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Homemade tomato sauce as well as fresh ingredients makes homemade lasagne so much more special than frozen lasagne! Here are the directions to making my homemade meat and cheese lasagne.

Ingredients:
1 lb pork or turkey Italian sausage, browned and sliced
1 lb lean ground beef or turkey, browned and broken up in small bits
2 lb box oven ready lasagne pasta
1 lb regular or part-skim mozzarella cheese, grated
1/4 lb locatelli cheese, grated
1/4 lb parmesan cheese, grated

1 lb regular or part-skim ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 c regular or low-fat milk

tomato sauce:
2-28 oz cans crushed tomatoes or whole tomatoes that you mash up
2 small cans tomato paste
3 TB olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 green, red or yellow pepper, diced
1 c water
1 TB sugar
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 tsp parsley
1 bay leaf
1 medium zucchini, sliced

brown ground meat and Italian sausage until cooked through while you prepare sauce; in a separate sauce pot, add olive oil and cut up vegetables and saute until softened; add canned tomatoes and tomato paste plus 1 c water and 1 TB sugar; add 2 tsp oregano, 1 tsp basil, 1 tsp parsley and 1 bay leaf; Simmer on low; mix ricotta, 1 c milk and 1 egg together; layer three to four lasagne noodles in lasagne pan; layer some ground meat and sausage; layer mozzarella, ricotta mixture, grated locatelli and parmesan cheeses, layer sauce; repeat the layering process until all ingredients, except sauce are used up; reserve two cups of tomato sauce for guests to use when served or for you to ladle a little sauce on top of each serving. If you wish, you could saute a medium thinly sliced zucchini and add to the lasagne. Enjoy!