School is back in session and my house is extremely quiet.
I kind of miss my boys the first few days after school starts, but then I quickly get over it and relish in the fact that I can clean/pick up my house and it stays clean longer than 23 minutes. Unfortunately, as soon as they walk in the door backpacks are dropped wherever, shoes are left out, string cheese wrappers are left laying on the couch, and so on.
I can’t believe that I only have three boys left in school, one in high school, one in middle and one in elementary. I kind of get a bit teary-eyed when I think about it. Parker came home from school and informed me that he didn’t really have a chance to make a first impression on his teacher because they didn’t do any work the first day. Buuuut, he’s fully planning on doing his best work with their first assignment so he can “wow” his teacher.
Speaking of “wow” this lasagna will completely “WOW” you. We all were completely smitten with the first bite and several of us went back for seconds. I’m 99.9% sure my husband could have eaten the entire pan. In fact, the next night he ate dinner and then grabbed the leftover lasagna out of the fridge and heated some up.
I’ve professed my love of skillet dinners many times and this is another one to add to my list of favorites.
Hope you like it!
- 1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes
- Water
- 1 small onion, chopped fine
- Salt and pepper
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 pound ground beef and/or Italian sausage
- 10 curly-edged lasagna noodles broken into 2-inch pieces
- 1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus 2 Tbsp, grated
- 8 ounces (1 cup) ricotta cheese or 7-8 slices of fresh mozzarella
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
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Place tomatoes in 4-cup liquid measuring cup. Add water until mixture measures 4 cups.
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Heat oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook until onion begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add meat and cook, breaking up meat into small pieces, until it is no longer pink, about 4 minutes.
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Scatter pasta over meat but do not stir. Pour tomato mixture and tomato sauce over pasta, cover, and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until pasta is tender, about 20 minutes.
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Remove from heat, stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese and season with salt and pepper to taste. Dollop heaping tablespoons of ricotta over top, cover, and let sit for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with basil and remaining 2 tablespoons Parmesan.
You can use all ground beef or all Italian sausage in this skillet lasagna or do a mixture of half and half which is what I did and it was fabulous.
The lasagna noodles do not break "perfectly" into 2-inch pieces so just do the best you can and don't worry if they are all different sizes. I actually ended up cutting a few of my noodles into smaller pieces once they had simmered and had become soft.
Recipe Source: Adapted slightly from Cooks Country TV Show Cookbook
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