Italian Sausage Lasagna

One of my great aunt's sent me Ina Garten's Family-style cookbook for my engagement. The book is filled with amazing pictures and, if you have ever watched Ina before, you recognize Ina's banter in the notes section. The first recipe I tried from the book was Ina's Italian Sausage Lasagna. We had a couple of friends over and served them the dish and it was a huge hit! Ever since I made it the first time, Joey has been asking me to make it again.

So last night we invited a few people over and made it again. The recipe is a little time consuming in the preparation, so I refuse to make it on a weeknight, but it is well worth the trouble.

Ina's recipe can be found in the book or here, but I'll rewrite it anyway for ease.

Italian Sausage Lasagna

INGREDIENTS:

Sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 medium onion)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 pounds sweet Italian turkey sausage, casings removed, broken up into chunks with 2 forks
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes in tomato puree
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
2T chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1/2 t Kosher salt
1/4 t black pepper

Cheese Mixture
15 ounces ricotta cheese
2 T parsley, chopped
3 to 4 ounces creamy goat cheese, crumbled
1 cup grated Parmesan
1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 t Kosher salt
1/4 t black pepper

Other
1/2 pound lasagna noodles (~10)
1 pound fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet or pan over medium low heat (I used a large dutch oven because last time it splattered all over the stove) add onions and cook for 5 minutes until translucent
3. Add garlic and cook for one minute more. Add Italian sausage and cook for 8-10 minutes until no longer pink
4. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, parsley, basil, salt and pepper and simmer over med-low heat for 15-20 minutes until thickened.
5. Meanwhile, fill a large bowl with the hottest tap water and soak the noodles for 20 minutes
6. In a medium bowl, combine all the ingredients for the cheese mixture. Set aside.
7. Ladle 1/3 of the sauce into a 9x13 baking dish (I use glass). Spread evenly across the bottom and then layer with half the pasta, half the mozzarella, half the cheese mixture and 1/3 of the sauce. Top in the same way with the rest and finish with sauce.
8. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of Parmesan over the top.
9. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes until the sauce is bubbling. Let cool for 10-15 minutes before serving. Serve with garlic bread and salad.