Lasagna

Lasagna is one of those things that everyone seems to like and everyone has their favorite way to put it together.  There are so many options for what you can put into a lasagna - different types of sauce, hamburger, sausage,  veggies, ricotta cheese, cottage cheese - the list is endless.  This is my mom's recipe and therefore my favorite.  My sauce is a little sweet (and it's also basically the same sauce that I used to make spaghetti) and I prefer ricotta cheese rather than cottage cheese but it's a recipe that I think most anyone would like.  This recipe is very versatile so feel free to add whatever you like.  I've added onion and mushrooms to the sauce in the past, which works well.  You could also sub half the hamburger for sausage, which I think would be amazing.

Lasagna

Ingredients

1 lb hamburger meat

1 jar Prego spaghetti sauce (I use heartsmart traditional)
1 can diced tomatoes, drained (optional)
1/2 cup Ketchup
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon mustard
1 bay leaf
half a Prego jar of water
Lasagna noodles
1 small tub Ricotta cheese
1 egg
4 cups Mozzarella cheese

Direction

1.  Brown the hamburger meat in a large pot, drain, and return to pot.
2.  Add Prego, diced tomatoes ketchup, Worcestershire, sugar, mustard, water, and bay leaf. Stir well, bring to boil, then cover and simmer for 30 minutes*. 
3.  Cook lasagna noodles as directed**.
4.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
5.  Beat the egg into the ricotta cheese. This just makes it easier to work with but doesn't affect the taste.

6.  Layer your ingredients into a greased 9x13 casserole dish in the following order:***

• start by adding a few ladles of sauce to the bottom (just enough to coat),
• cover with 3-4 lasagna noodles (overlapping at the edges - and don't worry about the fact that the noodles don't go all the way end to end on the dish.  It's ok.  You can always use half a noodle for the top if you want to but it isn't necessary),
• Add 5-6 dollops of the ricotta egg mixture evenly on top of the noodles (don't worry about trying to spread it out, it will do that when it cooks),
• Add a layer of mozzarella cheese,
• Add a layer of sauce,
• Wash, rinse, repeat and continue until you run out of ingredients.

7.  Cover with aluminum foil and place on a cookie sheet (to catch anything that may drip).  Bake for 30-35 minutes.  Serve with garlic bread and a big green salad (or green beans!)

  

* This also makes a great spaghetti sauce, minus the water.

** I usually drain them and lay them out on a piece of parchment paper or wax paper or aluminum foil (whatever I have) so they won't start sticking to each other.  I usually burn my fingers doing this because your hands are really the only good tools to lay the noodles out with.  It would probably be a good idea to let them cool just a few minutes until you try to handle them - though I usually don't.  Also, I know there are no cook lasagna noodles but I've just never used them.  If that is what you're more familiar with, go for it!

***You will just have to eyeball it to get a feel for how much of each ingredient to use in each layer.  If you run out, no big deal.  It's a pretty forgiving recipe that way.  I think I usually get 3-4 layers but I almost always run out of sauce first so use it sparingly.  The only thing that you'll definitely need to do is save enough sauce to thoroughly coat the top and edges of the noodles when you're done so they don't dry out.