Home Made Lasagna. Yum!

I have had more than a few requests for my Lasagna recipe. I had an extra block of Mozzarella from when I made Lasagna for Duke's Parents last week and I figured it was high time I got my recipe out there for the world to enjoy! This is one of my favorite foods to make and I usually make two large pans when I do make it because it can be a lot of work.

The following recipe will make one 13x9 lasagna. It can be easily doubled and adjusted for your own personal tastes.

There are 4 parts to this recipe.

They are:

• Meat Sauce
• Ricotta Cheese
• Mozzarella Cheese
• Lasagna Noodles

Let's start with the sauce. You can use any meat sauce you like, but here is my favorite!

Spaghetti/Meat Sauce:

• 2-3+ Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 med. Yellow Onions
• 3 Garlic Cloves
• 2 lbs Ground Beef
• 2 tsp Oregano
• 2 tsp Basil
• 1/2 tsp Thyme
• 2-3 Bay Leaves
• 2 cans Tomato Sauce
• 2 cans Diced Tomatoes (un-drained)
• 1 Tbsp Granulated Sugar (to take the bite out of the tomato acid)
• 2 cans Olives (to save time you can buy pre-sliced olives)*
  
  
  First, chop the onions and saute them in the Olive Oil. (Did I mention that chopping onions is one of my favorite things to do?) Use a garlic press (or you can dice it), to add the garlic to the onions. Cook the onions and garlic until translucent. Add the ground beef, 1 tsp Oregano, 1 tsp Basil, and 1/4th tsp Thyme.
  

Stir well, breaking up the ground beef into small pieces and cook until browned. (I have a theory that how well a dish tastes is directly related to the flavor of the meat. I ALWAYS add spices to ground beef while it is still cooking.

Once the meat is cooked, add the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and the rest of the spices (1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp basil, 1/4 tsp thyme, and 2-3 bay leaves.) Stir and let simmer on low-med while you prepare the mozarella and ricotta cheese. I prefer a slightly more wet lasagna so I use 2 cans of tomatoes. If you like it a little more dry, use 1 can of tomatoes If I were to make this sauce for spaghetti I would use only one can of tomatoes.

A few minutes before you are ready to assemble your lasagna, slice the olives and add them to the sauce.

*This is why I need two cans of olives. That and I don't like mushy olives so it usually takes me to cans to get the amount of olives that I need. Oh yeah, and I like to eat them while I cook!

Ricotta Cheese Filling:

• 1 16oz container of Ricotta Cheese
• 1/2 C Grated Parmesan
• 1-2 tsp Basil

Dump the ingredients in a bowl and mix them up

When it's done it will look like this.

Mozzarella:

You'll need about 4 cups of cheese. Normally I buy a big bag of grated Mozzarella at Costco but last time I was in a hurry. At Fred Meyers, 4 cups of grated Mozarella cost twice as much as a 2lb block of cheese. I opted for the block and then grated it myself. (Next time I'll go to Costco) So whether you buy it grated or in a block, you need 4 cups or 2 lbs of Mozzarella.

No Bake Lasagna Noodles from Barilla!!!

I have known about these noodles for a long time but I was always to afraid to try them. I had always boiled my noodles and they turned out ok. What if I slaved all day making Lasagna and these no bake noodles didn't cook? It was more risk than I could handle! If you have been using these for years, please don't make fun of me. Fear is fear, people!



Let me just say, "I will NEVER use any other type of noodles!" These no bake noodles have revolutionized my Lasagna baking! No more boiling large vats of water just to fit regurlar sized noodles. No more prying hot sticky noodles off of each other and then ending up tearing them anyway. No more burnt fingers! And did I mention the time I saved not having to boil noodles? Anyway, you need one box of noodles per Lasagna.

Oh yeah, they taste great and have a nice texture too!

Lasagna Assembly:

Get the meat sauce, mozzarella, ricotta, and noodles all set up anywhere you have room. I do it all on the table. Make sure you've sprayed your baking dish with Pam. It's not necessary but it really makes cleaning up easier.

First, spoon a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the pan (so the noodles don't stick.) Then lay 3 noodles on top of the sauce.

Next, mash a small amount of the ricotta flat in your hands, then put it on top of the noodles to make a thin layer.

On top of the ricotta, spoon a layer of sauce and then a layer of mozzarella.

The very top layers are noodles, sauce and then mozzarella.

Repeat the layering process until the dish is full or until you run out of filling. I always end up needing to put my pyrex on a baking sheet to catch boil-overs. If you have something deeper, you can use that and then it is less likely to spill.

Cover with foil and bake at 375° for 45 minutes. Then uncover and bake for 15 minutes until the cheese is nice and bubbly. I like to Broil it for a few minutes too. I usually put Skewers in the Lasagna and make a sort of tent with the foil because if the cheese touches the foil, it will all come off when you take the foil off.

The finished product!

Enjoy!

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