The lasagna I’ve been making for years is really cheesy, but it’s just not working for us anymore. Our son is mildly lactose intolerant, so I needed to cut back on the cheese. Also, I’m just not really fond of the usual recipes that call for ricotta cheese, because it just seems gritty to me, and I also don’t care for replacing it with cottage cheese. So I made this version with lots of sauce and less cheese and the family liked it better. So I guess I’ll be making it this way from now on. If you like sausage, you could replace half of the hamburger with Italian sausage. You could leave out the mushrooms if you want. It’s so saucy you could probably add another layer of noodles. And if you really love cheese, you could always add more. Have it your way. You’ll need
1/2 medium onion
Bunch of large leaf Italian parsley
Heaping teaspoon of minced garlic
Olive oil
1 lb lean ground beef
4 oz can of mushroom pieces
Four 8 oz cans tomato sauce (I like Del Monte)
1 tsp salt
A little pepper
About 1/8 tsp each dried oregano and basil (crushed leaves, not ground)
9 lasagna noodles
8 oz grated Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese
Coarsely chip the onion. Remove the large stems from the parsley and make a loose pile of it the same size as your pile of chopped onion. Now I use a slap chop to finely chop the onion and parsley together. You could use a knife or food processor if you prefer. I also use a slap chop to chop the mushrooms to the consistency of ground beef. Mostly this is because my daughter-in-law doesn’t like the rubbery texture of mushrooms, so I chop them until they’re invisible.
Generously coat the bottom of a large sauce pot with olive oil. Cook the onion and parsley until the onion softens and begins to brown. Add the ground beef, mushrooms and garlic, and cook until the beef if browned.
Add the tomato sauce, salt, a little pepper, basil and oregano.
I grab a three finger pinch of the herbs I’ve grown and dried, then crush them in my fingers. If you’re using ground herbs, use just a two finger pinch of each.
Simmer the sauce uncovered for about 30 minutes, then skim off the fat and oil. I don’t drain off the fat before cooking to get and much flavor out of the olive oil as possible.
Put 9 lasagna noodles in a large pot of boiling, unsalted water, and cook for 10 minutes. Then I pour off some of the water and add cold water, repeating as needed until the water is cool enough to put my hands in it.
Put a ladle full of sauce in the bottom on a 9 X 13 baking dish. Pick up a lasagna noodle and use your first and middle fingers to squeege off the excess water, then place in the baking dish. Put three noodles on the bottom, top with 1/3 of the sauce and half of the mozzarella cheese. Repeat. Top the final layer with a generous sprinkle of Parmesan cheese, freshly grated preferred.
Cover with aluminum foil. I like to make it a day ahead and put it in the fridge overnight so the flavors can blend. Then take it out about an hour and a half before cooking because putting a cold dish in a hot oven will very likely break the dish.
Let it cook 30 minutes at 350 degrees, then remove the foil and cook 15 minutes more. Let it set for five or ten minutes before serving so it firms up a little. Or if you can’t wait, just slop it up and dig in. I don’t have a picture of the finished lasagna because I just didn’t have time to take a photo. We were hungry. You know what lasagna looks like.