Luscious Lasagna

12 lasagna noodles

1 ½ lbs ground chuck

1 (28 oz) jar spaghetti sauce with mushrooms (the mushrooms are optional)

3 eggs

24 oz cottage cheese

3 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9×13 casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions, using the shortest cook time. (You want the noodles to be not quite al dente so they won’t overcook in the oven.) Add noodles to water one at a time so they don’t stick together. After they are done cooking drain and set them aside. (I recommend rinsing them in hot water to prevent them from sticking together as they cool.)

Brown meat in a large skillet. Drain grease, and then rinse meat to remove any extra grease. (I did not rinse my meat and the flavor was not affected. However, I do think that the extra grease might have prevented the sauce from clinging to the noodles.) Season the meat with salt and pepper, to taste. Add spaghetti sauce to browned meat and mix well.

In a medium bowl combine cottage cheese and eggs until well blended. (I recommend scrambling the eggs in a separate bowl before adding them to the cottage cheese.)

Line the bottom of the casserole dish with 4 cooked noodles, overlapping the edges. Cover the noodles with half of the meat mixture, then half of the cottage cheese mixture, then half of the mozzarella cheese. Repeat the layers (noodles, meat, cottage cheese). Top the second layer of cottage cheese with a layer of noodles before adding the second layer of mozzarella. Your layers should be as follows:

(top)

mozzarella

noodles

cottage cheese

meat

noodles

mozzarella

cottage cheese

meat

noodles

(bottom)

Bake for 45 minutes. Let set about 10-15 minutes before serving.

I added 2 cloves chopped garlic and 2 tsp dried minced onion to the meat as it was browning. (I cooked 2 lbs of meat and saved the extra half pound for another meal.)

The lasagna will completely fill your casserole dish once it is assembled. Unless you are using a deep dish I recommend putting a cookie sheet under the casserole dish to catch any spillovers during baking.

You should definitely serve this with plenty of grated parmesan. My family has a saying, “Cheese is good. Cheese is your friend.” My family eats parmesan cheese on just about every pasta dish. I just recently learned that Russell’s family only eats parmesan cheese on spaghetti. I find that very sad.