Outstanding Lasagna Without Pre-Boiling Regular Noodles

This tastes fabulous! Uses a mix of turkey sausage & ground beef, and plain old regular style lasagna noodles that you do not have to pre-boil. Just follow the directions as it will take more liquid and cooking time. Choose your favorite sauce, and throw in green peppers while cooking the meat if you like them. Yes the cooking time is longer, but wouldn't you rather let it cook by itself while you do something else, rather than have to boil those noodles, then try to dry them, etc? Yeah, me too! Enjoy!

• Ready In: 3 hrs
• Serves: 5-6
• Yields: 1 pan

Ingredients

• 1  box  regular  lasagna noodle
• 1⁄2 lb Italian sausage (I use turkey)
• 1⁄2 lb  ground sirloin
• 1 (52 ounce) can  spaghetti sauce (keep the can for adding water)
• 1⁄2  chopped onion
• 1  tablespoon  minced garlic
• 1  teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 (16 ounce) container part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1  egg, slightly beaten
• 1⁄2 cup  grated mozzarella cheese
• 1⁄2 cup  grated parmesan cheese
• 1⁄2 cup  grated romano cheese
• 1  tablespoon  minced fresh flat-leaf Italian parsley
• 2  tablespoons  minced fresh basil
• 2  cups  grated mozzarella cheese
• 1  cup  grated parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Important: do NOT pre-boil the noodles! Brown chopped onion, sausage and ground beef in small amount of olive oil. When almost browned, add minced garlic so it won't burn. Drain, put in large bowl, mix in with spaghetti sauce, salt & red pepper flakes. Set aside. Get another large bowl; mix in ricotta cheese, egg, ½ C each mozerella, parmesean and romano cheeses, parsley, basil. In 13x9 pan, put 1C of the red sauce in the bottom. Add approximately 3 ½ of the noodles, arrange 3 lengthwise, leaving space between them to allow them to absorb liquid and expand, and add a piece at the end of the pan since they are not long enough to cover the entire length. Take approximately ½ of the white cheese mix, drop by spoonfuls over the noodles and spread around a little. (doesn’t need to cover everything or be perfect!) Then add 1C mozzarella cheese. Repeat this entire layer, using approximately ½ of the remaining red sauce, same amount of noodles and white mix, and another Cup of the mozzarella. Add the remaining red sauce, then 1C of parmesean cheese to top it off. Take the sauce can, fill it halfway with water, then slowly pour over the dish all over, so the liquid will rise up to about half full in the pan. This will all get absorbed by the noodles, because you didn’t pre-boil them. Tightly cover with foil. Bake at 325 F for 2 hours. Then uncover, raise the temp to 350 F and bake another 15-30 minutes until the cheese is golden on top and the edges are pulling away from the pan. Remove from the oven, and let it sit for 10-15 minutes or until all the liquid has set up and the dish is firm.