Lasagna Updated

I'm having friends over to watch the first Ducks game of the season (hooray the lockout is over!) So since I didn't want to be cooking while the game was on I needed a dish that could be made ahead but everyone would love. I decided to make this lasagna extra special by mixing both white and red layers. It gave the finished dish a nice color contrast and a ton of flavor!

I ended up having a ton of leftover lasagna so I cut off a large chunk, wrapped it tightly in plastic wrap, and then wrapped it with aluminum. I labeled and dated it and tossed it in the freezer for a quick meal in the future. I'll just place it on a sheet tray, cover it with foil, and cook in a 350 oven until warm and melty.

Ingredients
1 jar tomato sauce
1 jar alfredo sauce
1 package of lasagna noodles (make sure they are the pre-cooked or no boil kind)
1 lb ground spicy italian sausage
2 cup container marscapone cheese
10 basil leaves, chopped (reserve some for garnish)
3 tbs. chopped chives
juice and zest of 1 lemon
2 cups of packaged shredded mozzarella
1 cup parmesan cheese

Directions:

Do Ahead:
1. Place some olive oil in a large saute pan. Add ground sausage. Cook over medium high heat until sausage is browned. Carefully drain fat from pan using paper towels. Add 1/4 jar of marinara sauce to sausage and mix together. Set aside.

2. Place the marscapone in a bowl. Add 3/4 of chopped basil, chives, squeeze of lemon, 1/2 mozzarella cheese, 1/2 parmesan cheese and some salt and pepper. Mix. Make sure to taste and check seasoning/balance. Set Aside.

3. Prepare a 9 x 13 casserole dish by rubbing butter around the outside. Now add a thin layer of alfredo sauce on the bottom of the pan. Layer noodles (takes about 4) over sauce in 1 even layer. Make sure layers slightly overlap like roof shingles.

4. Spoon 1/3 of the remaining marinara sauce on top of noodles. Noodles need to be covered in liquid or they won't cook right. Add 1/2 of sausage mix on top of noodles in a thin, even layer.

5. Do another layer of noodles. Cover noodles with alfredo sauce. Spread 1/2 of the cheese mixture on top of noodles. Do this gently so you keep all the layers separate.

6. Do another layer of noodles. Top with 1/2 of marinara sauce left and rest of sausage mixture.

7. Do another layer of noodles. Top with most of remaining alfredo sauce and rest of cheese mixture.

8. Top everything with one last layer of noodles (this is your 5th layer of noodles). Cover noodles in marinara sauce. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella and parmesan on top of the lasgana. At this point your lasagna is built. If you're making this dish ahead, cover the lasagna tightly with a layer of plastic wrap and aluminum foil and store in the fridge for up to 2 days or the freezer for up to 3 weeks.

9. Cooking instructions: Remove plastic wrap and cover with foil (make sure it doesn't touch cheese or it will take off the layer. You can spray the foil with some non-stick spray) and cook for 20 minutes in a preheated 350 oven. Uncover and cook another 20-25 minutes or until top is melted and slightly browned. Let set after cooking for 10-15 minutes. (this is a good time to cook garlic bread) Then just slice it up and serve!

note- if freezing, cook an extra 15-20 minutes while it's covered.