My Family's Favorite Lasagne

We had this for dinner last night. It's my family's favorite recipe for lasagne. When I was first married, we had a potluck study dinner at our house and Gina brought this lasagne. Duff loved it so much I asked for the recipe. I was almost a little disappointed when she gave me the recipe--it was so easy for such a tasty dish and came verbatum from the BH&G red and white checkered cookbook from the 70's when I got married. So with only two small variations from the original, here is our recipe: Lasagne

1 pound hamburger plus 2 mild italian sausages

1 tsp. jarred chopped garlic

1 tablespoon basil leaves

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1-pound can diced tomatoes

1 12 oz.(or 2 6 oz.) cans tomato paste

1 12 oz. tomato paste can of water

12-16 lasagne noodles

2 eggs

3 cups lowfat cottage cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons parsley flakes

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 pound mozzarella cheese, grated

Remove sausage meat from casing and brown with the hamburger. Spoon off any extra fat.

Add the next six (6) ingredients (garlic, basil, salt, tomatoes, tomato paste, water) and stir well to combine. Simmer, covered about 15 minutes. Stir often.

Cook noodles in boiling water according to package directions. Drain. I do not rinse them because that adds too much excess liquid to the overall dish.

Beat eggs, add remaining ingredients except mozzarella cheese.

Layer half the noodles in a 9X13 sprayed baking dish. (2 noodles each in 3 rows across the lengh of the pan.)

Spoon half the cottage cheese mixture equally down each of the 3 rows.

Add half the mozzarella cheese, and then half the meat sauce mixture.

REPEAT.

Bake at 375* about 30-45 minutes. OR assemble early and refrigerate and then bake for 45-60 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Serves 8-10