Cottage Lasagna

So Brad's favorite is lasagna. I decided to make a Monday a little brighter with a lasagna/cheesecake meal. Let's just say he had seconds of both!

Lasagna is an adapted recipe.

Basically, start by pre-heating the oven to 375. Then I throw a cup and a half of part-skim ricotta, 2 pieces minced garlic, and 2 packages of 10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed tight to get rid of as much water as possible. I mix that all up and set it aside.

Next, I brown the sausage. Italian sweet sausage is my favorite, but occasionally I sub in turkey sausage.

Oven-ready lasagna noodles are terrific.

In the pan (8x8 or 9x13) I pour in enough tomato sauce to cover the bottom of the pan (sorry, not giving away the family secret, but Jersey tomato sauce from Whole Foods co. is delicious). Then I layer in the oven ready noodles. Next, I spread the ricotta mix, place the sausage in nice little rows, and cover with tomato sauce. I repeat this one more time, and then, for the top layer, I just spread the ricotta, tomato sauce, and layer the top with mozzarella. The quality of the cheese is extremely important, so try and get it from an Italian deli if possible.

Bake 35-40 minutes for 8x8, a bit longer for 9x11. Let cool 5 minutes.

The cheesecake was delicious as well--but not my recipe to share. Sorry!