Pork Sausage and Kale Lasagna

C – My brother loves lasagna!

It’s one of those dishes he gets really excited about … when it’s done right. There are a few things about lasagna that he doesn’t like. There is never enough meat in the lasagna most people make. And, the pasta always tastes funny when they use the no-boil kind. He has a very sensitive palate. Even more so than me.

I can understand why he says there is never enough meat in lasagna. Most lasagna recipes call for about a pound of meat. They think that having a balance of sauce, meat, cheese and pasta is the way to go.

Not for my brother. He needs meat and lots of it. This seemed like a fun challenge for me. Can I satisfy my brother’s request for an extremely meaty lasagna? I hope so. I think three pounds of pork sausage meat will do. That’s all I could afford. So, it will have to do. I have a feeling this may be a $30 pan of lasagna, after I am done with it.

Lots of cheese, not too much pasta, not too many vegetables and a bit of homemade tomato sauce. Oh, yeah, and three pounds of meat. It was a lot of meat. I had to bring out my giant pancake spatula to cook all this meat. It looked like I was feeding a small army.

Now for the pasta. I guess the no-boil kind can make the pasta a bit too raw, if you undercook it. So, I used boiled lasagne noodles. It’s an extra 10 minutes to do, but so worth it. The one thing I like about boiled lasagna noodles is that they don’t expand in the lasagne pan. You can easily place pieces next to each other, without worrying they will overlap and not cook properly.

Three layers of meat, sauce, pasta and cheese. It was the most gorgeous dish I have seen in a while. Like food porn. I was hypnotized. It was so pretty. It smelled so amazing. The cheese, meat and sauce smell took over the entire house.

I loved it. I couldn’t wait to dig in. It tasted great. I got a good amount of meat in every bite.

Pork Sausage and Kale Lasagna

Recipe type: Mains

Author: Christina

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 70 mins

Total time: 1 hour 40 mins

Serves: 6 to 8

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp grapeseed oil
• 3 pounds Italian sweet sausage, casings removed
• 6 cups homemade tomato sauce
• 1 cup kale, finely chopped
• 2 eggs
• 1 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 16 ounces ricotta cheese
• 2 cups Parmesan cheese, grated
• 9 lasagna noodles, cooked according to box instructions

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Add 2 tablespoons of oil to a larget saute pan on medium high heat. Place sausage meat and cook. Break down sausage into small pieces. About 10 to 15 minutes. Pour off any fat.
3. Add tomato sauce into the pan. Bring to a boil, then turn off heat and set aside.
4. In a large bowl add kale, eggs, ricotta cheese and ¾ of the Parmesan cheese. Mix well.
5. Place ⅓ of the tomato/meat sauce on the bottom of a large lasagne pan.
6. Top with three pieces of lasagna pasta.
7. Top with ½ ricotta cheese mixture.
8. Top with ⅓ mozzarella cheese.
9. Top with ⅓ tomato meat sauce.
10. Top with three piece of lasagna pasta.
11. Top with the remaining ricotta cheese mixture.
12. Top with ⅓ mozzarella cheese.
13. Top with lasagna pasta.
14. Top with remaining tomato sauce.
15. Top remaining mozzarella cheese.
16. Top with remaining Parmesan cheese.
17. Bake for 40 minutes covered in foil.
18. Remove foil and bake for another 20 minutes.
19. Turn on broiler and heat top until brown. About 5 minutes.
20. Let sit for at least 30 minutes, so cheese can cool and come together.
21. Serve with a salad.
22. Enjoy!

3.1.08

Homemade Tomato Sauce recipe.

I was still scared there wouldn’t be enough meat for him.

Thank goodness it was enough. I hope you enjoyed it, big brother. I think it was worth the $30 bucks to make you happy.