Meaty Melty Lasagna

Saturday was a great day, we went to the pumpkin patch to pick out a couple and then we hit up the Fresh Market for some groceries. It was such a gorgeous Fall day, it really put me in the mood for some comfort food, almost instantly, Italian food came to mind. Cheese, meat, pasta. Done done done. Wine? Duh. 

prep time: 1 hour
cook time: 1 hour
Ingredients

9x9 baking dish
3/4 lb lean ground sirloin
2 chorizo sausage 
9 lasagna noodles
1 16 oz container skim ricotta
2 cans tomato paste
 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 jar of your favorite pasta sauce
1 egg
2 7oz (approximate) bags reduced fat mozzarella cheese
2 cups Parmesan cheese
1 pinch crushed red pepper
4 garlic cloves
Fresh Italian parsley
1/2 a roasted red pepper (sliced into thin strips)
Fresh basil 
1 tbsp garlic powder
2 portobello mushroom caps
1 large yellow onion
1 tsp dry oregano
1 tbsp dry Italian herb mix 
1 tbsp dry basil
1 cup of your favorite white wine
1tsp sugar
Olive oil
Salt and pepper 

Directions

•  Drizzle olive oil in a large pot and set it to medium-high heat. Chop your onion, throw it into the pot and toss it around with a wooden spoon so that its coated in the olive oil. 
  
• Mince the garlic cloves and throw that into the pot as well. Give it all a little stir and let it cook down for about 3-5 minutes or until you notice the onion becoming translucent. You will start to make the house smell amazing with just these two ingredients!
  
• Get your sirloin and sausage out, take the casings off the sausage and toss them both in the pot with the onion & garlic. Break up all the meat with your wooden spoon or a spatula. 

• At this point you can season everything, sprinkle in some salt and pepper and a pinch of crushed red pepper. 
  
• Chop up the portobello mushrooms into cubes and toss in the pot and allow everything to cook down for several minutes. Your melangee should be looking like this...

• Once the meat is cooked through you can throw in the rest of the meat sauce ingredients. Tomato paste, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, sliced up roasted red pepper, wine, and seasonings. Please remember that I do not necessarily like to measure seasonings, I want you to taste as you go! I did add a little bit more salt as this mixture cooked. Also, feel free to play around with seasonings. Fennel would be another good one to add as it has a sort of sausage flavor to it. 
  

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• Chop up some Italian parsley and sprinkle it into the pot and let it all simmer on low while you get everything else together. Things should be looking like so...
  

• At this point you're going to need to prep the lasagna noodles. Prepare them as directed on the package. I used 9 noodles as I used a 9x9 inch dish and did 3 layers. You can adjust this to your size pan but remember to adjust your sauce amount. I did have about a cup of sauce leftover so keep that in mind too. 
• Also, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 
• While the noodles are boiling and your meat sauce is hanging out over low heat, you need to make your cheese mix! 
• Get a big mixing bowl and add the egg, ricotta, one whole bag of mozzarella, about 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, a sprinkle of chopped Italian parsley, some chopped basil, garlic powder, salt, pepper and mix together. 

• By the time you are done mixing the cheese, your noodles should be done. You don't want to overcook them, make sure they are al dente (have a little bit of bite left to them, not total moosh). Drain and get ready to construct your lasagna. 
• Start at the bottom of the pan by ladeling a good amount of meat sauce. You want the whole bottom to simply be covered. Just enough to cover the bottom. Then place 3 noodles over that. You will now add 1/3 of the cheese mix and spread it all out as evenly as you can. 
• Repeat those steps. Meat, noodles, cheese, meat noodles, cheese and then another big ladle of meat sauce. You can add as much meat sauce as you want at this point if you have some left. 
• To top it off, sprinkle the lasagna with about half a bag of mozzarella cheese and a good sprinkling of parmesan cheese. 

• Cover the dish with foil and place it in the oven. You will cook the lasagna for 30 minutes with the foil and then 30 minutes without the foil. 
• You want to the lasagna to look ooey gooey bubbly and browning a little on the top. 
• Also, make sure to let the lasagna sit for about 15 minutes before diving in. I know this is tough!!! A good thing to do while you wait is to toast up some baguette. You're going to want a little something to soak up that meat sauce ;) 
• Chop up some basil and decorate the top.... Bon appetit! 

TOOT TOOT! This is the best lasagna I have ever made. My secret ingredients are definitely the wine, roasted red pepper and sausage. Enjoy and let me know how it goes!
xoxo