Lasagna is one of my favorite meals, and it's really quite easy to make, once you've done it a couple times. This one is using my pasta sauce with oil poached tomatoes.. I love starting with one thing and building on it. I keep the oil poached tomatoes in the freezer, so I can just pull them out and make sauce out of them or toss them on pasta or crostini any time!

Start with a delicious rich sauce and you can't go wrong!

Ingredients: 

Full quart size jar of homemade pasta sauce or you can use store bought, but I would get a good quality one.

1/2 large eggplant, skin on, diced in about 1 inch cubes

1 small onion diced

4 cloves garlic minced

about 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil

1/2 pound italian style sausage of your choice (I love spicy chicken italian).

Any lasagna noodle you prefer. I use the brown rice no boil ones. They're easy and delicious and good for you!

8 oz of good quality ricotta cheese

About 3 cups (12-16 oz) good quality Mozzarella Cheese, shredded

About 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese shredded

Homemade or store bought basil pesto (about 1/4 cup. I make fresh pesto from my garden basil and store it in the freezer, so I use this of course.

Start with your lasagne meat sauce:

Heat olive oil in a skillet on medium heat and add eggplant, onion and garlic. Slice open sausage casings, scoop out the sausage and add to the pan. Cook, stirring often until sausage is cooked through. Eggplant should be soft and onions transparent.  When that looks done, add the sauce. turn it down and let it simmer while you're preparing the rest of the lasagna.

Now layer it up!

Assembly:

While the sauce is simmering, pour your Ricotta Cheese in a bowl and add pesto and stir together.

Use a standard 13"X 9" baking pan and scoop out enough sauce to line the bottom of your pan. Now add 3-4 noodles to  line the bottom of the pan. Scoop on 1/3 of the sauce, 1/3 of the Ricotta mixture, and 1/3 of the Mozzarella cheese. Repeat this for 3 layers.  Top with Parmasan cheese, cover with foil, and bake at 375 degree oven for about 45 minutes. Take the foil off and let it bake for another 10 to get a brown crusty top.

Yield: About 12 single servings

___________________________________

Now get all the supplies you need to grow a garden so you can make these yummy meals too, from farm to table. Here's what I recommend!