Lasagna has always been my mom’s go to meal for company. When we were kids, she always seemed to have a pan of lasagna in the freezer, just in case. I realize now how much pre-planning that required. It takes at least 24 hours in the fridge to thaw out a lasagna, then another hour or more to bake it. And the initial assembly isn’t quick, although it is easy. Mom always made spaghetti sauce in huge batches, so when it came time to make a lasagna, she had some sauce ready to go. We had Cool-whip containers of frozen sauce in our freezer at all times too. You can imagine the disappointment when someone opened a cool whip container expecting sweet white fluffy goodness, and instead found spaghetti sauce. I know, I should have known by the weight, but I really wanted it to be cool whip. Anyway, this is similar to my mom’s lasagna recipe, except that she always used cottage cheese in place of ricotta cheese. I’ve gone back to the more traditional ricotta because it’s not as runny and the lasagna serves up more neatly. I’ll have to try it next time with cottage cheese and let the family vote.
Lasagna
Ingredients
- 12 lasagna noodles
- 28 oz. Hunt’s tomato sauce
- 1 lb. Italian sausage
- 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
- 14 oz. can petite diced tomatoes
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- dash of Tabasco sauce
- 16 oz. container Ricotta cheese or cottage cheese
- 8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Remove the Italian sausage from its casings. In a medium to large saucepan, brown the sausage over medium heat, breaking the meat apart as it cooks so it resembles browned ground beef. Drain the fat.
- Add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, Italian seasoning, Tabasco sauce and garlic. Bring sauce to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, the longer the better.
- Meanwhile, cook the noodles according to the package directions. Use tongs to remove them from the water and spread them out on a cutting board or parchment lined countertop so they don’t stick together.
- In a medium sized bowl, mix together the Ricotta cheese, half of the mozzarella cheese, and the parmesan cheese.
- Assemble the lasagna in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Begin with a thin layer of tomato sauce in the bottom of the dish. Next cover with 4 lasagna noodles, cutting them as needed to form approximately a single layer of noodles. Use your hands to drop one-half of the cheese mixture over the noodles. Little clumps are fine since the cheese will melt in the oven. Cover the cheese with approximately 1/3 of the remaining sauce. Repeat this with a second layer of noodles, cheese, and sauce. Add the final layer of noodles on top, and cover evenly with the remaining sauce. Sprinkle the reserved mozzarella cheese evenly over the top.
- Cover the lasagna with foil
- At this point you can store it in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours, or bake it immediately. If you bake it now, it will heat up in about 30 minutes in a 375 degree oven. After it has chilled thoroughly in the refrigerator, it will need at least 60 minutes of baking. You can remove the foil for the last 10 minutes of baking if you want to brown the cheese on top. Any longer and you risk letting the top noodles dry out.
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