Lasagna

Great classic lasagna with spicy Italian sausage, lots of basil and lots of cheese. When going through the effort of making lasagna I double this recipe and make two trays, one for dinner and put one in the freezer for later. Sometimes I have just enough leftover for a third square baking dish, I call this the 'kids lasagna', it may not be pretty but it's 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

• 2 pounds spicy Italian sausage, casings removed

• 1 yellow onion, chopped (about 1 cup)

• 5 garlic cloves, chopped

• 4 tsp dried oregano

• 1/2 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

• 1 15- ounce container ricotta cheese

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

• 2 cups grated Parmesan cheese (5 ounces) *divided

• 1 large egg

• 1 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper

• 2 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 sausage, onion, garlic, oregano and crushed red pepper; sauté until sausage is cooked through, mashing sausage into small pieces.

3. Add crushed tomatoes and diced tomatoes with juices. Bring sauce to boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer 5 minutes to love it all together. 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 1/4 cups sauce in 13x9 glass baking dish.

3. Take 3 uncooked noodles 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)