Lasagna

Simple. Homemade. Good Food. 

The kind of meal that you make for yourselves and for company. 

The kind of meal you take to sick friends or friends with newborns. 

The kind that you make in a big pan so that you can have leftovers later in the week. 

It's a simple recipe -- doctor your favorite sauce, boil some noodles and whip up a cheese filling. But sometimes simple is best. 

Lasagna

Serves 8 - 10

Total Time: About 1 1/2 hours

15 lasagna noodles

Sauce:

1 T. butter

Half an onion, minced

1/4 lb. hamburger

1 lb. 10 oz. jar of your favorite meat sauce

1 T. sugar

few shakes of garlic salt

few shakes of oregano

Cheese Filling:

1 beaten egg

1 lb. cottage cheese

1 lb. mozzarella, shredded

1/2 tsp. salt

few shakes of garlic powder

few shakes of parsley

1/4 cup parmesan

Boil noodles according to package directions, leaving them slightly al dente.

While noodles are cooking, build your sauce. 

Sauté the onion in the butter until softened, about 3 minutes.

Add the hamburger. Chop into small pieces with a wooden spoon and sauté until no longer pink.

Add meat sauce, sugar, garlic salt and oregano.

Simmer on low while you finish cooking the noodles and while you make the cheese filling.

For the cheese filling, combine all ingredients: egg, cottage cheese, mozzarella (reserve a little bit to sprinkle on the top), salt, garlic powder and parsley. Set aside. 

Once noodles are cooked, drain. 

Now that the noodles are cooked, the sauce built and the filling made, you are ready to assemble.

Lasagna Assembly

Start by spreading a little bit of the sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan. 

Just enough to mostly cover.

Layer five noodles on top of the sauce. You want them to overlap a bit.

Spread half of the cheese mixture on top of the noodles.

Layer with another five noodles, once again overlapping them.

Spread half of the sauce over the noodles.

Spread the remaining cheese filling, as best you can, on top of the sauce.

Layer your last five noodles, overlapping them.

And finally, spread the rest of your tomato sauce on top of the noodles.

So the layers go like this (from bottom to top):

Little bit of sauce

Five noodles

Half of cheese mixture

Five noodles

Half of sauce

Rest of cheese mixture

Five noodles

Rest of sauce

Bake, uncovered, in a 350 oven for 20 minutes. 

Top with reserved mozzarella and a little parmesan if you wish. 

Bake for 10 more minutes. 

Let sit for 15 minutes before serving. 

Recipe from my mom.