Quick Lasagna Recipe

I'm not at the point yet in my cooking where I can make up my own recipes, but I am at the point where I can take a recipe and adapt it to our family's pallet, or at least to fit what my wife and I like. My kids are picky eaters, so I never know what they are going to like.

Tonight, that was the case with the Not-sagna Pasta Toss Recipe from Rachel Ray. We have tried this a couple of times before and we found it average. However, over the past year or so I have managed to adapt a marinara sauce recipe from Tyler Florence that we now really like. I can't find the link to the Tyler Florence original, but I like my adaptation better, so I'll give you that recipe.

Ok, so here is the quick lasagna I made tonight, using the concepts I learned from Rachel Ray's recipe.

Marinara Sauce:

Ingredients:
1 28 oz. can crushed Italian style tomatoes
1 small yellow onion
4-6 cloves of garlic (depending on how much you like garlic)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1/2 tablespoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 Bay Leaves
Salt and Pepper to taste

Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Heat the onions and garlic with the olive oil until the onions become translucent looking. Add the tomatoes, oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, sugar and bay leaves and let simmer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Brown some Italian Sausage and after the marinara has simmered for 15-20 minutes add the browned Italian Sausage. Continue to stir and let simmer for another 10-15 minutes.

Note: This marinara sauce is on the savory side with a little heat, not much, but a little. Cut back on the red pepper and pepper if you prefer a sweeter sauce. You can also leave out some of the oregano.

Noodles:

Ingredients:
13.25 oz box of rotini noodles (though any short noodle would work)
1 and 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

Boil the pasta in salted water until the noodles are al dente. Drain the noodles but save 1/2 - 2/3 cup of the salted pasta water. In a mixing bowl, mix the ricotta cheese and mozzarella cheese with the pasta water. Add the pasta and stir to combine.

Combine the noodle/cheese mixture with 3/4 of the marinara sauce/Italian Sausage mixture. Mix thoroughly and then top with the remaining sauce/sausage. Serve with Parmesan cheese on top.

I served this with some Parmesan Garlic Bread. Basically any type of french bread, butter it, top it with Garlic Powder, Italian Seasoning and fresh grated Parmesan Cheese. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees then broil it for 2-3 minutes. Very good, very easy.

This whole meal took me about 45 minutes to make tonight...much better than the 2-3 hours it takes me to make real lasagna. This had much of the goodness of lasagna without all the work. If your family likes lasagna, I really think you'll like this recipe.