LASAGNA

Two recipes in a day?? ALRIGHT.

As the title suggests, I made a lasagna tonight. I followed a recipe (of course), but now that I know basically what's in it and the baking temp and all the particulars, I would say I could come up with one on my own. I will definitely let you know how it goes.

Anyhow, here's what went down.

Pasta sauce, canned tomatoes, garlic (between the pasta sauce and tomatoes), parmesan, mozzarella, ricotta, ground sausage, and lasagna noodles! The great thing about these is that they were no boil which was a definite time saver! 

First things first, preheat your oven to 375. 

I always brown meat with chopped onion and garlic. It's just personal preference. 

Browned meat! 

These are the tomatoes going in. 

Mix those together and let them simmer to thicken. 

Aww yeah! 

While that was simmering and thickening up, I cracked two eggs into a bowl and whisked them so they were well mixed. 

After that, I added in the 15oz container of ricotta cheese and 1/2c of parmesan. 

Wee cheese! 

I mixed that up a bit, and then added 2c mozzarella on top of that. I added it after I started mixing, because I honestly forgot I should add it until the end. 

All the mozzarella! 

Once that was mixed, you're ready to start layering. In a rectangle pan, I honestly don't know the dimensions, I added about 2c of the sauce to the bottom. 

Doesn't look like much, but it made it delicious! 

After that you start layering! Woo! In this pan, I fit 6 noodles across. They overlapped a little, but it works. 

First layer! The next layer was the cheese mix. 

This is about half of the cheese mixture. I added parmesan onto this layer because I felt like this layer needed more. On top of that, goes another cup-ish of the sauce. 

It doesn't look like much, again, but it will all come together. Repeat the lawyers until you finish. Noodles, cheese, sauce. 

This is the final product. There is mozzarella and parmesan on top. The recipe calls for mozzarella only, but again, I felt like it needed more, so I added parmesan on top. Once this is done, put it in for 45 minutes covered with foil. For the last 10 minutes, I took off the foil and let it bake. When you take it out, let it sit for about 5-6 minutes to set up before you cut into it! 

Isn't it beautiful? It was a bit oily, but that's just because I was too lazy to drain the excess fat/oil from the beef before making the sauce. Other than that, this lasagna was DIVINE. Ugh. 

Whew. that was long. It seems complicated but it's really not, there's just a lot of components that need to be assembled separately before they can be assembled together. 

Here's the picture-free version. 

Ingredients: 

1lb ground sausage                                   4c shredded mozzarella 

1/4 onion, chopped                                  3c shredded parmesan 

2 garlic cloves, minced                             Lasagna noodles 

1 14.5oz can of diced tomatoes                 2 eggs

1 16oz jar pasta sauce                              15oz ricotta cheese 

1. Preheat oven to 375. 

2. Sautee onions and garlic. I didn't let them get too translucent before adding the sausage to avoid burning. 

3. Brown sausage. 

4. Add diced tomatoes with juice and pasta sauce to browned sausage. Bring to a nice bubble then simmer to allow it to thicken. 

5. In a medium sized bowl, whisk the 2 eggs. 

6. Add in ricotta, 2c mozzarella, and 1/2c parmesan. Mix well. 

7. Grease your pan. I believe it's a 9x13" pan. 

8. Spread 2c of the sauce mixture on the bottom. I used a very estimated 2 cups. I added until there was enough to just cover the bottom. 

9. Layer 6 noodles across the bottom. Overlap them to make them fit. 

10. Add about half of the cheese mix and spread. I then added about 1/2c parmesan as I felt this layer needed more. 

11. Add about 2 cups of the sauce. Again, I just added enough to barely cover. 

12. Repeat the layers. 

13. On the last layer, top with the remaining 2c mozzarella. Again, I added about 1c shredded parmesan to the top. 

14. Bake for 45 minutes covered with foil. 

15. For the last 10 minutes of baking, remove the foil. 

16. Let sit for 5-7 minutes before cutting and serving. 

Enjoy!!

I hope you like this recipe! It is easily variable, so make it your own! I think this would be fabulous with spinach added into the cheese and a bit of oregano into the sauce. Let me know what you think! Did you change it in any way? If so, how? 

xoxo, 

Rachel