Worlds Best Lasagna
I love lasagna. Like really, really, really love lasagna. I’m lucky that my hubby and kids also love lasagna, so I make it often. Although for some reason my kids hate the word lasagna, so we call it ‘Flat Spaghetti’ in my house. No matter what the name, this recipe for World’s Greatest Lasagna will be loved by everyone!
World’s Greatest Lasagna
: Sarah
: Dinner, Vegetarian
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This is a great meal to make for Sunday Dinner or for a party. You can get it all prepared the day before, take it out of the fridge the day of the party, let it sit on the counter for about 30 minutes so it comes to room temperature and follow the baking instructions below.
Ingredients
- 1 Package lasagna noodles
- 1 (19 oz) Package mild or spicy italian sausage ~ For all the love in the world, don’t substitute the sausage for ground beef! The sausage adds so much more flavor! You’ll be happy you said, “NO!” to the beef.
- 2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
- 1 TBSP sugar
- 1 yellow or white onion diced
- ½ diced bell pepper
- 4 garlic cloves diced
- 1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
- 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
- 1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
- 2 tsp oregano
- 2 heaping tsp fennel seed
- 1 heaping tsp of dried basil
- 1 tsp garlic salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ¼ tsp red crushed pepper
- 2 chicken boulion cubes. If cooking vegetarian, leave this out.
- 15 oz of ricotta cheese
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup chopped parsley
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- 1 cup finely shredded parmesan cheese
- 1 pound shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat.
- Take sausage out of its casing. I like to take a steak knife, cut it lengthwise down the sausage, just enough to cut through the casing and them turn them inside out to get the meat out.
- Add meat to pan and cook until done. While it’s cooking, chop up sausage into bite size pieces.
- When sausage is done add: sugar, garlic, onions, & bell peppers.
- Cook approximately 5 minutes until onion is opaque.
- Add: basil, oregano, fennel seed & tomato paste. Cook 10 minutes.
- Add: crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic salt, chicken bouillon, black pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes.
- Bring to boil and then reduce heat to low. Let simmer for 1 hour, stirring frequently.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- While sauce is simmering prepare ricotta mixture. In a bowl combine: egg, ricotta cheese, nutmeg & parsley.
- Cook noodles according to package, until they’re al dente. It’s fine if they’re somewhat still firm, they’ll finish cooking in the oven.
- Layer lasagna in a 9 x 13 inch baking pan: 1½ cup of Sauce, layer 4 noodles over each other, ½ ricotta mixture, ½ parmesan cheese, ⅓ mozzarella cheese, 1½ cup of sauce, 4 noodles, remaining ricotta mixture, remaining parmesan cheese, ⅓ mozzarella cheese, 1½ of sauce and 4 noodles.
- Cover tightly with foil and bake for 30 minutes. I like to place the lasagna pan on a cookie sheet to catch any overflow of sauce.
- Remove foil, sprinkle remaining mozzarella cheese on top and bake an additional 15 minutes.
- Take out at let rest for 25 minutes.
- You can use the extra sauce on each piece of lasagna. Or feel free to sop up the extra sauce with bread and eat it, like I do. Someone’s gotta taste the sauce and make sure it’s yummy!
Notes
To make this vegetarian, leave out the sausage and chicken bouillon. Want to get some extra veggies in? Add some on top of the second sauce layer: eggplants, mushrooms, some chopped up spinach. Super tasty!
