Lasagna

by Carla Tuhacek

I first made this recipe in 1987. It was my high school friend’s mom’s recipe. Now it’s a favorite for holidays.

For meat sauce, brown together in saucepan:

• 1 lb ground beef
• ½ cup chopped onion
• 1 clove garlic

Remove fat and add:

• 3 c tomato puree (28 oz can)
• 8 oz can tomato sauce
• 6 oz can tomato paste
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 2 T minced parsley (less if dried)
• 2 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper

Cover and simmer over low heat for 1 hour

Cook ½ lb lasagna noodles. Drain. (I use whole box. If using oven-read/no cook noodles you will need to add water so it doesn’t get dry. I’m guessing 1 cup. Check box to make sure).

Make ricotta mixture:

• ¾ lb ricotta cheese (I like to use half ricotta, half small curd cottage cheese)
• 1 tsp minced parsley
• 1 tsp oregano

Layer in 13 x 9 pan:

Sauce

Single layer of noodles

½ of the ricotta mixture

Sprinkle with (roughly) ¼ cup parmesan cheese and ¼ cup mozzarella cheese.

Repeat layers (sauce, noodles, ricotta mix, parmesan, mozzarella)

Top with last layer of noodles, sauce, more parmesan and mozzarella. Cover with parchment paper and foil. Cook 45 minutes at 250. Let stand 10-15 minutes when it comes out of oven so it can be dished out.

NOTE: Since I use half ricotta/half cottage cheese, I often have enough extra to make a little lasagna to put in the freezer. Instead of doubling the sauce, I just use some jarred sauce in the bottom of both pans to make the meat sauce stretch farther. I don’t usually measure the parmesan and mozzarella…just sprinkle until it looks like enough.