Sinnett Lasagna

Lasagna whether it is store bought, Olive Garden, or my favorite mom and pops Italian Restaurant has never been a dish that I really enjoyed…that is, unless it is THIS lasagna. So in the hopes that I can make Lasagna lovers out of you all I’m gonna share the recipe.

When I make Lasagna I use two 13x9x2 in. baking dishes and make two lasagna’s so I can cook one and freeze one for a later time. So if you do not want two Lasagnas you will need to half this recipe.

Here’s what you’ll need…

• 4 lbs. ground beef (I like to use ground chuck)
• 1 lb. Italian Sausage
• 1 lb. Lasagna noodles
• 4 lb. 3 oz. container of Prego traditional
• 2 lbs. of Mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup Ricotta Cheese
• 2/3 cup grated Parmesan
• 1 egg

Seasonings

• Minced Onion
• garlic minced in water
• Worcestershire
• Basil
• Oregano
• Parsley flakes
• Italian seasoning
• Salt
• Pepper

MEAT MIXTURE

• 

Cook ground beef and italian sausage together using a large pan, I like these ones…T-fal B36290 Specialty Nonstick 5 Qt. Jumbo Cooker Sauté Pan with Glass Lid, Black, and have multiple for cooking in larger quantities. Drain or spoon off excess fat. Add about 2 tablespoons of minced onion and then using a potato masher mix and mash into the right consistency. It should look similar to the photo below. We don’t want large chunks of meat to mess up our layers.

Next set aside 1 cup of Prego. Add the remaining sauce into the meat mixture, mix well.

Season with Basil, Oregano, Italian Seasoning, Salt, Pepper, Garlic (minced in water), and 2 dashes of Worcestershire. I season to taste but for all you hardcore recipe followers I would say I add between 1 and 2 tablespoons of each.

Remember that when using dried herbs you want to “wake them up” by crushing them in your hand before adding them in.

Simmer out excess moisture. Split into 4 equal parts (shown in photo of lasagna building station).

NOODLES

Next bring water to boil in a large pot. Add a dash of salt and oil to help with noodles sticking together. Once at rolling boil, add in lasagna noodles and boil for about 9 minutes. Drain. And fill pot with cold water.

CHEESE MIXTURE

Next mix together the 1 cup of prego that was set aside with 1 cup of Ricotta cheese, 2/3 cup grated parmesan, 1 egg, 2 tbsp parsley flakes, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp salt. It should look like the pictures below.

Next I set up my Lasagna building station and start to layer my lasagna.

For my first layer, I cover my baking dish with noodles as shown below. I love these pyrex baking dishes with lids for easier transport or storage. PYREX 3QT Glass Baking Dish with Blue Cover 9″ x 13″ (Pyrex) When freezing my second lasagna I will cover with cling wrap and then put the lid on and it works great! Try to pinch/wipe water off the noodles as you pull them out as best you can. For the edges I like to split my noodles in half for a better fit. I just pinch the end at about half and then pull the two sides apart, they usually split really nicely.

The next layer is the cheese mixture, I usually try to use about 1/4 of the mixture for each layer. Top the cheese mixture layer with a layer of mozzarella about 1/2 lb. (1/4 of a 2 lb. bag).

The next layer is meat mixture. This is why marking your meat into quarters is helpful. Use one of the quarters per layer of meat mixture.

Repeat these layers one more time, covering the meat mixture layer with noodles, then cheese sauce mixture, then mozzarella, then meat mixture.

Repeat the process for the second lasagna.

If at room temperature, cook at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. If at refrigerator temperature cook 45 minutes.

Lasagna freezes well if covered properly, but needs to thaw before cooking.