I love lasagna.

Love it. Love it. Love it.

I love those big Stouffer’s ones you get in the freezer. I love the homemade variety. I like the spinach ones, pesto ones, squash ones. It doesn’t really matter. That is why it has always been sad to me that I seemed unable to make a good lasagna. Granted, I wasn’t really using recipes, but I obviously didn’t get how it worked. My lasagnas were slippery and thin and not very good. Then I made one from a recipe last year and liked it a lot, but, it was pretty ricotta heavy for the cheese layer and my man isn’t big on ricotta, so it wasn’t the perfect lasagna for us.

Two weeks ago I decided I would try to make my own lasagna again. It was amazing! Instead of doing a ricotta-heavy cheese layer, I essentially made a goat cheese Alfredo sauce. In fact, we both liked it so much, that we ate the whole thing in a silly short amount of time. And this weekend, I decided to do another batch.

The first time I made it, I made one big lasagna. However, this weekend, I doubled the recipe and made three medium sized lasagnas out of it. That way, I could eat one now and have a freezer full of lasagna for the future. I highly recommend this plan.

(these are my three lasagnas before the final layer of cheese on top)

The recipe basically breaks down into four components. Meaty red sauce, Creamy Alfredo sauce, noodles, and cheese! And FYI, both the red sauce and the Alfredo are awesome as just pasta sauces. The red sauce is a basic variation of every red sauce I make. Making your own red sauce is just about the easiest thing to do. Everyone should have a simple red sauce recipe up their sleeves.

This recipe is now my staple lasagna recipe. I look forward to altering and playing with it each time from now on. As with most of my recipes, a lot has to do with what I have on hand. I happened to only have 1/4 cup of parsley, so that is how much was in there. Add and subtract based on your tastes. And remember to play!

Katie’s Comfort Lasagna

(makes 3 lasagnas in 8 inch pans in about an hour+30 min cook time)

Alfredo Sauce

• one pint heavy cream
• 6 oz herbed goat cheese (can use plain)
• 2 TB pesto
• Lots of black pepper

Red Sauce

• 6 cloves garlic
• 1tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 lbs ground pork
• 1/2 cup chopped basil
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• Hefty glug of whatever red wine you are drinking
• dash of Worcestershire sauce
• 2- 28oz cans of crushed tomatoes

one box of lasagna noodles cooked according to directions

3- 8in pans, buttered

I’m all about timing when cooking. So, if you do things in this order, you should have the lasagnas done in less than an hour and a half.

First, get cream sauce going. Add all of the ingredients for the sauce into a small pan and simmer, stirring often throughout cooking until the sauce thickens and is about 1/4 less volume.

Second, put a big pot of water on to boil for the noodles.

Once that is going, saute your garlic and red pepper in some olive oil in a large skillet until the scents start to fill up your kitchen and garlic starts to golden. Then, add the pork and cook until no longer pink. Add basil, parsley, wine, Worcestershire, and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Once there, reduce heat and simmer until thickened.

(as a side note. The reason I add Worcestershire sauce is because I’ve recently decided that it just makes meat taste… meatier. So, I add a splash anytime I’m cooking a ground meat. Turkey, pork, beef, it all tastes better with a little bit. It also adds a nice darkness and depth to red sauces.)

Hopefully, your water will be boiling by now. Prepare the noodles. If you are using no boil noodles, you probably don’t have to do this, but I’m unfamiliar with the product and just boil mine so I don’t have to worry about it.

Keep stirring your sauces! As your noodles are cooking and sauces are doing their thing, shred up a mountain of mozzarella.

Ok! So, everything is ready when sauces are thickened, noodles cooked, and cheese is shredded. Make sure to taste both sauces for salt and pepper levels. Season to your tastes. Then you can assemble!

Spoon 1/3 red sauce in the bottom of each dish and then cover with a layer of pasta. Pour on most of white sauce and top with handful of cheese. Add another layer of pasta. Top with 1/3 red sauce and cheese. Add another layer of pasta. Top with remaining red sauce and cheese sauce and then top with remaining cheese.

(yummy. cheeessseeeee. This is pre-bake.)

Bake at 350 for about 30-40 minutes, or until bubbling and you can’t wait to eat it any longer. Let lasagna sit for 10-15 minutes before cutting. Otherwise, it will all slide apart. You need to give it a minute to sit. (or you can just have sloppy pieces and let the leftovers be pretty.)

If you want to just make one big pasta, half this recipe.