Marcus Yam/The New York Times Sandra Lee’s lasagna, as prepared by the Dining section staff.On Tuesday, the Food Network star Sandra Lee’s cooking — specifically her lasagna — took a public knock from her possible future mother-in-law, Matilda Cuomo, mother of the New York State attorney general and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo.
Ms. Lee’s lasagna recipe calls for two cans of condensed Campbell’s tomato soup and a container of cottage cheese. When a reporter from the news channel NY1 asked Mrs. Cuomo whether her son might prefer the tomato-soup version to his mother’s own, she dismissed the idea.
“That’s not how you make a lasagna,” Mrs. Cuomo said, gently (but firmly).
We took Ms. Lee’s recipe for a spin, and found that Mrs. Cuomo had a point.
Ms. Lee’s popular, cheery cooking style (read all about it at semihomemade.com) could be described as “all shortcuts, all the time.”
In her lasagna, described as her grandmother’s recipe and a treasured family heirloom in her book “Semi-Homemade Cooking 2,” a slurry of tomato soup (specifically Campbell’s), apple cider vinegar (Heinz), and dried oregano (McCormick’s) stand in for a long-simmered tomato sauce.
Ms. Lee’s lasagna is a breeze to put together, especially the shopping, which required only a brief pause in the produce section, for an onion. Pre-minced garlic, lean ground beef, noodles and a package of shredded mozzarella cheese round out the ingredients list. Tasters at the Dining section found the results “cafeteria-style” and sweet, even “ketchuppy,” but most of us agreed: we’ve had worse.
In a 1983 New York Times profile of Mrs. Cuomo, then a new resident, along with her husband, Mario, of the governor’s mansion in Albany, Marian Burros dwelled on Mrs. Cuomo’s lasagna but did not reveal details of the recipe. However, the fact that Mrs. Cuomo’s mother came from Messina, in Sicily, suggests that her meat sauce would likely be spicy, made with both pork and beef, and flecked with fennel seeds and fresh herbs.
Around the time Ms. Lee’s cookbook containing the recipe was published, she was being paid to promote various Campbell’s brands. According to a Campbell’s spokesman, she no longer has a financial relationship with the company. (She is, however, on tour with Charlie the Tuna, promoting StarKist tuna fish and the charity Share Our Strength.)
We’re awaiting a recipe from Mrs. Cuomo.