Delicious Lasagna!

Lasagna is one of my favorite meals & it's something I probably make about once a month. I make a spinach lasagna that I love but the most recent one is definitely my favorite! I got my inspiration here but of course I changed the recipe a bit :-) I think the next time I make this sauce, I'll make a double batch so I can freeze some & have it on hand. I had a little bit left over after this, maybe enough for a small lunch size portion of pasta. I would like to try this sauce again with fresh herbs, other than that, I don't think I would make any changes.

Ingredients

1 pound sweet Italian sausage
3/4 pound lean ground beef
1/2 cup shallots, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
1 tablespoon thyme
1 tablespoon oregano
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons dried parsley
lasagna noodles
15 ounces ricotta cheese
1 egg
Shredded mozzarella
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

1. Cook sausage, ground beef, shallots , and garlic over medium heat until browned. Puree crushed tomatoes in food processor. Add tomato puree, tomato paste, and diced tomatoes. Add seasoning. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

( I made some changes here because I didn’t have tomato sauce on hand. I had tons of stewed tomatoes, diced tomatoes & crushed tomatoes so I just pureed some of them, it turned out perfect! I couldn’t find any fennell seeds at the grocery store or I would have added them :-/ Even without them, this was the best sauce I’ve ever made! I only used half the amount of salt from the original recipe because I don’t care for very salty sauces. )

2. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, a little dried parsley, nutmeg & about ½ cup shredded mozzarella.

3. Prepare lasagna noodles. (I never cook my noodles. You can either get the no-bake kind or you can soak the regular kind in warm water for about 20 minutes, while you prepare your other ingredients.)

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

5. To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange noodles over meat sauce. Spread 1/3 of the ricotta mixture. Top with mozzarella. Add meat sauce. Repeat layers (I had 4 layers for my lasagna). Cover with foil & bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 15 minutes.