I used the Italian Flat Leaf Parsley because that's what they sell at my Walmart. But when I was a kid and had to go pick it for mom and took long detours down to the barn to visit my cats we had the curly leaf stuff. It don't matter to me what you wanna use.
If you're wondering where this recipe came from... well... I kinda wanted Lasagna one day and I couldn't find a recipe that had EVERYTHING I thought there should be in Lasagna. So I grabbed 3 or 4 of my cookbooks and started taking all the ingredients I liked out of about 8 different recipes. Then I added a few more things I thought would sound good, and Voila! I had a recipe that Reece said wasn't too bad! Don't let that scare you tho... he says that about everything. And please don't mind the dented tomato sauce can in the picture. I didn't think about taking a picture until after I already used the UN-dented one.
1/2 of a 1 lb. box of Lasagna noodles*
1 lb. hamburger
1 tsp. salt**
1 lb. Italian sausage
1 medium onion, minced
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can petite diced tomatoes
1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce (or just use a quart of your home canned tomatoes)
1 pkg. Baby Bella mushrooms, minced
3 T. butter
3/4 tsp. dried oregano (only because I keep forgetting to plant my seeds. Use fresh if you have it.)
3/4 tsp. dried basil (same sob story as above.)
1/2 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1/2 C. chopped fresh cilantro, divided
1/2 C. chopped fresh parsley, divided
1/2 of an 8 oz. carton Ricotta cheese
8 oz. sour cream
8 oz. cottage cheese
6 oz. cream cheese
1/2 C. grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1 lb. shredded mozzarella cheese
10 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
Grated Parmesan cheese
Shaved Parmesan cheese
Parmesan cheese from the can for a generous sprinkle on top
*Please note. Do not be like me and forget to cook your lasagna noodles until you start layering your ingredients in the pan. It takes a lot longer to get your supper in the oven when you do such things.
**When frying hamburger, ALWAYS add 1 tsp. of salt to it WHILE cooking. Otherwise it will NEVER have the same flavor. And besides. I think it steals 3 times as much salt from everything else if it's unsalted when you mix it with other stuff.
Anyways, do you want some directions? Oh OK. I can't ever remember how to layer this right so if you screw it up you can blame my dog or the next door neighbor's pet Cheewawa ;)
Start frying the hamburger & Italian sausage. When it starts getting a little bit liquidy add the 1 tsp. salt, the onion & garlic. When the meat is all browned, drain the fat if there is any, and then add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, 1/4 C. cilantro, 1/4 C. parsley, 1/4 tsp. pepper, oregano & basil. Let that simmer on low while you do all kinds of other stuff.
Saute the mushrooms in the butter until tender. Add them to the hamburger/tomato mixture so nobody can find them. And while you're at it, don't tell Reece about this step. Thanks.
Start your noodles cooking and cook them until they're al dente. I always dump in some olive oil when I cook them so they don't lovingly cling to each other when they're cooked.
In your food processor, mix up the rest of the cilantro, parsley, Ricotta cheese, sour cream, cottage cheese, cream cheese, grated Parmesan cheese, egg, 3/4 tsp. salt & garlic salt.
In a big huge pan- LOL! I think mine is actually a roaster- layer one third of the meat sauce, one third of the white sauce, about one third each of the mozzarella, cheddar & grated Parmesan cheeses & half the noodles. Repeat that layer once, then put the remaining white sauce, meat sauce, mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese & shaved Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle with The canned Parmesan and some oregano or pepper or some other dark colored dried Italian spice. :) It should kinda look like this: Minus the funky color from having to use flash because my house has a weird lighting issue...
Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit for 10 minutes before serving.
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