Lasagna with Goat Cheese and Sausage

Lasagna is such a comfort food!  Whether it’s a tried and true recipe or something outside the box, lasagna rarely disappoints. So I decided to try a new twist on an old classic and add goat cheese to my lasagna. One of my co-workers does this and her lasagna is always great, but this was a first for me.  I also opted for chicken sausage versus ground beef, for no reason other than wanting a different taste than my traditional.  I made the sauce from scratch, which I’ve been doing a lot lately (finally weening myself from Prego!), and having the tomato pieces in there was really good.  I was a little nervous about how the boys would like this because I’ve fed them goat cheese before and I think the taste was too strong for them.  But in this recipe, it is very subtle and to me, adds just the right amount of tang to make it interesting.  Blake said he could barely taste the goat cheese, so if you’re after a stronger flavor, I would suggest you up the ounces on the GC.  Back to my little boys, they loved it!  Like, really loved it – I was thrilled!

Lasagna with Goat Cheese and Sausage

Meat Sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
1 lb sausage (I used mild chicken sausage, removed from casings)
1 medium sweet onion, diced
1 tbsp minced garlic
8 to 10 mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1 cup red wine
3 14.5-oz cans of diced tomatoes
1 8-oz can of tomato sauce
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Goat Cheese / Ricotta Mixture
16 oz ricotta cheese
6 oz goat cheese, softened
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
2 eggs

12 Lasagna noodles (oven ready)
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

1.) Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add sausage, break apart with spatula as it cooks and cook until it begins to brown.  Remove from pan and set aside.
2.) Add onions, garlic and mushrooms to the same skillet.  Cook for 3 to 5 minutes and deglaze pan with red wine.  Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, basil, oregano, sugar, salt and pepper.  Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Add sausage back to sauce.
3.) In a bowl, mix together ricotta, goat cheese, parmesan and eggs.  Spoon cheese mixture into a gallon Ziploc bag and cut one of the corners (this will aide in evenly distributing the cheese mixture in the lasagna).
4.) In a 9″x13″ casserole dish, start with sauce on the bottom. Add 3 lasagna noodles and layer sauce first, then cheese mixture.  Repeat 2 more times.  On 4th layer, only top the lasagna noodles with sauce.  Tightly cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour.  Remove from oven, remove aluminum foil and sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top.  Place back in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes until cheese browns.  If it is slow to brown, use the low broiler (but watch it closely!!)