Unbelievable Lasagna

By Paul Briand

I love that recipes pass from generation to generation, family to family. My mother has given her recipes to me and her other children. I'm passing them along to my children.

With this recipe, I have the good fortune of having a recipe passed on to me from my wife Jane, who got this recipe for Unbelievable Lasagna from her Aunt Mazie.

This is a meal for a crowd, a theme I hit on last week with the Chicken Marsala recipe. The lasagna is a staple when Jane's family comes to visit. It'll feed a lot of people the first night, then stand up well to reheating for another meal.

Jane's recipe differs from her Aunt Mazie's both in the filling and the fact that Jane adds two kinds of meat to her version. The original recipe calls for a pound of Ricotta cheese; Jane's filling includes Ricotta, Parmesan, eggs and some spice. Also, Mazie didn't cook the lasagna beforehand; Jane does.

Ingredients
1 pound of hamburger meat
1 pound of ground sweet Italian sausage
4 to 5 cups of your favorite jarred spaghetti sauce (Mazie liked Prego, so does Jane);
1/2 package (8 ounces) of lasagna
Large bag of shredded mozzarella cheese
Filling:
2 pounds Ricotta cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
Pepper, salt, oregano and parsley to taste

Directions
1. In separate frying pans, cook the hamburger and sausage, drain fat and set aside;
2. In a large bowl, mix together the filling ingredients -- Ricotta, Parmesan, eggs, pepper, salt, oregano and parsley;
3. In a large baking pan, spread a thin layer of sauce then arrange a layer of uncooked lasagna;
4. Add a layer of the hamburger and sausage;
5. Layer on some red sauce;
6. Add some of the cheese filling;
7. Sprinkle on a generous helping of mozzarella;
8. Repeat with two more layers;
9. Complete with a final layer of lasagna, sauce, a couple of dollops of cheese filling and a heaping topping coat of mozzarella;
10. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes until lightly browned and bubbling;
11. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving.