Lasagna

Great classic lasagna with Italian sausage, lots of basil and lots of cheese. Making lasaga is an effort I want to be able to freeze some for later. This recipe makes two full trays and sometimes enough for a small third square pan, it may not be as pretty as the first two but it's still good! (Side note: once I completely forgot the basil in this recipe and it was still fabulous.)

(Yield: two big pans of lasagna) Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 5 1/2 pounds Italian sausage, casings removed

• 2 lbs ground beef

• 2 yellow onion, chopped (about 1 cup)

• 10 garlic cloves, chopped

• 2 tbsp dried oregano

• 1 tsp dried crushed red pepper

• 100 oz Nina's Italian Peeled Tomatoes (the huge can from CostCo)

• 28 oz Rao's tomatoe sauce (or your brand of choice)

• 3 cups (packed) fresh basil leaves, chopped *divided

• 32 oz ricotta cheese

• 20 oz grated mozzarella cheese (about 4 1/2 cups) *divided

• 1 1/2 lbs grated Parmesan cheese *divided

• 3 large eggs

• 1 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper

• 4 packages of no-boil lasagna noodles (I like the brand with wavy noodles vs the flat noodles)

• non-stick cooking spray

Instructions

Prepare sauce

1. Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat.

2. Add onion and cook until translucent. Add sausage and ground beef, sauté until sausage is cooked through, mashing sausage into small pieces. Then add garlic, oregano and crushed red pepper stirring until fully combined.

3. To the sausage mixture, add canned tomatoes with juices and tomatoe sauce, smashing the whole tomatoes into smaller chunks. Bring sauce to boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Prepare filling

1. Mix chopped basil (reserve 2 tbsp for garnish before serving), ricotta, 1 1/2 cups mozzarella, 1 cup Parmesan, egg, salt, and pepper in medium size bowl. If the filling seems dry add another egg, should be creamy.
   

Lasagna assembly

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. Spread 1 cup of sauce, to just coat the bottom of 13x9 baking dish.

3. Take five uncooked noodles (or enough to cover entire bottom of pan, overlapping is okay) and spread filling over each noodle, like spreading cheese on a cracker. Place noodles evenly in dish. Sprinkle with 3/4 cups mozzarella cheese and 1/4 Parmesan cheese. Repeat layering of sauce, noodles, filling and cheese 2 more times. Top with remaining 3 noodles. Spoon remaining sauce on top of noodles. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.

4. Spray large piece of foil with nonstick spray. Cover lasagna with foil, sprayed side down. Bake lasagna 40 minutes.

5. Carefully remove foil. Increase temperature to 400 F. Bake until noodles are tender, sauce bubbles and edges of lasagna are golden and puffed, about 20 minutes.

6. Remove from oven, garnish with reserved 2 tbsp basil, and let stand for 15 minutes before serving. (adapted from Bon Appetit)