Monday, April 7, 2008

Slow Cooker Lasagna

Over at Parenthacks they are having a discussion about good crock pot recipes, and this is by far my favorite. I couldn't tell you where my Mother got it from, but both of my picky eaters love it.

Slow Cooker Lasagna

1 pound bulk Italian sausage
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
3 15 oz cans Italian-style tomato sauce
2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (8 oz)
1 container (15 oz) part-skim ricotta cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
15 uncooked lasagna noodles

Cook sausage and onion in 10-inch skillet over medium heat 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until sausage is no longer pink; drain.
Stir in tomato sauce, basil and salt.
Mix the Ricotta, Parmesan, and 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese together in a bowl. (Refrigerate remaining mozzarella cheese while lasagna cooks.)
Spoon one-fourth of the sausage mixture into 6-quart slow cooker; top with 5 noodles, broken into pieces to fit.
Spread with half of the cheese mixture and one-fourth of the sausage mixture.
Top with 5 noodles, remaining cheese mixture and one-fourth of the sausage mixture.
Top with remaining 5 noodles and remaining sausage mixture.
Cover and cook on Low heat setting 4 to 6 hours or until noodles are tender. Sprinkle top of lasagna with remaining 1 cup mozzarella cheese.
Cover and let stand about 10 minutes or until cheese is melted. Cut into pieces and serve.

Here are a few of my own little notes.
- In my crock pot it is always ready at 4 hours. If you go a lot longer than that, the bottom and sides can get over cooked. I'm sure different crock pots will vary.
- I've cooked it with cottage cheese instead before and it is pretty good. However I've found that depending on brand and sales, I can find Ricotta cheese cheaper, and it does taste better.
- I've had trouble finding Italian style tomato sauce, so I just add Italian seasoning to regular tomato sauce.

I can not say enough how delicious this stuff is. YUMMY!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

fresh lasagna noodles or dry lasagna noodles from fresh lasagna noodles or dry lasagna noodles from a box?a box?

Unknown said...

Good question. I have only ever used boxed lasagna noodles. Dry and fresh noodles would probably take a lot less time to cook.

Nanna said...

I wrote this on my comment too, but I'm sure you check yours more often! So here is the answer to your question!

I do cook with Panko bread crumbs a lot! And I buy them at Lee Lee's (in Japanese section at the very end) it's pretty cheap too!

Bob and Danya said...

Yum! This sound so good too. I'm coming to you for recipes from now on! I'm sick of reinventing the wheel with catastrophic results! LOL!

Dinner Calendar