Prepare enough lasagna sheets for 4 pasta layers. Use homemade, fresh store-bought or dried no-boil lasagna sheets, as you prefer. Boil the homemade or fresh store-bought sheets in batches and immediately rinse each batch in a colander with cold water to stop cooking and to prevent sticking. Use the dried no-boil lasagna sheets per the package directions.
Meat sauce
Olive oil
1Large onion, chopped
4-5clovesGarlic minced
1lbbulk Italian sausage, ground pork and ground beef. Use 1/3 lb each or your preferred proportion.
1cupRed wine
228 oz cans of crushed tomatoes
1cupWater, or more as needed
Pinchof black pepper
Salt to taste
Parsley, basil and Italian seasoning to taste
Cheese mixture
2lbs.ricotta
1lbBlock of mozzarella. Use 2/3 for the cheese mixture and reserve 1/3 for topping
1cupParmigiano-Reggiano
1Egg, beaten
3tbsFresh chopped parsley, or more to taste
Salt and pepper to taste; keep in mind the Parmigiano-Reggiano is salty.
Preparation
Prepare lasagna sheets as described above
Preheat oven to 350° F
In a 4 or 5-quart saucepot, add enough olive oil to cover the bottom. Add chopped onion and cook to soften, about 4 minutes. Add minced garlic and cook for another minute or two. Don’t burn the onions!
Add the ground meats to the saucepot and brown, being sure to break up the ground sausage as much as possible.
Add the red wine and deglaze the saucepot and reduce to ½ the original volume.
Add the crushed tomatoes and water to the browned meat and mix well. Add the parsley, basil and Italian seasonings and mix again. Bring to a boil and reduce the meat sauce to a slow simmer. Simmer until done to your taste, about 1 to 1.5 hours. If the sauce becomes to condensed add more water to achieve your desired consistency. If you’re using no-boil pasta sheets you want the sauce to be more liquid.
Combine all the ingredients for the cheese mixture in a bowl and mix well.
In a 9x13 glass baking pan, assemble the lasagna by first adding a layer of the meat sauce to the bottom of the pan. Add a layer of pasta sheets on top of the meat sauce. Add 1/3 of cheese mixture on top of the pasta sheets and then a layer of meat sauce on top of the cheese mixture. Repeat for two more layers. Finally add the fourth layer of pasta sheets on top. Then cover the pasta sheets with more meat sauce and the remaining mozzarella cheese. You may need more mozzarella to form a nice cheese layer similar to pizza; it’s up to your discretion.
Bake for 50 minutes until hot and bubbly and the mozzarella is nicely melted and lightly browned.
Remove from the oven and let rest for about 15 minutes then cut into approximately 4x4 squares and serve.