Lasagne

My college roommate was an excellent cook. While I realize it sounds unbelievable and sort of scary that a young lady barley exiting adolescence could do such wonders in the kitchen, it is, in fact, true. The girl could cook! It was a gift she learned from her lovely mother.  I was never too fond of lasagna until I tried theirs. It’s the homemade tomato sauce and seasoned cheese filling that makes this recipe so great. I made a ½ recipe of her lasagna for dinner last night.

I’ve been hearing about no-boil lasagna noodles a lot lately, so I decided to give them a try. It made lasagna making so much easier. No boiling and cooking ahead of time. No draining the noodles and then cleaning the pot and colander. I was in love with myself for using these oh so easy noodles. The recipe below is for regular noodles, but it can easily be adapted to use the no-boil variety. Just follow the instructions on the package.

Lasagna
recipe from Lois and Sarah Nelson
printable version of this recipe

1 pound ground beef
1 clove minced garlic
1 tablespoon basil flakes
1 ½ teaspoons salt
2 24-ounce cans diced tomatoes (I used 1 quart home canned tomatoes)
2 6-ounce cans tomato paste
10 ounces lasagna noodles
2 cups cottage cheese
2 8-ounce packages reduced fat cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon oregano flakes
½ cup Parmesan
2 tablespoons parsley flakes
2 beaten eggs
½ teaspoon pepper
1 pound shredded Mozzarella

Coat a 9x13 pan with non-stick cooking spray; set aside.

Brown meat; drain fat. Add garlic, basil, salt, tomatoes and tomato paste. Simmer covered for 30 minutes. Cook noodles in salted water; drain and rinse. Combine cottage cheese, cream cheese, oregano, Parmesan, parsley, eggs and pepper; set aside.  Preheat oven to 350.

Spread a scant amount of meat sauce in the bottom of the pan. Put half of the drained noodles in the pan; spread with half of the cottage cheese mixture, half of the meat sauce and half of the Mozzarella. Repeat layers. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting. Enjoy!