Recipe - Baked Lasagne

1 pound Of lean ground beef, or
Italian sausage
3 tablespoon Olive oil
1 lg Onion, chopped (to make 1
cup)
1 lg Red or green bell pepper
(finely chopped)
2 lg Garlic cloves, minced
28 ounce Italian plum tomatoes
6 ounce Can tomato paste
1/3 cup Water
1 One half teaspoon Dried basil
1 teaspoon Oregano
1 teaspoon Sugar (optional)
Salt
One fourth teaspoon Freshly ground pepper
1 Bay leaf, broken in half
15 ounce Fresh ricotta
4 cup Grated mozzarella cheese
One fourth cup Freshly grated Parmesan
cheese
1 Egg
One half teaspoon Salt
8 Lasagne noodles (about 6
oz.)
1 tablespoon Olive oil
One fourth cup Freshly grated Parmesan
cheese
One fourth cup Freshly grated mozzarella
cheese

Remove sausage casings and crumble sausage. Brown meat in large pot,
stirring occasionally to break up the meat. Drain off fat.

Remove meat and set aside. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in the same pot, add
onion, garlic and bell pepper and cook over medium heat, stirring
occasionally, about 5 to 8 minutes or until onion is tender.

Stir in the reserved meat, tomato puree, tomato paste, water, basil,
oregano, sugar, Three fourths teaspoon salt, One fourth teaspoon pepper and bay leaf and
bring to boil. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, about 2 hours, or
until flavors mingle and mixture thickens slightly (there will be about
4 One half to 5 cups of sauce).

Combine ricotta, One fourth cup Parmesan, egg, One fourth teaspoon salt, and One fourth teaspoon
pepper in a medium bowl; set aside.

Bring 3 quarts of water to boil in a large pot.
Add 1 tablespoon salt, then gradually add lasagne noodles so that water
continues to boil. Cook noodles until barely tender, about 5 minutes,
stirring once or twice; do not overcook. Drain noodles; rinse in cold
water and drain well. Return noodles to pot and toss them gently with 1
tablespoon oil to prevent them sticking.

Line the bottom of a a buttered 9 x 13 x 2inch pan with 4 lasagne
noodles, cutting one as necessary to completely cover the bottom. Spread
evenly with half of ricotta mixture (1 generous cup). Sprinkle evenly with
half of mozarella (about 2 cups). Spread with half of the tomato/meat
sauce.

Top with remaining 4 noodles, cutting one noodle as above so that the
sauce mixture is completely covered. Evenly layer on remaining ingredients
in the same order as above. Sprinkle the top of the lasagne evenly with 1/4
cup Parmesan and One fourth cup mozzarella.

Bake in a preheated oven at 375 for about 45 or 50 minutes or until
lasagne is hot in center. Remove from oven; let stand for 15 minutes. Cut
in squares and serve on heated plates with garlic bread.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini