Can I Make These Cute Towers of Lasagna Encased by Meatloaf?

I had some ground beef in the fridge and I was watching this Twisted YouTube video and I wanted to try to make these cute towers of meatloaf stuffed with lasagna. One funny part is that they used a glass and pressed on the ground beef to form the tower of meatloaf. I wanted to see if that worked. :)

Wednesday, November 6, 2019, Attempt #1:

In the video, they make a meatloaf with an Italian flair for the outside (with garlic cloves, tomato paste, breadcrumbs, parsley, salt & pepper) and for the lasagna filling -- they use pre-made pasta sheets and slices of mozzarella cut into circles as well as a ricotta for the different layers of the lasagna.

They started with 16 oz. of ground beef and somehow got 6 well-formed mini-towers.

I started with 8 oz. of ground beef. So I did a half-recipe, but I didn't measure too closely. I didn't use tomato paste (didn't feel like buying a can for only 1 tablespoon) or garlic cloves (didn't feel like chopping up garlic. :) )

I was working on learning how to make my own pasta, so I decided to make my own pasta for the little discs instead of using pre-made pasta sheets and cutting them into circles.

https://www.wearegoodatthis.com/post/can-i-make-pasta-dough

I also used mozzarella string cheese (it all melts the same. :) ) instead of mozzarella slices and I snuck some frozen spinach into my ricotta mixture.

Other differences from what I did and the video are that they bake it in the oven at 350 degrees to cook it and then grill it also to melt the cheese on top. I just baked it and then I added tomato sauce/mozzarella and then I microwaved it to melt the cheese and warm the tomato sauce.

What I used:

Meatloaf

- 8 oz. of ground beef

- 2 eggs

- 1/3 cup of Italian breadcrumbs

Lasagna

- ~1 1/2 string cheese (torn into pieces)

- Homemade pasta dough cut into circles in place of lasagna sheets

- ~1/4 cup of ricotta with some spinach added

Supplies: Mixing bowl, plate for preparation, baking pan/oven safe dish.

I preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

I combined all the ingredients for the meatloaf. I tried to take some ground beef and press a cup onto it to form a tower -- like in the video. It didn't work too well. :) The meat did not really form the sides or the tower and the meat kind of got stuck to the cup. When I tried to remove it, it kind of fell apart.

I then moved my prep to the baking pan and formed the meatloaf towers in the pan I was going to bake them, so there would be no transferring.

For the 2nd tower, I just put the beef in the baking pan and pressed down and sculpted the beef into a tower without using a cup.

I layered the pasta (which I had boiled/cooked already), mozzarella pieces and ricotta/spinach mixture inside the tower.

I also saved some beef to top off the towers.

I only got 2 towers out of 8 oz. of ground beef -- instead of 3 that would be expected. And it turned out one was bigger than the other. Haha. :)

I baked them at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Then I added tomato sauce/mozzarella on top and then I microwaved it to melt the cheese and warm the tomato sauce.

RESULT: Success/Failure. :)

We are good at this? / We are good at this. They look a little malformed and when I tried to them one out of the pan, it resulted in a "leaning" tower of lasagna encased by meatloaf (picture on the right). But they tasted good! My pasta dough was a little on the thick side & may have resembled dumplings like chicken & dumplings -- more than fresh pasta. Haha. :)

Overall, the final plate (below this next row of pics) looks pretty good. I could have intended it for it to be a "leaning" tower of lasagna encased by meatloaf.

The final plate is with the mini-Sartu di Riso (risotto cake with melted fresh mozarella and tomato sauce inside). To learn more about it, check out the link below.

https://www.wearegoodatthis.com/post/can-i-make-mini-sartu-di-riso

For the next time I try it, I will spray the cup I use with cooking spray, so the meat doesn't stick to it when I'm trying to form the tower. Or just use my hands to sculpt the towers like I did for the 2nd tower here. Also, I will wait longer after they come out of the oven before transferring them. It may have needed a little more time to set. But it was lunch time and I was hungry, so I just moved it as soon as it was done. Haha. :)