Best Ever Lasagna

Khandi Howard's Note:

This is the best lasagna that I've eaten. Way better than what you can get in a restaurant. This recipe is to use the sauce "Khandi's Spaghetti Sauce". It makes gallons, or you can size down the recipe to make less. But the sauce is the basis - it must be meaty and spicey to get the full effect. I buy those plastic 8 inch square pans to make these in, and then freeze. You can cook these from frozen, or thaw overnight to decrease cooking time. I've also made this up in 2 of those huge aluminum roasting pans with handles. It fed about 30 people each and had to cook about 2-2 1/2 hours. The basis for this lasagna is the sauce. Depending on how much you want to make is how much cheese mixture to mix up. I usually do this from feel, so amounts are approximate. One recipe of sauce makes about 8 small lasagnas, 4-5 larger (8X13") lasagnas, or 2 giant roasting pan size lasagnas depending on layering. (Directions for 1 lasagna at bottom.)

• Total Time: 1 hrs 15 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 4 lbs mozzarella cheese
• 3 lbs ricotta cheese (for small curd cottage cheese)
• 2 lbs parmesan cheese
• 5 eggs, beaten
• italian seasoning
• khandi spaghetti sauce
• 1 (16 ounce) package lasagna noodles, cooked (1-2 pkg)

Directions:

1. Mix up cheeses reserving about 4 cups to top lasagna.
2. Add eggs and Italian seasoning.
3. I do this with in two batches.
4. Now you are ready to assemble lasagna.
5. Pour small amount of sauce in bottom of pan – just enough to cover.
6. Layer noodles over sauce.
7. Spoon cheese mixture as evenly as you can over noodles and smooth with spoon.
8. Layer noodles over cheese – then pour on sauce to cover.
9. Repeat with noodles, cheese, noodles, sauce again and then top with cheese.
10. Then: I cover loosely with foil to prevent cheese from over browning.
11. Bake in 350°F oven until bubbly, removing foil for last 20 minutes or so.
12. Or prepare for freezing by cooling, covering with saran wrap then freezer lid.
13. Place in freezer.
14. Cook the same. Expect the frozen lasagnas to take about 1 1/2 hours to cook if in a small pan.
15. ***I always cook my noodles, I prefer the texture of precooked noodles and though it is not necessary I think that uncooked noodles have a slimy texture in the lasagna.
16. ********************************.
17. You can cook less at a time.
18. For one 8X13 in lasagna I’d start with about 1 lbs of mozzarella, ½ pound of Parmesan, and one container (1 lb) of ricotta cheese and 1 egg with 1 T of seasoning.
19. You’ll probably need about 9 –12 noodles and about 7 – 8 cups of sauce.
20. ********************************.

Reviews

[Little Bee]

This was the best lasagna I have made yet! Although I used my own sauce (which was pretty similar) I loved the technique of layering the noodles then cheese, then noodles then sauce, then noodles and cheese etc. I used to just layer noodles, cheese, sauce then noodles. This way keeps the layers seperate and helps to define the different tastes. I only used 3 eggs however and just more cheese.

[Melissa Stiner]

It lacked true flavor and meat. I spiced it up by adding Hot Italian Sausage, diced tomatoes, and fresh basil to the sauce. my family loved the new and improved

[joannd]

This sounds like a good recipe BUT it's for too large a group. Maybe you could add a provision to scale this( all your recipes) down to a family size dinner.