Red & White Sauce Lasagna

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It was a banner week, culinarily speaking. I made my first ever, and by this I mean in my entire life, lasagna, made it without ricotta, and for first time ever used those “no boil” noodles, and boy am I sold! Mr. O-P used to be the lasagna maker in the family. It took him two days to make lasagna, one of which he spent working on the sauce. Watching his efforts caused me to shy away from ever wanting to make it. But, when I spotted this recipe on the Land O Lakes website, I thought I would give it a try. Making lasagna without ricotta was something with which I was unfamiliar. I have found ricotta to be a bit of a drying agent in the lasagnas that I’ve eaten, so I loved the idea of making one without it. I’m not going to say this isn’t some work, because it is. I will say that it is well worth it, the béchamel is a magnificent addition, and those “no boil” noodles are surely the greatest invention of the last century.

Red & White Sauce Lasagna

Adapted from landolakes.com

Red Meat Sauce

8 oz. ground chuck

8 oz. Italian sausage

½ c. Melissa’s shallots, chopped

8 oz. fresh mushrooms, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 (14.5-oz.) can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 (15-oz.) can tomato sauce

¼ c. tomato paste

2 t. dried Italian seasoning

½ t. Kosher salt

¼ t. freshly ground black pepper

White Béchamel Sauce

 3¾ c. whole milk

6 T. butter

½ c. flour

¾ t. kosher salt

1/8 t. freshly ground nutmeg

¾ c. shredded Parmesan cheese

Lasagna

12 no-boil lasagna noodles

2 c. (8 oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese

¾ c. shredded Parmesan cheese

 Brown ground beef and Italian sausage in Dutch oven; drain if necessary. Add all remaining meat sauce ingredients. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low. Simmer, uncovered, 30 minutes. Cover; continue simmering 30 minutes.

 Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 13x9-inch glass baking dish with no-stick cooking spray; set aside.

 Meanwhile, microwave milk in large glass measuring cup 2 minutes. Melt butter in medium saucepan. Whisk flour, salt and nutmeg into butter. Cook, whisking occasionally, until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Gradually add milk; cook, stirring constantly, until mixture boils and thickens. Stir in 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese.

 Spread one-third meat sauce into prepared dish. Arrange layer of 4 noodles on top of sauce. Repeat with one-third red sauce, 1 cup white sauce and 4 more noodles. Repeat once more.  Spread remaining white sauce over top layer of noodles. Top with mozzarella cheese; sprinkle with 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese.

 Cover dish with aluminum foil. Bake 40 minutes. Remove foil; bake additional 10 minutes or until cheese on top has browned slightly. Remove from oven; cool 10 minutes before serving.