Maybe, for the reasons you stated, July is a slow lasagna month, so the lasagna lobby got it proclaimed "Lasagna Awareness Month" to try to increase sales.

Lasagna is a Christmas Eve tradition in our house. It is such an important tradition, as a matter of fact, that at some point we quit eating lasagna except on Christmas Eve, to make it even more special.

It worked.

When I was a kid, I would spend my December nights dreaming of Santa, in anticipation. Now I spend those nights dreaming of lasagna.

Sounds like it was a bad joke started by the Garfield comics.

For once Wikipedia is way off base. The overwhelming majority of "awareness" dates are cooked up by PR or advertising firms in hope of getting a little press for their clients. They're as phony as a $3 bill.
That said, lasagna is a great dish. We almost always have a tray of it in our freezer (it's one dish that freezes well) from Trinachria on Paca Street. Try their meatballs and stuffed shells too.

Believe it or not, Sandbox, there is a National Pasta Association (website at ilovepasta.org), which acts as the trade association for U.S. pasta manufacturers. It's possible that they got somebody to issue a proclamation, although, curiously, there's no mention of Lasagna Awareness Month on their website. There doesn't appear to be a separate trade group limited to the lasagna industry.

I seldom make lasagna because it seems to require every pot and pan in the house, but it is at least in my top 5 favorite dishes. What's not to like? pasta, cheeses, sauce?
I also can't imagine baking anything in this weather with my new improved AC setting of 80 - 85 degrees (gee, thanks Constellation Energy).
Maybe I like it so much because I so seldom have it!

I agree with Mrs. Large- why July? Not only is it too hot to have your oven going at 350 degrees, but lasagna is also a very heavy meal, which isn't ideal as a lunch or dinner during the summer months (in my opinion). With that being said, I LOVE lasagna, and it is definitely one of my favorite meals. It's one of the reasons I look forward to the weather getting cooler in the fall- it's time to bake some lasagnas!

I love lasagna as well, both meat and vegetable!

My mom makes a spinach lasagna that is rolled, its pretty good and its not super heavy. Too bad she's up in Baltimore and I'm here or I go visit and ask her to make some.

Grabbed this recipe off the internet, it's the closest to the one that I've had and made in the past. Another very yummy take on lasagna! BTW, I skip the crab, the sauces and stuff make it impossible to taste it in there anyway!

SEAFOOD LASAGNA - SHRIMP, CRAB AND SCALLOPS IN WHITE SAUCE
Preparation - Medium
Serves 4 - 6

A delicious dish that can be prepared ahead.

1 lb shrimp (2 cups) medium size (frozen shrimp, should be thoroughly defrosted and dried off on paper towels before sautéing) - you can also use crab, scallops, etc.
1 garlic clove, minced
3 scallions cut in 1/2 inch pieces (greens included)
2 T parsley, chopped
1 T butter
1 1/2 cups béchamel (when making sauce use only 1 cup milk)
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup dry white wine
few threads saffron
cayenne pepper, (optional, to taste)
3/4 cup Fontina, provolone and mozzarella cheese mix , shredded
1/2 cup freshly grated pecorino or Parmesan cheese
8 lasagna sheets, cooked 'al dente' (we have not had success with pre-cooked)
salt and ground black pepper

PREHEAT oven to 375 deg. F.

IN a saucepan, melt 1 T of the butter, sauté the garlic until transparent - do not brown or burn.

ADD the shrimp and toss over high heat for 1-2 minutes.

ADD scallions and parsley, stir and continue cooking till shrimp lose their transparency.

REMOVE from heat and set aside.

PREPARE the bechamel using just 1 cup of milk as you will be adding the cream and white wine to it.

WHEN béchamel is ready, stir in the cream, wine, saffron,cayenne and salt and pepper to taste, blend thoroughly and remove the sauce from the heat.

SPREAD about a third of the sauce over the bottom of an 8 x 10 or round pie pan.

SPRINKLE 1/2 the cheese mixture Fontina/mozzarella over the sauce.

SCATTER about half the shellfish evenly over the cheese.

COVER with half the lasagna sheets. Repeat the layers finishing with the last sheets of lasagna.

COVER with the remaining sauce and Parmesan and a few threads of saffron.

The layers, from the bottom:
Sauce
Cheese
Seafood
Lasagna
Sauce
Cheese
Seafood
Lasagna
Sauce
Parmesan (and some ground black pepper if you wish)

BAKE for 30-40 minutes or until the topping is golden brown (keep and eye on it, you don't want the top to burn).

Let stand for about 10 minutes before serving.

