Easy and Delicious Lasagna

I love lasagna. It's one of my favorite foods. It will never quite top good mac 'n' cheese, but still, yum. So today I made my Easy and Delicious Lasagna.

Over the years I've tried a lot of lasagna recipes. A lot. In the end I've spackled together all my favorite parts of the recipes I liked and come up with this beauty. Very simple, easy to throw together, you just have to have a little but of time. And boy is it good.

Lasagna

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 pound sausage (I prefer sage but usually use italian or mild because of others' preferences)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup onion, minced
• lasagna noodles, 10 or so
• 4 cups canned whole tomatoes, give or take depending on can size
• 2 cups tomatoe paste, give or take depending on can size
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons dried oregano
• 2 tablespoons dried basil
• 1 teaspoon salt, I prefer to cook with kosher
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 4 cups cottage cheese
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup parmesan cheese, divided in half
• 1 more teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 1/2 pounds low-moisture mozzarella cheese, sliced or shredded

Start by putting your ground beef, sausage, garlic, and onion in a pan. A large pan.

We cheat in my house, we buy the big  jars of minced garlic. For the amount we go through it saves a lot of time. I also cheated and used a half of cup of dry minced onion from a jar. Feel to chop up an onion if you prefer, I was feeling lazy.   :)

Brown your meat. When it's finished remove most of the fat/grease, leaving just a little behind for flavor.

While you meat is browning, get out a medium to large bowl. Into the bowl pour 2 cups tomato paste and 4 cups whole tomatoes, with liquid.

I like to smush the whole tomatoes with a potato masher so that I still get nice big chunks of them, but not an entire tomato in one bite.

Next, add to the tomatoes: 2 tblsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 2 tblsp dried basil, 2 tblsp dried oregano, and 1 tsp fennel seeds.

Give it a good stir.

When the meat is browned and you've removed the excess fat, pour the tomato sauce into the pan.

Add one cup of water, stir to combine, simmer for 30-90 minutes. It's all a matter of what you have time/patience for and personal preference, here.

While the meat sauce is simmering, get out a stock pot, fill with water, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tblsp olive oil, set to boil.

When the water's boiling, add lasagna noodle. Cook according the directions on the package. You want to cook these to al dente so they still have a little bit of a bite, we're still going to pop this thing in the oven.

When the noodles are done drain them, rinse with cold water, and set them aside.

Now get out another medium-large bowl.

To the bowl add: 4 cups cottage cheese (I prefer this to ricotta in my lasagna just because I've found it to dry out less then the ricotta while baking), 2 beaten eggs, 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp ground nutmeg.

Give it a good stir.

If you're like me and forgot the ground nutmeg, add it now and give it another stir.

I often forget things in the kitchen and remember to add them later. Sometimes it's too late, but normally they're little things that don't effect the dish too much. Don't stress too much if you forget something little. Most dishes are at least a little forgiving. I've learned to kind of wing it in the kitchen (maybe I spent too much time watching my father cook. He never makes something the same way twice. But it's always delicious, so whatever works)

Once the cottage cheese mixture and noodles are ready check on your meat sauce.  If it's not ready, throw your cottage cheese mix in the fridge until it is and throw a damp kitchen towel directly over the noodles. If it is ready pull out your biggest pan. I like my giant roaster for doing lasagna, but have used a big glass casserole or cake pan in a pinch.

In the pan put down half the lasagna noodles. In my roaster I like to do 4 lengthwise and 1 perpendicular to them at the end. On top of the noodles spread half the cottage cheese mixture. Over the cottage cheese add a half pound of mozzarella cheese. I LOVE fresh mozzarella, but I've found that because it's kept in brine too much of the water comes out in the baking and you end up with water-logged lasagna. That's no good for anyone. It's just better to use the low-moisture stuff. You can use shredded or slices, I've found no real difference. On top of the cheese add half your meat sauce. Repeat once more. On top of the second layer of meat sauce sprinkle 1/2 cup of grated parmesan and then the last 1/2 pound of mozzarella.

You now have a giant pan of delicious.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil.

I like to make this up the night before and pop it into the fridge until it's time to bake it. If you'd rather this can go straight into the fridge after assembly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes. If you refrigerated this before cooking it could require an extra 5-10 minutes. Pull up the foil and see if everything's starting to look bubbly. If not, give it the extra time. Remove foil and let bake for 5 minutes or until the cheese on top if browning nicely. If the cheese isn't browning up enough I like to turn the broiler on for a few minutes. Make sure you keep a close eye on it though, things can burn quite quickly under the broiler if forgotten.

Remove from oven, let sit for 10 minutes before serving. When you remove the lasagna from the oven, put it on potholders on the counter, never remove an item from the oven and place on the stove top, the stove top will still be quite warm and the dish will keep cooking.

Voila! Easy and Delicious Lasagna!