Remember I made a large pot of 4 meat (beef neck bones, chicken meatballs, hot italian sausage, ground beef) pasta sauce last weekend?  Well today I’m making a large lasagna with half of that sauce and a few extra ingredients….and into the freezer it’ll go for Thanksgiving week when we have a houseful of hungry skiiers who are tired of turkey.  Feeding a crowd is easy if you plan ahead!

Although this isn’t a classic Italian lasagna, which would ordinarily call for a bechamel sauce too (in this regard it is quite similar to the Greek Pastitsio), to save on calories I’m simply using a cheesy ricotta/spinach filling.

Since I made this version with a hearty 4 meat tomato sauce, then layered it with 4 cheeses (ricotta, romano, parmesan, mozzarella) and still managed to hide a pound of spinach in there, this is a meal in itself!

Four Cheese Lasagna

Ingredients:

• 2 qt pasta sauce
• 1 lb lasagna noodles, cooked al dente & drained
• 1 lb ricotta cheese
• 16 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed (squeeze extra liquid out)
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan
• 2 large eggs
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup grated pecorino romano
• 1/2 cup grated parmesano
• 16 oz grated mozzarella cheese

Mix the two eggs lightly with a fork in a large mixing bowl.  Add ricotta and mix again.  Add spinach, 1/4 c of grated parmesan, salt and pepper and mix to combine.

In a large casserole dish, or 11″ x 9″ pan:

• scoop 1/3 of sauce and spread over the bottom  
• layer 1/3 of the lasagna noodles, overlapping edges  
• spread all of ricotta mixture
• add another  layer using 1/3 of noodles
• spread with layer of 1/3 of sauce
• sprinkle with all of the romano, 1/2 the mozzarella and 1/2 of the parmesan 
• Add last layer of noodles
• spread thin layer of remaining sauce 
• sprinkle with remaining cheeses.

You can either bake now in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes until bubbling (I would recommend placing casserole dish on large cookie sheet to prevent drips), or cover with plastic wrap, seal in foil and freeze for another time.

Thaw lasagna overnight in refrigerator, remove plastic wrap and bake in 350 degree oven until bubbling.