The Lady & Sons Lasagna

I made this lasagna for my discipleship community a few weeks ago and everyone seemed to love it. It's far from healthy, but we'd been fasting the previous 24 hours so I didn't feel TOO guilty about the calories. It's from the always fabulous Paula Deen and I stuck pretty closely to the original recipe. I noted any edits or changes I made below. Make this for a special occasion and enjoy!

photo from foodnetwork.com 

Ingredients

• 2 cups canned, diced tomatoes
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup onions, diced
• 1/2 cup green bell peppers, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 1/4 cup chopped, fresh parsley leaves
• 11/2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning
• 11/2 teaspoons The Lady's House Seasoning (recipe follows)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons seasoning salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef

• 6 to 9 Long strips lasagna noodles (I used "no boil" noodles and they worked great!) 
• 12 ounces cottage cheese, mixed with 1 beaten egg and 1/2 cup Parmesan
• 1 cup Gruyere cheese, grated
• 1 cup Swiss cheese, grated
• 2 cups cheddar, grated
• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
• 1 cup mozzarella, grated

Directions

To make the sauce, in a stockpot, combine the tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, onions, peppers, garlic, parsley, seasoning mixtures, sugar and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 1 hour. 

Crumble the ground beef in a saucepan. Cook until no pink remains, then drain off the fat. Add the ground beef to the stockpot. Simmer for another 20 minutes. 

While the sauce simmers, cook the pasta according to the package directions. (I was able to skip this step because of the no boil noodles) 

If sauce is too thin, for your taste, you can thicken it up at this time by mixing 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and a 1/4 of a cup of cold water. Bring sauce back to a boil. Stir in cornstarch mixture, stirring constantly. 

Remove bay leaves.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

To assemble lasagna, place a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of a 9x13x2-inch pan. Layer 1/3 of each, noodles, cottage cheese mixture, Gruyere, Swiss and cheddar cheeses. Pinch off small pieces of cream cheese and dot over other cheeses. Add another layer of sauce. Repeat layering 2 to 3 times ending with sauce. This may be covered and refrigerated at this point. (I assembled the lasagna the night before, refrigerated it and baked it the next day. Turned out great!) 

Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and top with mozzarella and continue to bake for another 10 to 15 minutes. Note: If lasagna has been refrigerated, bake for 40 minutes total.

House Seasoning (I just estimated the ratios for a total of 1 1/2tsp. I guessed and it turned out fine) :)

1 cup salt

1/4 cup black pepper

1/4 cup garlic powder

Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.