Whole Wheat Turkey Lasagna

This can be a bit of a long recipe, but the benefits will definitely make up for it! You can certainly buy a store bought tomato sauce for Spaghetti if you don’t have time but I went a few extra steps and incorporated a store bought sauce with an extra bit of extra veggies. Adapt it any way you’d like and the point is you learn how to make lasagne the American way, or at least how I learned to make it growing up. This was made in an 8x8 baking dish, so my ingredients will reflect that size.

Ingredients:
5-8 sheets whole wheat lasagne pasta
500g ricotta cheese
300g mozzarella cheese (half fat)
2 whole eggs
1 c grated parmesan cheese divided in half
400g turkey mince (you can use any mince)
2-3 small carrots
1 large onion
3 cloves garlic
½ green pepper
½ red pepper
1 glass of wine
½ tsp. each dried basil, oregano, rosemary
1 bay leaf
1 jar of light tomato pasta sauce 500g
2 tbsp. oil

For the sauce:
Dice carrot, onion, pepper, garlic, and peppers.
Heat oil in a large stock pot, when hot, add the mince and brown for 5 minutes, then add diced veggies and sauté until they begin to soften and become fragrant.
Add 1 glass of wine and reduce down at a high boil.
After the wine has reduced into the vegetables, add your jar of pasta sauce, dried seasonings, bay leaf, and bring to a small boil, stirring frequently. Cook about 20 minutes.

Next:
While the sauce is cooking prepare your filling by mixing the ricotta cheese, eggs and half the parmesan cheese.
Add salt and pepper.

To finish:
When the vegetables in your sauce are finished ladle a scoop in the bottom of your baking dish and spread it around. (enough to just prevent the pasta from sticking)
Take pieces of lasagne noodles and arrange to fit as many on the bottom that will cover a layer almost completely (break into several pieces if you have to)
Next ladle another scoop of sauce on top of the pasta.
Next put a few spoonfuls of the ricotta on top of the pasta sauce, carefully spreading it out over the sauce and to cover it as a layer.
Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and mozzarella.
Next repeat these steps, pasta sauce, pasta, ricotta cheese, parmesan and mozzarella.
Make sure you save enough to put a good topping of mozzarella on the top, that’s what you always want on the top so try to eye your layers to make sure it won’t over flow in your casserole dish.

This can be a tedious dish or it could be very simple, depending on how you want to work with it, but it will definitely not stay in your fridge for long! Freeze any leftovers after 3 days, and they will keep for up to a month.