Ricotta Cheese Lasagna

Pasta is a weakness of mine, and add on it lots of cheese and I am sold. This is how we ate lasagna at home, with variation of the sauce either with or without cut up Italian meatballs in it.

Without meat, it works as a vegetarian meal, and is pretty easy to assemble. I have also made these in bulk and frozen them, which is a savior for those impromptu dinner parties or unexpected power/water cuts which  we seem to experience more and more of in Cairo nowadays.

Lasagna lovers, beware, this is your new kryptonite!

Ricotta Cheese Lasagna

by Ameirah Abou-Azama

Prep Time: 30 min

Cook Time: 45 min

Keywords: bake entree vegetarian lasagne Italian

6025208

Ingredients (6-8 people)

For the Filling

• 500 gms Ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup parsely
• 1/2 Mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup Parmesean cheese
• Oregano
• Pepper to taste
• 1 egg

For the Sauce

• 1 kg fresh tomatoes
• 3 Tbsp Tomato paste
• 1 Tsp olive oil
• 1 Tsp Butter
• 2 cups water
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced or diced
• Oregano
• Basil
• 1/4 cup parmesean cheese

For the Lasagne

• Lasagne noodles, be sure to make note if it needs boiling or not.
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese for the top

Instructions

For the Sauce

Warm the olive oil and butter, and add in the minced garlic. Add in your 1kg of pureed tomatoes, water, tomato paste, cheese and the rest of the spices. Allow to simmer, for 10 mins.

If using Lasagne noodles that DO NOT need boiling, make your sauce extra watery. This excess water is needed for the noodles to cook.

For the Filling

In a large bowl, beat the egg, add in all the ingredients and mix well. This can be done in the food processor, but it shouldn't be necessary.

Assembling

In a pan, ladle some sauce to cover the whole bottom, then carefully place your lasagna sheets side by side, keeping no gaps. You can overlap if you have to. The layer you will put the filling in, do not ladle sauce on top, this will prevent the filling from becoming watery and seeping off the sides.

Continue to layer and add the filling either on one or two layers. For the final layer, add mozzarella cheese on top.

Cover when baking for the first 20 mins as not to burn the cheese on top, then remove to brown.