Sausage and Beef Lasagna

Lasagna is an easy enough meal to prepare.  It can be made the day of or even the day before and just reheated in the oven (you'll just have to adjust the baking time for it being cold, but it tastes just the same). Here's a recipe I came up with that I hope you'll enjoy.

Ingredients:
28 oz can of tomato puree (save 1/2 cup for the baking pan)
6 oz can of tomato paste
1 small sweet onion (chopped fine)
1 medium green bell pepper (chopped fine)
3 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp sugar
2-3 pinches crushed red pepper flake
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 lb sweet sausage
1 lb 80/20 ground beef
18-20 lasagna noodles
30 oz ricotta cheese
8oz shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350

Boil water and a tsp of olive oil for the pasta. Cook until almost al dente. This will depend on the size pot you use, but should be about 15 minutes. Set aside and let it cool.

Start by sauteing your onions and peppers, in your sauce pot, over medium heat until the onions become translucent. At this point add your sausage, beef and garlic and cook until the meat browns.  I don't drain the meat, I think the meat fats add a ton of flavor. Once the beef and sausage has cooked, add the tomato puree and tomato paste and stir it all in to incorporate everything. Add all of the spices at this point, stir and let simmer for 20 minutes.

Place the 1/2 cup of saved tomato puree on the bottom of a 9x12 glass baking dish. Place 5-7 pieces of lasagna on the bottom and then cover liberally with your sauce mixture.  Place 5-7 pieces of lasagna on top of that and cover very liberally with ricotta and then top that with some of the shredded mozzarella cheese.  Put another layer of lasagna on top of that and top with more of the sauce mixture (you may have some left over, that's fine). Cover that layer completely with mozzarella cheese.

Place in the oven and bake at 350 for 40 minutes. The cheese in the middle should bubble and be a little brown and crispy on the edges. Let the lasagna sit for 5 minutes, cut and serve.