Ellie’s Lasagna

Steve and I both love lasagna and baked ziti.  Sadly, our children are less than thrilled with either option, so I never make it.  We were at a team dinner (pot luck style) and Ellie said she “loved Coach Anita’s curly lasagna.”  Ellie proclaiming that she “loves” anything pasta is a miracle, so as soon as I got home I emailed Coach Anita for her recipe.

We discovered that both kids love spiral pasta, and they don’t like baked pasta if it’s too cheesy.  Score!

Ellie ate it up the first night, but the leftovers went untouched. Sigh. At least she ate it the first night.

Ingredients:

• 16 oz. spiral pasta
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 8 oz. – 16 oz. sausage (depending on how much meat you like)
• 45 oz. jar of pasta sauce
• 2 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 8 oz. ricotta
• 8 oz. shredded mozzarella

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*
2. Cook pasta (under cook it because it will continue cooking in the oven).
3. Saute the onion, then add the garlic; then add the sausage and cook through.
4. Add 1/2 of the jar of sauce to the skillet with the sausage and add the Italian seasoning, and stir to combine; then add the pasta and mix to combine.
5. In a 9/13 baking dish, add 1/2 of the remaining sauce to the bottom of the dish; then add the pasta mixture to the baking dish; dollop spoonfuls of ricotta into pockets throughout the casserole; then top with the remaining sauce.
6. Cover with foil (if you like crunchy top noodles don’t cover) and bake for 30-40 minutes, until bubbly. At the end of cooking add the mozzarella cheese and return the dish to the oven but turn the oven off and let the cheese melt.

Ellie’s Lasagna: