We are big fans of the Barefoot Contessa and were impressed by the easiness of this recipe which we adapted from an Ina Garten Lasagne.

It’s tastiness and ease comes in part because you use sausage meat rather than regular mince. The recipe provides for Turkey sausage but we don’t see any reason not to use any other.

Let’s get started!

1. Pre-heat your oven to 200C and gather these ingredients

• 2 tbsp oil (we used rapeseed)
• 1 cup chopped yellow onion (we used 2 small red onions)
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 680g of turkey sausage, casings removed
• 170g passata or tomato paste
• 1/4 cup flat leaf parsley (divided)
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
• 2 tsp of salt
• 3/4 tsp pepper
• 220g lasagne sheets (we ended up using 6 standard ones)
• 425g ricotta
• 100g goat cheese (we skipped this one as we didn’t want to buy it especially)
• 1 cup grated parmesan + 1/4 cup for sprinkling at the end (we had some left over grated cheddar that we used instead – although parmesan does add a real sharpness)
• 1 egg lightly beaten
• 450g fresh mozzarella thinly sliced

2. Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onion until translucent and then cook with garlic for about 1 minute. Add the sausage meat (break it up when putting it in) until it is no longer pink – should be about 8-10 minutes.

3. Now add the tomatoes, the passata, parsley (2 tbsp), the basil, 1.5 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Simmer uncovered over light – medium heat until the sauce thickens – should be about 15-20 minutes.

4. Make the white sauce by mixing in a separate bowl the ricotta, goat cheese, 1 cup of the parmesan, the egg and remaining herbs and S&P.

5. Assemble the lasagne by spreading 1/3 of the sauce into a lasagne dish – covering the bottom of the dish

6. Then add: half of the lasagne sheets, half the mozzarella and ricotta and another 1/3 of the sauce

7. Finish the assembly by adding the remaining lasagne sheets, mozzarella, ricotta and sauce (we saved a little mozzarella for the final topping – which we added with the extra cheese).

8. Bake for 30 minutes until it is golden bubbly!