Lasagne

Ingredients

The key to making a great lasagne is:
use homemade pasta sauce & fresh cheeses.

You’ll have to make the sauce a day in advance, along with any meatballs you want to use. (It’s a multi-day process!)

Also, if you put the lasagna together while the sauce is hot, the noodles will cook while the lasagne sits waiting to be baked, assuring it will be fully cooked while baking.

To begin, take out at least 2 quarts of sauce 30 mins ahead of time to bring to room temperature.

Reheat sauce (on low) on stovetop. If you have meatballs to throw in, this is where it happens. Crumble meatballs into the marinara sauce.

In a bowl, mix together ricotta cheese, egg, nutmeg.

In another bowl, mix together Parmesan & Romano cheese.

Spread a cup or two of sauce to cover the bottom of the lasagna pan.

Layer ricotta mixture over the noodles one by one, covering the entire surface area of each noodle.

Line lasagna noodles in dish next to one another over the sauce creating the bottom layer of the lasagne.

Next, add shredded mozzarella.

Spread another cup or so of sauce over the mozzarella.

Then sprinkle with Parmesan / Romano mixture.

Lay another row of noodles topped with the ricotta cheese mixture.

Layer with provolone cheese.

Then top with meat sauce.

Repeat until you reach the final layer.

On the very top layer, place a bit of the remaining sauce, mozzarella and Parmesan / Romano cheese mixture.

So to recap the layer order:

1. Meat sauce
2. Ricotta covered noodles
3. Mozzarella
4. Meat sauce
5. Parmesan / Romano mixture
6. Ricotta covered noodles
7. Provolone cheese
8. Meat sauce
9. Ricotta covered noodles
10. Mozzarella, Parmesan, Romano

Bake at 375 degrees F for 25 minutes covered with foil. Then bake another 30 minutes with the foil removed.

Allow lasagna to cool for 15 minutes before slicing.