Lasagna!

Holy moly! It's November already. Where has this year gone?! The temperature has been getting colder which makes me want to turn on the oven for dinner to warm the house. This got me thinking that it has been a while since I've made lasagna and with my pasta lovers it was the perfect weekend dinner. I love lasagna because it is super easy to make and so full of flavor. Because the sauce is homemade I usually start cooking around noon, making the whole house smell delicious and tempting the family the majority of the day. The boys gather at various times due to smells wafting out of my kitchen - something I just adore. Make this the next time you are in the mood for a dish to warm your family's souls and they will absolutely love it!

What's cooking in my kitchen this week:
Lasagna

What you'll need:
2 lbs sweet Italian sausage
16 oz fresh mozzarella cheese
8 oz fresh Parmesan cheese
15 oz ricotta cheese
1 box (12 oz) oven ready lasagna noodles
2 cans (29 oz) tomato sauce
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
1 can (6oz) tomato paste
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
8 small cremini mushrooms, diced
1 Tbsp sherry wine
2 Tbsp oil
2 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp Italian seasoning

How to make it:
First, you will need to make the lasagna sauce, as I call it. To me, this needs to be a hearty sauce so that it contributes to filling you up. Get those veggies ready to dice up.

Dice up the onion and green bell pepper in put in small bowl and set aside. Dice up mushrooms and put in another small bowl, set aside. Finely mice garlic cloves, put in another small bowl and set aside.

Put oil in large stock pot, turn stove to medium-high heat and saute onions and green bell peppers 1-2 minutes.

Add mushrooms and continue to saute for another 3-5 minutes, until onions are translucent and all veggies are soft.

Add garlic and saute another minute - garlic burns very quickly so make sure to stir constantly and once you can smell the garlic, it's time to add the sherry wine to deglaze the pot. Once this is done, add tomato sauce and tomato paste.

Stir around and add salt, ground black pepper, basil, oregano, and Italian seasoning. Turn stove down to simmer and cook, stirring occasionally for an hour and a half. This allows the sauce to thicken and for all the flavors to marry with one another.

Once the sauce has cooked, remove from heat and allow to cool 20-30 minutes. Once sauce is cool, cook sausage on medium heat.

Drain grease from sausage once cooked all the way and set aside. Measure out noodles in baking dish you are using - for my family I made two trays, so I needed some extra noodles and sauce. If you aren't cooking for an army like me, you'll be fine with the amounts I have given. Dice up mozzarella cheese into small cubes. Grate Parmesan cheese and set aside.

Lay out sauce, noodles, baking tray, sausage, and cheeses for assembly of the lasagna (my Parmesan is really there, but I just didn't take a wide enough shot to see it).

Now comes the fun part of layering. For both of my baking dishes, I was using three layers. Depending on how deep yours is, it will probably be three layers for you too - just have in your mind how many layers you will be using so you know how much of each ingredient to put in each layer. Put a small amount of sauce on bottom of baking tray and then place noodles on top. Layer with sausage, mozzarella cheese, ricotta cheese, and some Parmesan cheese. I also sprinkle a little more basil for some extra flavor.

Start the next layer with some more sauce and noodles and continue with all the ingredients until your baking dish is full, making sure to end with sauce all over the noodles - this is extremely important as they are oven ready and not the boil before hand noodles.  Also, I always leave the majority of the Parmesan for the last layer to put on top of the sauce so that the lasagna comes out all cheesy and extra yummy.

Bake in 425° oven, covered, for 50 minutes. Remove cover and bake for another 10 minutes.

Let cool about 5 minutes. Serve by itself or with a fresh salad or garlic bread. Enjoy!

Did you know?
On this day in 1965, the Pillsbury Doughboy, 'Poppin' Fresh,' was born. He made his debut in a commercial for crescent rolls.