of the aluminum pan. Cover the bottom of the pan with 3 noodles, placing side by side. Spoon the sauce (with seafood) over the layer of noodles. Add another layer of noodles, more sauce. And continue until you get to the last layer of noodles. Cover this layer of the noodles with the sauce only (no seafood). Top with the parmesan cheese.
7. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, uncovered, until bubbly. Allow to sit for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

A couple of MY notes: I used about 6 oz of crabmeat (claw) instead of the scallops and it was fabulous. I would make a little bit more of the sauce (basically I would increase all of the ingredients by just a little bit), just to make sure it was extra saucy and cheesy! And lastly, I added an additional 1/4 t of white pepper to the recipe.

I loved this recipe and would highly recommend it to anyone (that likes rich, cheesy, seafood dishes!). It's really easy to make - since most of your ingredients are made into one pot. The most time consuming part of this recipe is boiling the noodles (I did them in batches of 6).

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!