Baked Lasagna

Oh Lasagna!  Another family favorite!!  It's really not that hard to make and there is such a HUGE difference from homemade and the store bought!  You can make this up and freeze it for later or you can make it and freeze the leftovers!  You could also make two at once, eating one now and the other freeze for later.   I just am not sure what they actually put in that famous store bought lasagna, like to me the sauce taste like the sauce for spaghetti O's...... I know some people just love it but once you make your own it's so very hard to buy that!

When our family makes this we also make this incredible garlic bread!  Here is the link to the Garlic Toasted Bread it's very addictive and oh so good! 

I pretty much grate all my cheese but it seems like alot of mozzarella shredded cheese doesn't have all that chalky stuff in it and it's more moist than the other bag cheese... Now If I am at the grocery store and I buy mozzarella cheese I buy the block and grate it myself.  If I am at Costco or Sam's I buy pre-grated cheese.  There is this really great place called Restaurant Depot in Dallas and in many other cities!  Restaurant Depot has a great selection of cheese!  You have to have a tax id and a business that somewhat is involved in food like a restaurant or catering but churches can sure get one and other businesses can too you would just have to check first!  It's a free membership which is awesome!  They have some of the best cheeses which come in large & small blocks, shredded, sliced and cubed!  They have a great variety too!  It's a great place to find unique cheeses without paying a huge price!  It's also a great place to find large quantities of things along with restaurant equipment and they have all kinds of boxes for cakes, pizza, to go containers and etc.

A great salad goes well with Lasagna as you I'm sure know!  I have some really great salad dressing recipes on here, again once you start making your own it becomes hard to buy the bottles at the store! Here is the link to Salad Dressings my favorite is the Creamy Italian and Honey Mustard, the thing is you probably already have all the ingredients in your fridge!  A fresh head of lettuce goes further and is much better than the bag stuff, just saying!  I buy green leaf, red leaf and even ice burg often and I will often add two different kinds of lettuce to a salad.  That bag stuff has chemicals in it to keep it from turning brown which leaves a hint of the chemical in your mouth or at least it does mine!  I promise if you bought a fresh head of lets say green leaf lettuce and chopped it up you would get double what you would in that bag.... a head of green leaf is about $1.79 and a bag is I think $2.99 just takes a minute to chopped the portion you need.

I like to top my lasagna with Marinara Sauce (click if you want recipe) on each piece I serve.  You totally don't have to!  I often keep marinara in the freezer, you can make some up and keep some in fridge and some in the freezer for later! 

The hardest part of making lasagna years ago was getting those slippery noodles out of the boiling water!  They would slide off and tear along with being super hard to handle because they were hot!!  You can now buy Barilla NO-BOIL noodles which you just simply lay them on to the layers and they cook in the lasagna!  Brilliant!  You really do want to add the 4 noodles to each layer because it need the stability to hold the things in between the layers.

Sometimes you can find Italian sausage like this but often it's in a pre-package tube (like regular sausage).  Once in a while you can't find it so you could just do the hamburger meat or I have in the past gotten mild sausage and added some Italian seasoning.

Chop garlic...garlic makes everything taste good!

Brown hamburger meat and Italian sausage along with garlic, spoon off excess fat.  Add seasoning to meat.

Add tomato paste, whole tomatoes and I add 1 can of tomato sauce, you don't want more that or it will be to saucy.  If I am doubling the recipe I add a 15oz can and if I am making 1 I just add an 8 oz can

In a bowl combine ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, Lawry's garlic salt, pepper, parsley and eggs

I doubled this because I am making two lasagnas

I put marinara on the bottom but you can do meat sauce if you don't decide to make marinara

layer 4 of the Barilla lasagna noodles on the bottom

Spread some of the cheese mixture onto noodles it can be tricky so I hold the noodle with one hand and spread the cheese with the other so that it doesn't slide around.

Add some meat sauce

Sprinkle cheese on top of meat sauce then repeat layers

end with a generous amount of shredded cheese

Just out of the oven!

I like to top mine with marinara but it's fine without it!  I just like alot of sauce!

Layers of goodness

Baked Lasagna

1 lb Italian sausage half ground beef

 2 cloves of garlic

1 T Italian Seasoning

1 T basil

1 ½ t salt (I use about 1 tsp of Lawry's Garlic Salt with green lid instead)

1 -8 oz can tomato sauce

1- 1lb cans (2 cups) whole tomatoes

2 – 6 oz can tomato paste

10 oz box of Barilla No-Boil lasagna noodles 

3 cups Ricotta cheese or cream style cottage cheese (small curd)

2 beaten eggs

2 t salt ( again I add Lawry's garlic salt instead)

½ t pepper

2 T parsley flakes

½ cups grated Parmesan cheese

1 lb mozzarella cheese (sliced or shredded)  You might want more than that

Brown meat slowly, spoon off excess fat.  Add next 6 ingredients

Simmer uncovered 30 minutes to blend flavors, stirring occasionally.

Cook noodles in boiling water till tender drain rinse in cold water

Or use noodles that cook in sauce.

Meanwhile combine with eggs, seasonings & Parmesan

cheese.

Place some sauce in bottom of pan then layer with lasagna noodles

In a 13X9X2 inch baking dish.  Spread half the ricotta cheese mixture

over & half of the meat sauce then half of the mozzarella cheese

Repeat layers

Bake at 375 for 30 minutes let stand 10 minutes then cut.