Recipe 5 Cheese Veggie and Pork Lasagna

[blades]

This is a kicked up version of my wife's excellent veggie and ricotta lasagna. I have replaced most of the veggies with a meat sauce and added some cheese varieties and other flavor notes. If you prefer ground beef then use it. We use pork because of an intolerance to beef on my wife's part. My favorite flavor enhancement upon eating it was the addition of the layer of provolone. Slice it thinly, it has strong flavor.

Ingredients

9 Lasagna noodles cooked
1 lb mild Italian sausage
1 lb ground pork
24 oz tomato sauce
12 oz tomato paste
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
5 cloves garlic minced
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
3 eggs
1 lb cottage cheese
1 lb ricotta cheese
1 cup parmigiano cheese grated
Enough thin slices of provolone cheese to cover the 9X13 baking dish
1 red bell pepper sliced
1 zucchini sliced
1 lb ball of fresh mozzarella cheese sliced

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 F. Cook lasagna noodles in any vessel large enough to hold them I used a large stock pot. Put the ground pork and sausage in a large skillet and cook while chopping it up and stirring with wooden spoon until the pink color is gone. Add the worcestershire sauce, tomato sauce, tomato paste, garlic, sugar, any herbs and salt and pepper and mix to form the meat sauce. Next make the cheese sauce. Beat the eggs in a bowl and add the cottage cheese, ricotta and grated parmigiano.

Assemble the lasagna in the normal manner. Put a light coating of the meat sauce on the 9X13 baking dish. Cover it with three cooked lasagna noodles. Cover the noodles with half the meat sauce and half the cheese sauce and top with the sliced provolone cheese. Add another layer of 3 cooked noodles. Add the other half of the meat and cheese sauces. Spread the sliced zucchini and bell pepper . Finally cover with the last three lasagna noodles and cover the top with the sliced fresh mozzarella cheese.

Cover the dish with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Then uncover and bake for another 20 minutes. Allow the dish to cool a little before cutting and serving. Feeds 6 to 8 people. We freeze the excess for future meals.