Lasagna

If you have a great meat sauce and a cheese filling using fresh high quality cheeses, you can't go wrong. I used my favorite meat sauce that I had made and froze some for later use. I thinned it out a little with some marinara sauce.

Lasagna
Adapted from foodwishes.com
Serves 9-12

Ingredients (for a deep 15" x 10" lasagna pan):

For the meat sauce:

1 pound Italian sausage

1 1/2 pound lean ground beef

8 oz mushrooms, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

6 cups marinara sauce

1/2 cup water

Note: depending on the seasoning of your sausage, you can add 1/2 teaspoon of an Italian dried herb blend.

For the cheese filling:

2 egg, beaten

2 lbs whole milk ricotta cheese

8 oz soft fresh mozzarella cheese, cubed

2/3 cup freshly grated Reggiano-Parmigiano

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

big pinch of cayenne

The rest:

1 lb lasagna noodles

8 oz soft fresh mozzarella cheese, torn in small pieces

1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese to top

In a large skillet and over medium heat, brown hamburger and sausage together, breaking up into as small of pieces as possible. Stir in chopped mushrooms. Add salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Turn heat to medium high until meat is brown and all the liquid from the mushrooms evaporates. Add marinara sauce and water. If using jars of marinara, rinse the jars with water and use that for the water. Bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 hours. Add water as needed if sauce gets too thick. Skim fat off the top if desired. After 2 hours, turn off the sauce and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat eggs with a whisk. Add ricotta cheese, cubed mozzarella, and grated Reggiano-Parmigiano . Add parsley, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Mix well.

Boil lasagna noodles according to package in salted water. Drain and rinse noodles. Keep in cold water.

To assemble:

Preheat oven to 375.

Spread 1/4 of meat sauce in bottom of lasagna pan, about 3 cups. ( I used 3 cups of my favorite meat sauce.) Top with 1/3 of the lasagna noodles ( probably 6). Carefully spread 1/2 of the cheese filling. Top with 1/4 of meat sauce. (Again, I used 3 cups of my favorite meat sauce.) Layer 1/3 of the noodles. Spread the rest of the cheese filling on top of the noodles. Top with 1/4 of the meat sauce (about 3 cups).

At this point, shake the pan a little to settle it. Layer the remaining 1/3 of the noodles. Broken noodles are fine. Piece them in It all cooks up right. Top with the remaining meat sauce. Make sure all the noodles are covered. Dot with fresh mozzarella and sprinkle with fresh Parmesan.

Cover loosely with foil. Do not let the foil touch the cheese. Place on cookie sheet in case of spillover. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil. Bake for 30-35 minutes more until golden brown and bubbling. Let sit for 20 minutes before cutting into squares.