CRAZY AUNT SUE'S LASAGNA

Melanie Blackburn

Serve with salad, bread or rolls of your choice, and a REALLY decadent chocolate dessert.

ingredients

2 lbs. very lean ground beef
3 tablespoons fresh minced garlic (or adjust to your taste preference)
1 small onion chopped
2 large or 4 small cans Contadina tomato paste
2 cans tomato soup (No one will EVER guess!)
3 fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Dried Italian Seasoning (to your taste); Begin with 1 tablespoon to start
1 box Oven-ready Lasagna noodles
1 large bag grated mozzarella cheese
1 large bag fresh grated parmesan cheese
1 large container cottage cheese (Don’t be afraid of this ingredient!)
Ricotta Cheese Mixture
1 & 3/4 cups (15 oz.) ricotta cheese
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves

directions

1
Brown ground beef in large pot until 3/4 done and then add onion and garlic. Cook until onion is transparent. Drain any grease. Add tomato paste and tomato soup, keeping cans. Add about 1/2 can of water for each can mixing with spoon residual sauce or soup in cans. This is tricky since I really don’t measure. With each half can of water you add, check the consistency of the sauce in the pot. It should be pretty thick, not watery at all. Now add salt, pepper, and Italian Seasoning. Taste to determine if you need more Italian Seasoning. The flavor should be present, but subtle, not overpowering. Lay basil leaves on top, making sure that as you periodically stir the simmering sauce, you don’t stir in the leaves as they will get mushy and you will be removing them when the sauce is finished. Simmer the sauce covered for an hour, stirring periodically so it does not stick to the bottom. The sauce should bubble slightly but not boil.
2
Prepare Ricotta Cheese Mixture while sauce cooks. In small bowl, stir together ingredients.
3
To assemble lasagna:
4
You can assemble and bake later, but never cool the sauce and then assemble. The sauce layering amount is too hard to gauge then, and you can end up with a mushy end product.
5
I use disposable aluminum pans because they are deeper than standard
6
9 x 13 casserole dishes. Whatever you use, you may just end up with more pans with less depth of layers. Spread a small amount of the sauce on the bottom of the pan. Layer three noodles. Don’t let them overlap or touch sides of pan as they will expand when baked. (Remember they are uncooked because they are the “oven-ready” brand.) Spread a small amount of cottage cheese over the noodles. Now spread about 2/3 cup of the ricotta mixture evenly over pasta. Next spread plenty of the sauce over the entire layer, followed by generous amounts of the mozzarella and parmesan cheeses. Repeat the same layering until the pan is full, ending with the grated cheeses. For a little extra color on the top, you can sprinkle a little cheddar if you desire. Follow the directions for baking on the oven-ready noodles box, either baking immediately or the next day.