Easier and "Bussin" Lasagna

Those Chef Boyardee pizza-maker kits, you know the ones that come in a box with the pouch of dough mix and a can of sauce and I think a packet of cheese? That sauce in the box is so damned good. It is almost worth buying the box just to get the can of sauce, and I’d use that can of sauce for anything, like for spaghetti or just anything pasta-related. Well, I was in a grocery store the other day and they had those cans of Chef Boyardee pizza sauce for sale stand alone, something I haven’t seen or either haven’t noticed, so I picked up four cans of it just to have it for the aforementioned purposes. Then I got to thinking, I’m going to make a lasanga with this stuff, see what happens.

My daughters call it “bussin”; they freak out over my lasagnas; easily it’s one of their favorite meals I make, and I don’t make them all that often, like twice a year, really, but with this newfound quick lasagna, you get a really good one that doesn’t take all that long to make, and it really comes out restaurant-quality, Italian-grandma quality. It is very good.

This is in contrast to how I usually go about making one. The canned sauces cuts out a lot of steps, because usually I end up making a lasagna with leftover marinara I made for like spaghetti the day before. I do a putanesca sauce that is awesome, and if you let it chill for a couple of days in the fridge, it is all the better for it, and it makes a really good lasagna, don’t get me wrong, but my goodness, these cans of Chef Boyardee are so good in a lasagna, I don’t think you lose anything at all by going with them over the slow-cooked homesauce. It’s the best kind of cheat.

Lastly, a word about the lasagna noodles: What reason would one have to buy the regular ones instead of the parboiled ones, aka the no-boil ones? These parboiled noodles take the biggest pain-in-the-ass out of making a lasagna, with no difference in quality that I can detect.

Ingredients

• 1 package parboiled lasagna noodles
• 1 lb. of Italian sausage (I prefer hot)
• 1 lb. package of large-curd cottage cheese (small curd is also fine; I just prerfer large)
• 1 c. grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tbsp. onion powder
• 1 tbsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. oregano
• 1 tsp. basil
• 2 eggs
• 2 cans Chef Boyardee pizza sauce
• 1 lb. grated whole-milk mozarella cheese.

Sauce

Gently brown the Italian sausage and jostle it around to get finer crumbles. I picked up a hot Italian sausage made by Tennessee Pride, sold in 1 lb. chubs just like their country sausage, and it was very good, like suprisingly good. Highest quality. Once that is browned and sufficiently crumbled, add the two cans of Chef Boyardee pizza sauce and combine and allow it to warm through. I don’t drain the sausage. I want all that delicious pork fat to get soaked up in the lasagna. Fat is where the flavor lives. That’s done.

Cottage Cheese Filling

(Almost every lasagna recipe ever will tell you that ricotta or cottage cheese can be used interchangeably, but I disagree. I prefer cottage cheese in a lasagna.)

In a large bowl, add the cottage cheese, the parmesan, the eggs, and the spices and mix well. That’s the cheese mixture.

Assembly

In a large rectagular casserole dish, add a base layer of the sauce to the bottom, them layer with three or four noodles, however many will fit. Layer with cheese, the sauce, then noodles, and repeat until you’ve built a lasagna, ending with a layer of noodles on the top.

Bake at 350 for one hour, covered. Remove cover, add mozarella to the top, and bake uncovered for another 15 minutes.

Crucial last step:

You’re going to want to eat this, but let it rest for 30 minutes before serving. This allows the liquid in the lasagna to be absorbed. You want to serve the lasagna in handsome squares, not as a bowl of slop. Let it rest!

Serve with a nice Caesar salad, with breadsticks, go crazy. It’s a great lasagna, and it is super-easy to prepare.