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I just made an enormous lasagna with a loaf of garlic bread.

Ingredients

• 500g extra lean ground beef
• 3 medium garlic cloves, minced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 12-14 small-to-medium sized cremini or button mushrooms, sliced
• 3-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 jars Classico Tomato-Basil pasta sauce
• 1 box no-boil lasagna noodles
• 1 tub “traditional” ricotta cheese
• 1/4 c grated parmasean cheese
• 1/2 c cooked spinach, chopped
• Generous quantities of shredded mozzarella cheese
• Fresh ground pepper

Preparation
Pre-heat oven to 350.

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large sauce pot over medium heat, and saute minced garlic for 20-30 seconds. Add ground beef, and saute until beef is browned through, breaking up clumps. Drain beef and garlic of excess fat and set aside. Heat another 2 tbsp olive oil in the pot, and add diced onion and sliced mushrooms. Saute these until both are soft and cooked through, around 5-7 mins. Put cooked beef and garlic back in the pot, then add the two jars of pasta sauce. Heat over med-low heat until bubbling. Add fresh ground pepper to taste.

In a medium bowl, mix together ricotta, chopped cooked spinach, and parmasean cheese. Add fresh ground pepper to taste.

Assemble lasagna in a 9×13″ pan, at least 2″ deep. Layer ingredients as follows, bottom to top:

• Sauce, with a light sprinkling of mozzarella
• Noodles (each noodle layer is three no-boil noodles, side by side)
• More sauce + mozzarella
• Noodles
• More sauce + mozzarella
• Noodles
• More sauce + mozzarella
• Noodles
• Ricotta-spinach mixture (use it all to make one nice thick layer)
• Noodles
• Rest of the sauce
• Heavy top layer of mozzarella

The end result should be a very full (but not overflowing) pan that has 5 layers of noodles.

Put lasagna in pre-heated oven for 45-50 mins, uncovered. Let sit for 10-15 mins before serving (it will be nuclear-hot). Prepare garlic bread in the meantime. Ideally, serve with a bottle of red wine that will hold its own against the garlic.

This will feed 8 hungry people, or two for about a week.