I am such a pasta lover and I love to make this dish because I can make it ahead of time and cook it later. It’s a very decadent recipe and there are no skinny tips! Just enjoy it.
Ingredients
Ricotta Mixture
3 cups part skim Ricotta cheese
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 box frozen spinach, thawed and water squeezed out
¼ cup Italian parsley, chopped
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon granulated garlic
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
6 hot Italian sausage links, casing removed
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups yellow onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
8 ounces brown mushrooms, sliced
2 (8 ounce bags) shredded mozzarella cheese
1 (8 ounce bag) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 package lasagna noodles
3 jars Rao’s Marinara sauce (or high quality bottled marinara sauce)
Directions
Bring a pot of salted water up to boil. Add the lasagna noodles and cook until al dente, stirring occasionally so the noodles don’t stick. Drain the noodles. Rinse briefly and lay out all the noodles flat on clean dish towels until ready to use. This drains the noodles of all water.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large Dutch oven or sauté pan, add the olive oil and heat to medium heat. Add the Italian sausage and cook for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned, using a wooden spoon and breaking up the sausage into small pieces as it cooks. Add the onion and mushrooms and cook for about 5 minutes longer, or until the mushrooms have released all their liquids and the onions start to color. Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Turn heat off and set aside.
Meanwhile, mix all the ingredients for the ricotta mixture in a medium sized glass bowl. Set aside.
To put the lasagna together you need a 3 ½ inches tall and 12 inches long rectangular casserole pan. I bought mine at Target. Do not use a brownie pan as it is not deep enough for this lasagna. At the bottom of the pan add a little marinara sauce so the noodles don’t stick when you start layering. Add a layer of lasagna noodles to the bottom of the pan making sure to cover the entire bottom, slightly overlapping each piece of lasagna. Add 1/3 of the ricotta mixture spread out evenly on top of the noodles. Then add sauce, making sure to cover generously the lasagna noodles. Add 1/3 of the sausage mixture on top of sauce. Add ¼ of the mozzarella cheese and cheddar cheese. Start another layer the exact way. You should be able to stack 4 layers of lasagna noodles. On the top of the last layer, spread sauce and cheese only. Cover with aluminum foil, slightly tented so that it doesn’t touch the top of the cheese layer and put in the oven for 1 hour. Remove the aluminum foil and cook for another 15 minutes or until the cheese is lightly browned and bubbling. Remove from the oven and let sit uncovered for 15 minutes before slicing. This way the cheese won’t run out when you slice it.
Serves 6-8
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