Lasagna...finally!

I called this post lasagna...finally because I finally got a recipe for lasagna that worked for me. I love lasagna. It's one of the few things I will eat leftovers off. Everytime I've tried to make it though it turns out too runny or too dry. It's something that's been driving me crazy for years! How hard can it be! In our family growing up we usually had Stoffer's lasagna & I love it. In Matt's family his mom always made great lasagna though. So I decided to tackle it one more time. I looked up a ton of different recipes & read a bunch of reviews & then came up with a recipe by taking small parts of many different recipes & it turned out delicious! Yeah, finally! It was really hearty, plenty of cheese & not dry, but not runny. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! So here's the recipe:

Lasagna...finally!

1/2 large onion, finely diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 T olive oil

1 lb ground chuck

1 lb ground pork

1 small can crushed tomatoes

1 small can diced tomatoes

1 can tomato paste

1 T dried basil

1/2 T dried parsley

1/2 T dried oregano

salt to taste

15 oz ricotta cheese

1 egg

3/4 c chopped spinach (thawed & drained)

1/2 c parmesan cheese, shredded

1/2 c mozarella, shredded

1 lb mozarella in thin slices

1 package, no boil, oven ready lasagna sheets

Saute onions and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add chuck and pork and cook until done. Add 3 cans of tomatoes, dried herbs & salt. Let it simmer on the stove for about 10 mins. Taste the sauce & adjust seasonings. In a medium bowl mix together the ricotta, egg, spinach, parmesan & mozarella.

Take a 9 x 13 casserole dish. Cover the bottom with a thin layer of the red sauce. Put a layer of noodles down next. Cover with half the ricotta mixture. Then put a layer of the sliced cheese. Then another sauce layer, noodle layer, ricotta layer, cheese layer & then pour the rest of the sauce on top & top with the remaining mozarella.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 with foil tented over the top (so it doesn't touch the cheese). Then bake for another 30 minutes uncovered. I put my casserole pan on top of a cookie sheet because the casserole pan was filled to the brim. I didn't have any spill over, but better to be safe than sorry.