Grandma's Sunday Lasagna

There are as many variations of lasagna as there are grandmas, but most recipes feature a meat sauce layered with ruffled lasagna noodles and plenty of mozzarella and ricotta cheese. Dried boxed noodles, and especially the no-bake kind, speed up and simplify prep.

Meat Sauce

Olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, diced

2 large cloves garlic, minced or pressed

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

1 pound ground beef

1/4 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 28-ounce cans crushed tomatoes (preferably San Marzano)

Salt

Pepper

Lasagna

Meat sauce

1 16-ounce box lasagna noodles, cooked, drained and patted dry

16-ounces mozzarella cheese, grated (set aside 1/2 cup for the top layer)

1 12-ounce bag frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

16-ounces ricotta cheese

1 cup parmesan cheese, grated

1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

For the sauce:

Heat a large Dutch oven over medium heat. When the pan is hot, add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. When the oil is hot, add the onion. Sauté until softened and translucent, about 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic and Italian seasoning to the pan and cook just until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Add the ground beef to the pan, and sauté until starting to brown, about 10 minutes. Add the sausage and use your spoon to break up the chunks. Sauté until cooked through and browned, about 10 minutes. Carefully pour off almost all of the fat in the pan. Add the tomato paste and tomatoes to the pan, and stir to combine.

Bring the sauce to a low simmer, and cook for about 2 hours until the stew meat is broken down and sauce is thickened. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper to taste. Let cool slightly while assembling lasagna.

For the lasagna:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spread about 1/4 cup of the meat sauce on the bottom of a deep lasagna dish. Lay down a layer of noodles on top of the sauce. Then start layering the mozzarella cheese, spinach and ricotta cheese alternating with the noodles and sauce. Keep layering until you run out of ingredients, or reach the top of the dish. Be sure to end with a layer of noodles, a layer of sauce, and top it all with the reserved mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese on top of the mozzarella.

Bake in preheated oven for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the top of the lasagna is browned, the cheese is melted, and the internal temperature is 165 degrees F. If the top starts to brown too quickly, cover the dish with foil. Let sit for about 15-20 minutes for the lasagna to set before cutting. Garnish with the parsley, and serve with any leftover sauce.