Ingredients:
** I have made spaghetti sauce from scratch. It takes a while and should be done in advance if you prefer your own sauce. I've found jars of some store bought brands of marinara to be as good or better than my own sauce so usually opt for this. The brand I buy comes in 25oz jars. I need about a jar and a half, but I like my lasagna to have lots of sauce.
Boil a large pot of water. Add a dollop of cooking oil and the noodles will stick together a little less. A standard 1 lb box of noodles should have about 16 noodles in it which is perfect for 4 layers in a 13" x 9" x 2" lasagna baking dish. Add noodles and cook about 5-6 minutes. The kind I buy say to boil for 12 minutes, but that is way too long. You want them al dente. Boiling for 5 mins and leaving them in the hot water for another minute or two works for me. I fish the noodles out with tongs and rinse in cold water to keep them from continuing to cook.
While waiting for the water to boil. Cook your meat. My husband loved italian sausage in lasagna. Brown these, slice them, and brown some more. I usually opt for ground pork which cooks up easily.
Make your layers:
Start by lining the bottom of the baking dish with sauce.
Add a bottom layer of noodles. You may need to cut one in half to make it fit. Cover this layer of noodles with more sauce.
Add a cheese/meat layer. You will want 3 of these, so divide your ingredients into thirds.
I start with the ricotta and dollop small spoonfuls evenly across the layer leaving a bit of space between each dollop. The cheese will spead out when it melts in the oven. The rest of the ingredients can be added in any order. Sprinkle a third of your meat, a third of the mozarella, and grate a bunch of romano to fill out the layer.
Add another layer of noodles. Count and make sure you have 4-5 noodles to fully cover the top with noodles (not all boxes have the same count). If you're short, you can put fewer noodles in the middle two layers.
Cover this layer of noodles completely with sauce.
Add the second cheese/meat layer the same as your first one.
Another layer of noodles. Cover with sauce.
Final cheese/meat layer.
Final, top layer of noodles. Cover noodles with more sauce.
Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake at 350oF for 40 minutes.
Allow to rest for about 10mins before serving.
You can assemble up to a day in advance of cooking.
Lynn Salmon <>{
