My Favorite Lasagna

Nothing says comfort food like lasagna, and nothing lasts for several meals like a nice big lasagna. In fact doesn't that just bring more comfort knowing that dinner is ready for more than one night.  I love lasagna and even though it may seem like a production, it's really quite easy and well worth the effort.

One of the most important factors is the sauce, please don't waste your time using sauce from a jar.  This sauce is easy enough to throw together and will make all the difference. In fact, double the sauce recipe and put some away in the freezer for a quick pasta dinner on a lazy night.  I actually did it the other way around.  I made a double batch of sauce a night or two earlier and then decided to use the rest for this lasagna. It came together super fast and lasted for several days.


My Favorite Lasagna

Sauce

1 lb ground beef

1 T olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

8 ounces mushrooms, sliced

1 green pepper, chopped

4 cloves garlic, crushed

2 - 32 ounce cans crushed tomatoes

¼ cup red wine

20 or so basil leaves, cut into slivers

salt and pepper

2 T. Honey

1 lb lasagna noodles, cooked

salt

Ricotta Mixture

32 ounces part skim ricotta

½ cup grated parmesan cheese

16 oz whole milk mozzarella, 12-13 ounces cut into small chunks, the rest shredded and reserved for later

1 egg

1 teaspoon salt

   

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare large pan with cooking spray.  Start with the sauce.  Brown ground beef in olive oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. Once browned add onions and saute for 2-3 minutes, then add mushrooms, green pepper and garlic.  Saute for about 5-8 minutes. Add the remaining sauce ingredients and allow it to simmer while preparing the ingredients for the other layers.

Cook pasta in salted water according to the directions on the package. Drain and set aside in cool water until needed.

In a large bowl, mix the ricotta mixture ingredients.

Assemble lasagna:  pour about 1 cup or so of sauce in the bottom the pan.  Then line the bottom with 4-5 noodles.  Top with 1/3 of the ricotta mixture. Add a layer of the sauce. Repeat noodles, ricotta and sauce 2 more times.  Top with the remaining noodles and then the rest of the sauce. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes to an hour or until bubbly.  The pan I use is a huge a Polish stoneware pan and it takes longer to bake in this pan than others, so start checking at 40 minutes if using a glass or aluminum pan.  Once the lasagna is nice and bubbly, remove foil and sprinkle the reserved mozzarella on top.  Return to the oven for a few minutes for the cheese to melt.  Allow the lasagna to set for at least 15-30 minutes before slicing.