Our Lasagna - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 lb ground pork or 1 lb ground sausage
1 lb ground beef
12 ounces canned tomato sauce
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons fresh parsley or 2 tablespoons dried parsley, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup minced onion
1 pinch sugar
2 teaspoons dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 lb small curd cottage cheese
1/2 lb ricotta cheese
3 eggs
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 (16 ounce) package dry lasagna noodles
1 lb mozzarella cheese

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375\u00b0F.
Brown pork OR sausage and beef in a dutch oven or similar large, deep skillet.
Once meat is browned, add tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, and 1 tablespoon parsley.
Add garlic, oregano, onion, sugar, basil and salt.
Reduce heat to medium-low and let sauce simmer for 30 minutes.
Give it a good stir every 5 minutes or so.
In a large bowl, combine cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, eggs, Parmesan cheese, 1 tbsp parsley, salt and pepper.
Cover the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish with a thin layer of sauce followed by 1 or 2 layers of uncooked lasagna noodles; Assemble the remainder in the following sequence: cheese-egg mixture, sauce, mozzarella cheese (sliced or shredded), noodles; repeat layers ending with a layer of noodles covered with a thin layer of sauce and some shredded mozzarella.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake in preheated oven for 30-40 minutes .
Remove foil, cover top with more mozzarella and grated parmesan.
Bake for another 5-10 minutes .
Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.
NOTE: When assembling the lasagna, we use medium- thick slices of mozzarella rather than shredded.
Either works great, the sliced cheese just seems to add a little extra cheesiness.
We use shredded for the mozzarella topping that is applied at the end.