Ya'll won't tell, will you?
Mike’s Italian Sausage Hearty Tomato Lasagna
Ingredients:
2 tbs olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped fine
6 medium cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 lb Italian sausage-removed from casings (I like my Italian fennel recipe, of course.)
¼ cup heavy cream
28 ozs canned tomato puree
28 ozs canned diced tomatoes
15 ozs ricotta cheese
2 ½ ozs grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tbs Italian seasoning herb blend-may use fresh herbs if available
1 tbs dried basil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
½ tsp table salt
½ tsp fresh ground black pepper
12 no-boil lasagna noodles
16 ozs shredded mozzarella cheese, whole milk or skim
Cooking Directions
Pre-heat oven to 375
Heat oil in large deep cast-iron skillet over medium heat, add onion and garlic. Cook and stir until softened-about 2-4 minutes. Add herb blend and cook/stir an additional 2-4 minutes. Increase heat to medium high and add sausage and cook, stirring and breaking up meat with wooden spoon. Cook until pink is gone but not brown-about 5-8 minutes. Add cream and simmer, stirring occasionally until liquid evaporates-about 5-8 minutes. Transfer meat mixture to saucepan and add tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and simmer slowly until flavors are blended, at least 30 minutes. Set sauce aside.
Mix ricotta, 1 cup Parmesan, basil, egg, salt and pepper in medium bowl with fork until well blended and creamy; set aside.
Coat bottom of 9X13 baking dish with ¼ cup meat sauce. Place 3 noodles on top of sauce. Drop 3 tbs ricotta mixture down center of each noodle. Spread evenly. Sprinkle evenly with 1 cup shredded mozzarella. Spoon 1 ½ cups meat sauce evenly over cheese.
Repeat layering of noodles, ricotta, mozzarella and sauce two more times. Place three remaining noodles on top of sauce, spread remaining sauce over noodles, sprinkle with remaining cup mozzarella, then with remaining ¼ cup Parmesan. Lightly spray a large sheet of foil with nonstick cooking spray and cover lasagna. Bake 30 minutes, remove foil. Return to oven and bake until sauce is bubbling and noodles are soft, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool about 10 minutes before serving.
This recipe borrows heavily from one by Cook’s Illustrated on Yahoo! Food website but I made numerous substitutions and a few corrections so I decided to write a recipe I could use.