My Dad's Lasagna

I promised I'd be forthcoming with this recipe when I got around to making it, so here's last night's lasagna. It's pretty easy actually. The hardest part is making the sauce; everything else is just stirring and layering and waiting. You can see my yummy sauce recipe here.

Besides stuff for the sauce, you will need:
1/2 lb. ground beef or Italian sausage (goes in the sauce)
1 lb. box of lasagna (which will actually be a few noodles more than you need for no good reason)
2 eggs
15 oz. ricotta cheese
4 cups (16 oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese (pre-shredded is fine, but for the love do not use the dry kind that comes in a green plastic jar and isn't in the refrigerated section of the store.)

 1. Make the sauce. Once you've started it simmering, brown the ground beef or sausage in a skillet over medium heat until cooked through and add to the sauce. It's best if you let it simmer for a few hours so the meaty flavor gets into the sauce and vice versa.

 

2. When the sauce is getting close to done, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and cook the lasagna according to the directions on the box. I like to drizzle a bit of olive oil into the boiling water before adding the pasta to keep it from sticking to itself or the pan. Once cooked, drain the noodles. 

3. In a medium-sized bowl, beat the eggs. Stir in the ricotta, parmesan, and three cups of the mozzarella cheese.

4. On to the layering! Start with four noodles on the bottom of the pan, overlapping each other so there is no gap. Spread on 1/3 of the cheesy egg goo and 1/4 of the sauce. Repeat two more times.

5. Place one more layer of noodles and top with the remaining sauce. Sprinkle the last cup of mozzarella cheese evenly over the top. Cover with foil and bake 55 minutes.

6. Remove foil and bake 5-10 minutes more, until cheese is completely melted and golden brown. (Uh, it's not in the picture and that's because we were too hungry to wait for golden cheese. Sorry. But you should!)

Enjoy!