Sometimes I feel like a pasta something or other but can’t quite put my finger on it until I taste it, so that’s exactly what I did with this recipe – bought the basics and then tossed dashes of this and dashes of that into it until it tasted the way I wanted it to. That’s the fun thing about Italian dishes, they’re hard to break and easy to experiment with. Turned out pretty good according to the empty dish that’s left only a few days later!

Ingredients:
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 vidalia onion, chopped
2 tbs olive oil
1 1/2 – 2 lbs ground beef
2 large cans of tomato sauce
1 small can of tomato paste
4 roma tomatoes, chopped
1 tbs white sugar
1 1/2 tsp basil
1 tsp oregeno
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 box frozen chopped spinach (of course you can use fresh)
2 bags shredded mozzarella cheese
1 large container ricotta cheese
1 box lasagna noodles (okay foodies don’t kill me but I totally use the oven ready kind! so sue me!)

First saute the chopped onion and garlic in the olive oil in a large pot until translucent. Add the ground beef and cook through. Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, chopped tomatoes, sugar, basil, oregeno, garlic powder and dash of salt and pepper. Stir and cook over low heat for 1 1/2 hours, stirring frequently. I always taste along the way, and you can add whatever additional herbs and seasonings you’d like.

Once the sauce is cooked, you just start layering everything, I usually go noodle, ricotta, heavy amount of sauce, mozzarella, noodle and repeat – throwing the thawed and drained spinach somewhere in the middle. Top with lots of mozzarella cheese and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes until top is bubbly and golden. Voila!