Carol's Bohemian Lasagna
Adapted from a recipe developed by Carol Schultz, a swim buddy's mom
Serves about 12
This is one of those great recipes that is tastier the next day. Adding to the already existing convenience of lasagna, you can assemble the lasagna up to a day ahead before cooking, or you can assemble and freeze. Adjustments to the cooking time can be found below.
If you're like me, your sauce ends up fairly chunky so putting it in a thin layer below the noodles is difficult. I've found that if you spoon some of the sauce into the pan and push it around the bottom it will coat it pretty well in a later of protective saucy goodness. Remove the chunky bits and use them in another layer where they'll be better appreciated.
Some varieties of fresh mozzarella really have a lot of moisture. If you suspect you're using one of these varieties, ensure that you drain the cheese really well before using it. You may want to consider using a little less of the cheese as well since you can get mozzarella water pooling on the top of your lasagna if it's too moist.
1 pound Italian sausage
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons dried Italian herbs
One 16 ounce can of whole tomatoes (preferably Italian recipe), juice reserved and tomatoes chopped
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 cups cottage cheese (preferably whole-milk)
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 pound of fresh mozzarella cheese, drained and thinly sliced (or use perlini, tiny pearl-sized bits of mozzarella)
1 cup of freshly chopped fresh basil leaves
8 ounces lasagna noodles (I like whole wheat or whole spelt varieties)
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Over medium heat, brown and drain the meat. Add garlic, Italian herbs, and the tomatoes and their juices. Simmer uncovered until the sauce thickens, about 35-40 minutes. While the sauce is simmering, fill a stockpot with water and start bringing it to a boil.
Beat eggs in a medium sized bowl. Add pepper, cottage cheese, and 1/2 cup of the Parmesan and stir well.
When the sauce is nearly ready, drop the lasagna noodles into boiling water and cook according to the package directions. After cooking and draining, drizzle olive oil over the noodles to help prevent them from sticking together.
To assemble the lasagna, spread a small amount of sauce over the bottom of a 9x13-inch pan. Put down a layer of noodles. Spread half the sauce over the noodles and top with half the cottage cheese mixture, half the mozzarella cheese, and half of the fresh basil. Layer on the rest of the noodles, the rest of the cottage cheese mix, mozzarella cheese, basil, and the rest of the meat sauce (note the different order of this layer). Top with the remaining Parmesan.
Cover the pan tightly with foil and bake until cheese is beginning to brown, about 30-40 minutes (bake for 45-55 minutes if assembled then refrigerated or 1:45-2 hours if assembled and frozen), removing the foil at about 25 minutes. After baking, let the pan sit for about 15 minutes before serving. Leftovers can easily be refrigerated or frozen.