Tipsy’s ~ Tomato Alfredo Lasagna~ in Ten Easy Steps

Lasagna tends to be an expensive, time consuming and intimidating recipe that most shy away from. Perfectly understandable feeling. I have worked for years on perfecting my recipe to make it more affordable, less time consuming and ending up with what I think is a better end result! Lets break it down into 10 simple steps! Let’s start with assembling the ingredients. I purchased all of mine at Aldi Foods. Costing a total of about $25.00. This dish could easily feed 10 to 12 people, or can be split up into freezer meals. (see Tipsy’s Tips at the end)

Ingredients

2 C Ricotta Cheese

4 C of Mozzarella Cheese, Shredded

(I bought the blocks and Shredded it myself, I think it melts better)

1 C of Parmesan Cheese

2 Eggs

1 lb of Italian Sausage

( remove meat from casing by squeezing it at one end)

14 Lasagna Noodles

1 16 oz Jar of Ready Made Spaghetti Sauce

1 14 oz Jar of Ready Made Alfredo Sauce

2 to 4 T of Fresh Basil, Minced (I had some in my garden so I didn’t have to buy, you can also use dried)

2 T of Fresh Parsley (I also had this in my garden, you can use dry)

Now for the Steps:

Step 1

Mix, Ricotta, Parmesan, Basil, Parsley, Eggs and One Cup of Mozzarella in a bowl, set aside!

Step 2

Boil the noodles until they are almost soft. You want to have them pliable but not falling apart. They will soften the rest of the way when baking. After draining the noodles, dry them on a dish towel.

Step 3

Cook the sausage, and break up the meat as it cooks into small bits. I like to cook mine so that its really well done and caramelized on the outside. Set aside.

Step 4

Shred your mozzarella and set aside.

Step 5

Assemble your work station, get your noodles, mozzarella, sausage, ricotta mixture together.

Step 6

Begin assembling your rolls. Spread 12 noodles out (the extra two are in case of severe tearing). On each one, cover with 3 to 4 T of the Ricotta Mixture, A sprinkle of Sausage across each one, and a sprinkle of the Mozzarella. Repeat these steps until all twelve have the mixture. Next, get a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish and in the bottom spread out a little more than half the spaghetti and alfredo sauces. Now you will begin rolling.

Step 7

Roll each noodle up, from one end to the other. Some of the filling will seep out, don’t worry too much about that but don’t roll it so tight that a lot is squeezing out.

Step 8

Place the rolls side by side, tightly in your sauce covered pan.

Step 9

When all 12 are in the pan, I take the seeped out bits and spoon them in between the rolls, I then cover the rolls with the remaining amount of sauces and the rest of the mozzarella cheese. I topped mine with fresh basil.

Step 10

Baking. Put your casserole dish on top of a larger cookie sheet so any drippings don’t dirty your oven. Now every oven is different. I baked mine at 350 degrees for 45 minutes and in the last 15 minutes I turned down the heat to 300 degrees because my cheese was getting too brown. If you know your oven runs super hot, then cover your lasagna with foil for most of its cooking time and uncover at the end to brown the cheese. Mostly everything is cooked in this lasagna you basically just need to cook the egg in the ricotta and melt the cheeses. When you see that it’s all bubbly on the sides and the cheese on top is nice and brown you know its done. The most important part is to let the lasagna rest after pulling it out of the oven. This allows it to more easily slice for serving. I let mine rest for about 20 minutes. Also remember that Lasagna is even better the next day reheated! So feel free to make this in advance!

Tipsy Tips

Some asked me how to make this and freeze it. I would make this and freeze the rolls sans sauce and assemble later with the sauce and Mozzarella topping. If you are single or have a small family, you can make this same recipe quantity. Just freeze the rolls and sauce and mozzarella in small individual foil baking pans and wrap it up tight. You can take them out and bake them as needed. Finally, the rolling of the lasagna is to help keep the cheeses intact so that the fillings aren’t seeping out when you are slicing through it to serve. This gives it more consistency. I also use no sauce in the rolls because that just makes it a soggy mess.

Hope you enjoy this recipe, remember to tag me in it if you make it on Instagram @TheTipsyHousewife and on Facebook @TipsyWife