My Mom's Lasagna

Every family has there own way of making lasagna. Here is ours - it's a straight up ground beef/red sauce variety, but it gets rave reviews.  If I offer to bring a casserole to an event or over to another family who is in need of comfort food, I've always heard, "Can you make your lasagna? It's wonderful!" It's actually not my lasagna; its my mother's version and where she got the recipe, I don't know. I do know that people seem to love it so I thought it was time I shared it here -  now my daughters can look up the recipe in a snap as well as anyone else who is craving old school, traditional cold weather comfort food!

Meat Sauce for Lasagna

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground beef

1 large onion

2 cloves garlic

2 (15 oz.) cans tomato sauce

2 (15 oz.) cans diced tomatoes

2 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions:

     Place the hamburger into a skillet and break up into chunks with a fork. Dice the onion and add to the pan. Brown the mixture over medium low heat until the meat is no longer pink and the onions are tender. Put the garlic cloves through a press, add to the pan, and saute for 30 seconds. Drain any grease from the pan. Add the sauce, diced tomatoes, oregano, salt, and pepper. Let the mixture simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring every so often.

To Assemble Lasagna:

     Cook 8 oz of lasagna pasta (9 strips)  according to package directions.

      Gather together:
8 oz. ricotta cheese
3 (6 oz.) packages mozzarella cheese slices
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Then, Follow These Steps:

Spread about a fourth of the meat sauce into the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking pan.

Cover the sauce with three of the cooked lasagna pasta noodles.

Spread a third of the ricotta cheese over the pasta. It helps to use the back of a spoon.

Curious about making homemade ricotta cheese? Click HERE .

Sprinkle 1/3 cup of the Parmesan cheese over the ricotta cheese.

Next, cover with six of the mozzarella cheese slices

Spoon and spread one fourth of the remaining meat sauce over the cheese layer.

Repeat the process again two more times so you end up with the meat sauce on top.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 50 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling.