Lasagna to live by

Italian food is always a popular choice for dinner and lasagna tops the list. Tonight I made a delicious dish of the favorite which, well, I may just have again tomorrow (partly because I have no idea how to make a small lasagna!). While thinking about all the scrumptious layers, I knew I needed a great meat sauce. I like to mix it up a little bit so I brought together both beef and andoulle sausage.

The basic ingredients I used tonight are:

Lasagna noodles, 3 per layer desired
1 pound lean ground beef
1 pound andoulle sausage, chopped into small pieces
1 jar of your favorite tomato sauce
1 cup fresh baby spinach, stems snapped off
1 large container of ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
2 cups shredded parmesan cheese
1 cup chopped scallions
1 cup chopped cilantro
5 cloves of garlic
Salt and fresh ground pepper
Oregano
Thyme
Olive oil

Season a large skillet with olive oil and heat over medium-high heat, adding in ground beef and sausage to cook together.  Chop your garlic and add to the skillet along with your taste of seasonings as listed above.  Cook until done and remove from heat, allowing the meats to re-absorb their juices. 

Meanwhile, in a large stock pot, boil lightly salted water with a tablespoon of olive oil until rapid. Add in lasagna noodles one at a time to maintain rapid boil. Cook for 12 minutes then drain.

Back to your meat sauce. Fold in the chopped scallions and cilantro then mix with tomato sauce.  Be sure to taste your sauce to ensure the flavor is on point then it's time to assemble the lasagna.

In a 13" x 9" dish, spread 1 cup sauce then lay down your first section of pasta. Follow the pasta with a layer of meat sauce, a nice thick layer of ricotta cheese (this is an absolute must), spinach, mozzarella and parmesan cheese, in that order.  Repeat with a second layer of pasta, meat sauce, ricotta, spinach, mozzarella and parmesan cheese then cover the dish with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before diving in to enjoy!