Lasagna is a one of my absolute favorite pasta dishes! The creamy ricotta and strings of melted mozzarella all layered between noodles, fresh sauce and chunks of meat, how can it get any better than that? Here is my Lasagna recipe, I hope you enjoy it 🙂

Ingredients:

You will need a deep dish lasagna pan if you don’t have one a disposable lasagna pan will work & you can get these right at your dollar general stores

• 1  16oz Box of Lasagna Noodles Cooked According to Box Directions
• 6  Cups Pasta Sauce (you can use jarred but homemade is better, feel free to use my spaghetti sauce recipe)
• 2  Cups of Freshly Grated Parmesan & Romana Cheese (freshly grated makes a huge difference)
• 1  LB of Sausage (sweet, med, mild or hot the choice is yours I use sweet personally)
• 1  LB of Lean Ground Beef (I use 90% lean beef because the sausage is greasy enough)
• 1  Medium Sweet Vidalia Onion Finely Diced
• 2  Medium Peppers Finely Diced (green, red, yellow or orange the choice is yours)
• 3  Cloves of Garlic Crushed
• 2  TBSP Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 2  TBSP Italian Seasoning
• 2  tsp Ground Red Pepper
• 3  Fresh Basil Leaves Finely Chopped (if using dried basil use 2 tsp)
• 1  16 oz Container of Ricotta Cheese (I use Galbani Whole Milk, it’s a richer taste)
• 2  Eggs Beaten
• 1 LB  Freshly Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
• 1 8oz Package of Sargento Sliced Provolone Cheese (it comes as 8 slices)

 

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350*

• In a large frying pan cook your sausage, hamburger, onions, peppers and 2 cloves of your crushed garlic, black pepper, 1 TBSP of the italian seasoning, red pepper and half of the basil, until cooked and crumbly
• Drain the fat from your meat and set aside
• Next take a medium sized bowl and add your ricotta, 1 Cup of the freshly shredded parmesan and romano cheese, 1 clove of crushed garlic, 1 TBSP of the italian seasoning, the other half of the basil and the beaten eggs
• Mix everything into the ricotta until completely combined.  Add 1 1/2 Cups of the fresh mozzarella to the ricotta mixture and blend well
• Now you will want to set everything up on your counter, your cooked meat, cooked lasagna noodles, spaghetti sauce, ricotta mixture, the rest of your mozzarella & grated parmesan and romano cheeses

 

Assembling Your Lasagna:

1.  In your deep dish lasagna pan pour 1 cup of your spaghetti sauce into the bottom and spread evenly around the  bottom
2. Take 4 of your lasagna noodles and put them on top of your sauce lengthwise, overlapping the noodles so they fit in the pan
3. Cover the noodles with a layer of your mozzarella cheese, thinly but covering the noodles
4. Layer your meat mixture over the top of the mozzarella, just a single layer covering the cheese completely about 2 cups
5. Sprinkle your parmesan and romano cheese over the meat
6. Take another 4 noodles and put them on top of the grated cheeses, overlapping to fit like before
7. Cover the noodles with about 1 1/2 Cups of sauce spreading it so it’s evenly distributed around the noodles
8. Put 4 slices of the provolone cheese on top of the sauce
9. Take half of your ricotta cheese mixture and spread it evenly over the provolone cheese
10. Cover the ricotta cheese with a about a cup of your mozzarella cheese evenly distributing it over it
11. Cover the mozzarella with another 4 lasagna noodles
12. Continue layering starting with step 3 until you are almost to the top of your pan
13. For the topping of your lasagna, cover your last layer of the lasagna noodles with a good helping of sauce spreading evenly and taking the rest of your mozzarella and freshly grated parmesan and romano cheeses.  Sprinkle with a little more italian seasoning to finish off the top if you would like
14. Cover your lasagna with aluminum foil and bake in your preheated oven for 45 minutes covered on the middle oven rack
15. Remove the foil after 45 minutes and continue cooking for about another 30 minutes or until the cheese begins to brown and it starts to become bubbly on the sides
16. Remove from the oven and let the lasagna rest for about 15 minutes before cutting into it so that the lasagna has a chance to set

 

Serve with a fresh garden salad and some freshly made garlic bread 🙂