Forget Italian Sausage: Make This Meat Swap For A 10x Richer Lasagna

A great lasagna relies on several key components, so small variations of the ingredients you use and how you prepare them have a major impact on the kind of lasagna you make. This can easily be seen in Ina Garten's version of lasagna where she soaks noodles instead of boiling them. These changes can also be a major twist, like introducing a new type of meat to the dish. One of the absolute best meats to implement into your lasagna is none other than oxtail, a deeply underrated cut of beef that can completely revolutionize the staple dish.

We spoke to Chef Jasper J. Mirabile Jr. of Jasper's Italian Restaurant in Kansas City (who also hosts the radio show "Live! From Jasper's Restaurant"), and he was a big proponent of utilizing oxtail in lasagna; praising the remarkable flavor of this style of meat. "When the oxtail is cooked down, it gives such a rich and deep flavor," Mirabile explained. "There's no doubt it gives it such a richer flavor, and the texture really just puts the dish over the top because it's not like ground pork or ground beef. The oxtail just melts into the sauce ... I highly recommend using oxtails."

One of the factors standing in the way of making the switch from Italian sausage to oxtail is the perceived difficulty of making the oxtail correctly before adding it to the dish. And for good reason since many oxtail recipes take a long time to prepare and the cut is considered among the most difficult parts of beef to cook just right. Mirabile says the process is still well worth the potential learning curve and time cost. Helpfully, Mirabile explained what he believes is the best way to cook oxtail when adding it to lasagna. "In a heavy skillet, I add a little bit of olive oil and lightly dust the oxtails ... with a little bit of flour and brown them on both sides," the chef explained. "Place them in the oven for about one hour at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. I then add them to the sauce and let them cook down in the sauce for a minimum of two hours."

Patience is the biggest make-or-break aspect of cooking oxtail, as a lack of restraint can oftentimes be directly responsible for making oxtail lasagna taste subpar. "The most common mistake usually is that the oxtail is not cooked enough, and it becomes tough and just ruins the whole lasagna," Mirabile noted. "You want the meat to be shredded almost and fall apart."