Lo Chef

I haven't been able to post on this today, as i've been busy at the Lasagna parade, the lasagne eating contest and buying various lasagne T-shirts and other trinkets.

Wow and yum JW, that reads like food porn. But isn't lasagne a little heavy for july? Even seafood lasagne?

And where is Piano Rob?

And, speaking of multiples, has anyone else noticed multiplying Jims recently?

RoCK...you cracked me up. Thanks.

Bourbon Girl - To be sure - way too heavy for July...unless someone else makes it and serves it to me in their air conditioned to 70 degrees home!
BTW, can tell me - Jack Daniels...Bourbon or Whiskey? On-going debate over here!

Yes, where is Piano Rob? At least Robert who RoCKs has checked in with his fans, and RtSO is still cracking us up.

From the article EL linked to: Dr Lasagna, dubbed "Father of Clinical Pharmacology", also invented "The Oath of Lasagna", a contemporary version of the Hippocratic oath that is used in many American medical schools today.

Maybe National Lasagna Awareness Day is actually commemorating Dr. Lasagna and not the food at all.

I usually make lasagna once every other month or so. Since it's just hubby and I, it makes for a lot of planned leftovers.

Back in my old single days, lasagna with a wonderfully fresh simple green salad, homemade garlic bread, and a nice Chianti was my "seduction dinner." Dessert was something with chocolate sauce...

According to the Official Attendance Records of the Roberts Association, the member known as Piano Rob has missed the last 2 meetings. In accordance with Attendance Rule 4-5972.b.7, should such member miss a third meeting, he will be reduce to a Bob. A fourth absence will result in forfeiture of membership and reduction to a Joe.

Harsh, perhaps, but necessary.

Rosebud -- nowadays, "a nice Chianti" goes with fava beans and, um, some other stuff.

I made a lasagna from scratch once. A friend was moving, and since I couldn't help with the boxes, I wanted to make sure she had food.

I started making it at 9:30 pm. At 2 am, I decided the blasted noodles were thin enough. At 3 am, I ran to the store for more ricotta. at 4:30 am, I decided I would nap for an hour before work.

After delivering it, I was too tired to eat any. I still have no idea how it turned out.

Jack Daniels is Tennessee Whiskey.

I know why July! Oddly enough I just made a lasagna for the first time in a long time. But only because I'm one of those suckers who bought a share from "One Crop" Farm and am simply desperate to use up my chard and kale. Why didn't someone warn me....? I know other things are in season, is there just a better profit margin for greens?

Okay, get out the brick bats, I already have on my helmet and am standing in the fox hole: Stouffer's meat sauce lasagna, available in multiple sizes, and wonderful. Why would anyone spend 8 hours cooking when a few minutes in the microwave turns out something so good?

*waves* Um, I'm a number 3-B here, I don't like lasagna...

Well, it's not that I don't *like* it... I mean I don't, but for the (valid, I feel) reason that it will cause me to toss my cookies repeatedly and with great fervor, as I am, in fact, allergic to tomatoes.

If it weren't for that I'd probably like it a lot. Cheese and pasta are two of my favorite things.

Debra, never fear about the CSA. Assuming you're referring to One Straw Farm, as the parodied name suggests, you'll soon have about 4 kinds of eggplant, 4 colors of bell peppers (including funky purple), a variety of hot peppers, squash and zucchini, tons of tomatoes (regular big boy or something, heirloom, and cherry), corn, onions and garlic, fresh basil (if you don't grow it in your yard like I do), cucumbers, watermelon, hard squash come fall - um - I can't even remember what else I got there last year. There are a few frustrating weeks of greens, but once the variety comes in, it really comes in.

I had co-workers who thought I was mental last year when I'd come into the office and force them to admire the bounty I'd just picked up.

I'll join you RtSO. Stouffer's does make a very good lasagna and when you're cooking for one, its perfect.

Mark is correct, Jack is TN whiskey.

If I recall correctly, for an alcohol to call itself bourbon on the label, it has to come from Kentucky.

TwoToedSloth -- you ought to try a tomato-free lasagna recipe (which uses a Béchamel, Mornay, or other white sauce instead of tomato). Lots of recipes can be googled online. Even Stouffer's has a vegatable lasagna with a Parmesan and Romano sauce, and a chicken lasagna in a cream sauce.

RtSo and Rob in PCB FL -- I ocncur in the thumbs up for Stouffer's lasagna, although the "single serving" size of 10.5 ounces (for the basic lasagna with meat and sauce) is woefully inadequate -- I gotta have all 21 ounces of the large size.

I'm sure there are a lot of 'guys' (opps, ladies) on this blog who will think the Stouffer's 10.5 ounce lasagna a BIG serving. I view it more as an appetizer.

hmpstd--the mind boggles! I could feed a family of four with the 21 oz. lasagna! Where do you stow it all?

hmpstd:

Hmm, I had no idea that such things existed. Then again I never looked. I sort of assumed that it was just the nature of the beast. I'll have to look into that. Any that you'd recommend in particular? Or anyone else, for that matter?

TwoToedSloth -- I don't have a particular recipe to recommend, although Joyce W.'s above recipe for Seafood Lasagna in White Sauce looks good for starters. (D'oh! Why didn't I mention that in my original response?!?) For those with seafood allergies, chicken and/or spinach could be substituted.

Dahlink -- to paraphrase the classic Lucky Charms commercial, let's just say that the 21-oz Stouffer's serving will not be a balanced part of a complete and nutritious dinner -- it's more likely to be the dinner, the whole dinner, and nothing but the dinner.

Which Stouffers is 10.5 oz? I'm confused because they have the single serving size, the family size and the party size and I don't know where this one falls. In any case, the single serving size is never enough by itself, and the family size is enough for 2 in our house! We could be considered errrr piggy though...
Sloth, see recipe above for seafood lasagne, bechemel, white wine, cheese, noodles - no red sauce. For already made without red sauce I agree that Stouffer's Veggie lasagne is actually very good.

Oh, Dahlink, 21 oz. to feed 4? The full amount doesn't even cover a whole dinner plate. I do understand, though. My mother and a friend of her's use to share a single size Celeste pizza for dinner. Oh, sure, they had a salad, but that's not even a full slice at most joints. (BTW, at 6'2" the standard hollow leg holds plenty. And I sprang for the value size.)

I'm not a food snob, but I honestly don't know how anyone who has EVER eaten homemade lasagna could settle for Stouffer's, unless they were in a desperate lasagna withdrawal panic. Blech.

When it's not too hot to light the oven (as it is now), I love to make lasagna from scratch. Early fall is a good time, because I can use the last of my home-grown tomatoes in the sauce. I like thick, chunky, substantial sauce.

Making lasagna really isn't that complicated or labor-intensive, once you have a system. Mine takes about 45 minutes to pull together, and then 45-60 minutes in the oven. I do use store-bought, no-boil lasagna noodles, which speeds things up considerably. I brown and crumble in Italian sausage, and add capers and lots of fresh garlic for extra zing. Since there's only two of us, if company isn't coming I split up one batch and cook it in several small loaf pans, so I can easily freeze and thaw smaller servings. One loaf pan generally gives us dinner for two one night with lunch leftovers for two the next day.

As for why July is National Lasagna Awareness Month, I can only quote Saturday Night Live: "Who was the marketing genius who came up with THAT?" ;)

So you did it again...here is another pregnant reader now craving lasagna!

Funny thing is, I have not met a lasagna that I like better than my own. And you can make a small portion, when I was single I would make it in a small loaf pan and then freeze the remaining part of it for another meal.

I hearby declare July to be National Midnight Sun Month and August to be National Whoooosh Month.

Mr. Sessa, is there a t-shirt?

Linda -- I agree that homemade is better, but when you get home late from work, and you haven't had the foresight to made a batch in advance to keep in reserve in the freezer, you can nuke the Stouffer's in the time it takes to preheat the oven.

Joyce W. -- for the basic Stouffer's lasagna with meat and sauce, the "Single Serve" is the 10.5-oz size, and the "Large SIze" is the 21-oz size. Other flavors and sizes are available. As always, YMMV.

I think OMG must have fallen into a cenote; I know for certain he'd be in this thread otherwise. I'm concerned for his welfare. But I do welcome the arrival of Bucky. And that he appreciates RoCK.

Has anyone ever tried Marie Callenders lasagna? I've only had it once but remember that it was also quite good for frozen.

hmpstd - I'm cracking up because I'm realizing that when we are splitting the large size, we are having exactly what's in 2 "single serves". You R so right YMMV!

I'm wondering if Snickers was in the parade.

Bourbon Girl -- better for Snickers to be in the parade than to be in the lasagna.

Yes, Robert! Once you pay taxes and a nominal convenience fee.

Joyce W, as much as I like Marie Callender dinners, especially pot pies, I don't like the lasagna at all. The texture is mushy and the taste is just not what good lasagna ought to be. My choices for pre-prepared lasagna are Pastore's Italian Deli or Stouffer's.