LASAGNA.... MY WAY

Let's talk about Lasagna.... Lasagna is one of a few Italian foods that I like, in my house we only eat certain pastas, like, lasagna, spaghetti, macaroni and some small pasta, the ways I cook them are so much different than their basic recipes, the cheeses I add on them are the ones I'm familiar with, like Mozzarella, Parmesan, Cheddar, Italian or Mexican blend, I still can't eat Blue cheese, Cottage, feta and else, some I can't even pronounce or spell their names :) .. so my lasagna today is cooked in my way, I added some vegetables in the filling to make it one dish meal.

So let's start with the recipe:
What we need:
for the filling: (what I had in my refrigerator)
- 1 lbs of hot Italian sausage
- 2 hot link/hotdog, cut in small cubes or 1lbs of ground beef
- 1 brown onion, diced
- 4 stalks of celery, diced
- 2 big tomatoes, diced
- 1 big red bellpepper, diced
- 2 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped (optional)
- coarsely chopped favorite herbs like cilantro, rosemary or parsley

How to cook:
- brown sausage in  a bit of oil, break it into chunky crumbs
- add hot link/hot dog / ground beef, cook until juicy
- add the onion, cook till the onion soft, then add in all the remaining ingredients
- set aside when it's done, I usually cook the filling ahead of time, 1 day or 2 before

the meat filling

For the pasta:
- 8 oz / about 200 gram of lasagna pasta, boil in salted water until it softened, or store bought ready to bake lasagna (no need to boil)
- 1 jar of spaghetti sauce or 2 can of tomato sauce
- variety of cheese, today I used ricotta, mozzarella, and Mexican blend cheese
- medium size rectangle ovenproof glass or stone pan

Heat oven on 350'F
- spray the surface of the pan with cooking spray or brush with cooking oil
- spread some spaghetti sauce or tomato sauce on the bottom of the pan
- lay some lasagna
- spread the 1/3 of meat mixture, add sauce again, then add the cheeses
- top another layer of lasagna, then 1/3 of meat, sauce and cheese
- another layer of lasagna, repeat with the remaining meat, sauce and cheese
cover with aluminium foil and bake for 50 minutes, uncover, broil it for another 5 minutes

Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve with Tabasco sauce, for 4 to 6 servings