I love lasagna. It is easily my favorite pasta dish and up there with my favorite dishes of all time. I like it vegetarian, I like it with beef or chicken, or any kind of odd combination people can come up with. If it’s served between sheets of lasagna and baked, I’ll try it.
This is one of my favorite versions of lasagna. It’s classic without being boring or too predictable. It came about one day when sweet turkey sausage was on sale and I was tired of the usual ways I cooked it. My kids had been requesting lasagna for a while so I tried removing the casing and cooking it up like ground beef.
The sweet sausage was definitely a great addition to a normal lasagna. I had some extra goat cheese laying around from another recipe so I mixed that in with the cheese in this lasagna. The goat cheese and sausage give it a more exotic flavor to make this one of the best lasagnas I have ever made.
Make this for family gatherings and you’re sure to get raving compliments.
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 100g chopped yellow onion (1 onion)
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 675g sweet italian turkey sausage casings removed
- 1 (800g) tin crushed tomatoes in tomato puree
- 1 (170g) can tomato puree
- 4 tbsp chopped fresh flat leaf parsley divided
- Handful chopped basil leaves
- 2 tsp
- ¾ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 225g lasagne noodles
- 425g ricotta cheese
- 85-110g goats cheese
- 100g parmesan cheese plus 50g for sprinkling
- 1 extra-large egg lightly beaten
- 450g fresh mozzarella thinly sliced
- ) Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas mark 7.
- ) Heat the olive oil in a large (25 to 30cm) skillet. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes over medium-low heat until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minuter. Add the sausage and cook over medium-low heat breaking it up with a fork for 8 to 10 minutes or until no longer pink. Add the tomatoes tomato puree 2 tbsp of the parsley the basil 1½ tsp salt and ½ tsp pepper. Simmer uncovered over medium-low heat for 15 to 20 minutes until thickened.
- ) Meanwhile fill a large bowl with the hottest tap water. Add the noodles and allow them to sit in the water for 20 minutes. Drain.
- ) In a medium bowl combine the ricotta goat cheese 100g parmesan the egg the remaining 2 tbsp of parsley ½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper. Set aside.
- ) Ladle ⅓ of the sauce into a 20 by 33 by 4 cm rectangular baking dish spreading the sauce over the bottom of the dish. Then add the layers as follows: half the pasta half the mozzarella half the ricotta and one third of the sauce. Add the rest of the pasta mozzarella ricotta and finally sauce. Sprinkle with 50g parmesan. Bake for 30 minutes until the sauce is bubbling.
