Sausage and Red Pepper Lasagna

For my 100th entry, I'm posting our favorite lasagna recipe. It take a bit of effort but it's worth it. It's been a while since we had this but now that our oven is back in business, I think we'll have this for Sunday Dinner!


Sausage and Red Pepper Lasagna

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium sweet red pepper, cored, seeded and diced
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 links sweet Italian sausage (about 1 1/2 lbs. with casings removed.)
1--28 oz. can crushed tomatoes in puree (I sometimes use diced tomatoes or make a puree by pulsing in a food processor or blender.)

1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 tsp. sugar
2 1/4 tsp. dried Italian seasoning

1--15 oz container part-skim ricotta
1 large egg
4 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. ground. black pepper

12 lasagna noodles (Don't have to cook in advance but make sure that you do cover the lasagna with foil for the first half hour.)

2 cups shredded mozzarella

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Coat a 9" x 13" baking pan with non-stick spray.
Heat large skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil, then red pepper, onion and garlic.
Cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add sausage and cook until sausage in no longer pink
Add crushed tomatoes, vinegar, sugar and 2 tsp. of the Italian seasoning.
Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes.

In medium bowl, blend ricotta and egg, stir in remaining 1/4 tsp. Italian seasoning, 2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese and black pepper.

Begin layering with 1 cup sauce on bottom of pan. Top with 3 noodles (Do not overlap.) Top with 3/4 cup ricotta mix, 1 cup mozzarella.
Ladle 1 cup sauce, 3 noodles, 1 cup sauce. . .
Top with 3 more noodles, remaining ricotta.
Spread with 1 cup sauce then final 3 noodles,remaining mozzarella and 2 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese.
(When I actually make this, I don't follow the exact measurements listed above but go by feel to divide up the actual sauce, etc. I usually add a bit more cheese since we're rather cheesy.)


Cover dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes,
Uncover dish and bake an additional 25 to 30 minutes until top is browned.
Cool slightly and serve.

You can spice this up by using spicy Italian sausage. You can use fire-roasted crushed tomatoes instead of "plain" canned tomatoes. . .You can leave out the red pepper if you wish. I love recipes with lots of options.

Sunday, January 17 5:21 p.m. Pacific Time. This lasagna is in my oven right now. My sauce was pretty thick today so I used about a 1/3 cup water to rinse the pan the sauce was in and poured it over the lasagna just before covering it with foil and putting it in the oven.