Today on Ken Cooks, I made one of my wife’s favorite dishes. Yes, she does a happy dance when I make Lasagna. The absolute best thing I can tell you about Lasagna recipes is that you never want a recipe that tells you to use pre-made sauce from a jar. Always make your own sauce, you will thank me for that piece of advice.

My Lasagna begins with one-pound hamburger, one-pound Italian sausage, onion, and garlic. I cook these together in my Dutch oven until nicely browned. The recipe calls for sweet Italian sausage, but you can use whatever fits your taste, I use mild.

I then add crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and water followed by seasonings. Sugar, parsley, basil (I always use fresh herbs when possible.), salt, Italian seasoning, fennel seeds, and black pepper. This makes the best meat sauce. Let simmer, covered for one and a half hours, stirring occasionally.

While the sauce is simmering, you can prepare your ricotta cheese mix and boil your noodles. In a separate bowl you mix your ricotta cheese with parsley and salt and boil your noodles according to package directions for al dente. Once the noodles are done, I like to coat them with olive oil and lay them out on a baking sheet to prevent sticking.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and then you are ready to start layering. In a nine by thirteen baking dish, you begin with spreading two cups of meat sauce and covering them with five to six noodles overlapped. Follow with half the ricotta mix and one third of the mozzarella cheese slices (I always add extra mozzarella slices and some shredded.) Two more cups meat sauce on top of that followed by one quarter cup shredded Parmesan atop that (again, I add extra cause we like it cheesy.) Repeat the layers and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

Cover the dish with aluminum foil making sure it doesn’t touch the cheeses and bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, remove the foil and bake for another 25 minutes until cheese is golden and bubbly. Let rest for fifteen minutes and serve. Delicious.

If you would like the exact recipe, you can find it on the Ken Cooks page of my website: www.ken-wright-enterprises.com