I don't care for ricotta cheese because it always reminds me of baby spit up. Sorry!
I make mine with ground beef and Italian sausage taken out of the casing. To it I add 2 or 3 onions, 9 toes of garlic, 2 stalks celery, 1 to 2 green bell peppers, and curley parsely. I cook my meats, breaking it up with my square hole potato masher cause I don't like lumps and then add everything but the garlic & curley parsley. I always use Contadina paste, puree and sauce. After the sauce is cooking I then add the garlic and parley. I then add dashes of oregno, thyme and 2 bay leaves which I remove before putting my lasagna together. I add salt & pepper to taste and a teaspoon of sugar. I let this cook till it's nice and thick, about 2 hours.
I then precook my noodles so that they will finish cooking when the lasagna is put together. I put some sauce in the bottom of the pan after spraying it with Pam for easy clean up. Then I begin layering my lasagna. After each layer I add morzerella, American cheese, parmesam and romano cheeses. I repeat this for as many layers that I make. If you want to take one of the seasoned Contadina sauces and pour it over the top it makes for a nice appearance. My kids & all my family love it!
I hope this help anyone who also doesn't care for ricotta.
