Lasagna. C’est la vie. My favorite food in the world.

This could quite possibly be the best tasting recipe I will ever make. Like ever. Like YOU MUST TRY THIS at some point in your life time. Making this lasagna the way I explain will be very much like cooking in an Italian woman’s kitchen (I sincerely hope, someone correct me if I’m wrong)! I say that, because the recipe comes from my brother-in-law who lived in Italy for two years. I added a few of my own this’s and that’s, to suit my preferences. But no matter, if you are a faithful lasagna connoisseur like me, you’ve gotta try this.

(ps… Its really not too hard, a little more time consuming than your sauce-out-of-a-jar-cottage-cheese-recipe. My pictures don’t do it justice, but trust me, its worth it)!!!

Olive Oil

Butter

1 onion

2 carrots

2 celery stalks

2 garlic cloves
1 lb. ground sausage 

1 14oz can tomato sauce, or a handful of fresh tomatoes

1 can vegetable broth
s&p

2 TB butter

1/3 cup flour

2 cups milk

1 cup cream

salt and pepper

 pinch of nutmeg

pasta sheets (I recommend Barilla no boil)
mozzarella cheese

parmesan cheese

butter

 To make the Ragu-

1.Wash and chop onion, carrots, celery, and garlic.
2. Heat butter and oil in pot. Saute vegetables briefly.
3. Add sausage. Saute.
4. Add tomato sauce, stock, salt and pepper.
5. Simmer on low for 1 hour.
Noteson the ragu:
*For fresh tomatoes, boil, peel, and puree, then add to vegetables and sausage.
*I usually multiply this recipe by 4, and freeze half of the batch.

1. Melt butter. Add flour, stirring with a whisk, appx 1 minute.
2. Slowly add milk, then cream, stirring constantly.
3. Simmer on low until thickened, 5-10 minutes.
4. Season with s&p and nutmeg.

1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. In a 9×13 baking dish, spread a teeny tiny layer of the bechamel, preventing the pasta from sticking to the bottom.

3. The layers will be in this order- pasta, ragu, bechamel, mozzarella. Repeat 3 times.

4. Top with parmesan and a few pats of butter. (you don’t have to do the butter, but its amazing)!

5. Bake for 40 minutes.

A few pictures of the process:
Ingredients picture. **fresh mozzerella and parmesan is the best…

I use fresh tomatoes from our garden. They boil while…

 I chop and sautee the other veggies.

 Then I “puree” the tomatoes with a potato masher, right on top of the sauteed veggies.

 Then I add the meat and stock, and simmer.

 Bechamel sauce.

Here’s the few pats of butter. mmm.

All packed up for my Troy-boy to take to work…

ps- This was my guest post on the lovely Oopsey Daisy Blog last week!