Lasagne with Tomato and Cheese

Basic tomato sauce, or any variation, one batch

Cook the sauce.

Pasta, sheets or lasagne strips, dried or fresh, 1 pound or so

A large baking dish, oven-safe casserole, or a pair or loaf pans

Pre-heat your oven to medium (350 degrees)

Ricotta cheese, 2 pounds

Eggs, 2

Nutmeg, if available.

Mix the contents of the eggs into the ricotta. Grate a bunch of nutmeg over it.

Mozarella cheese, 1 pound

Parmesan cheese, around 1 cup

Slice or shred the Mozzarella, and coarsely grate the Parmesan.

Scoop several spoonfuls of tomato sauce into the bottom of the baking dish, then a layer of pasta, then spread out a couple spoonfuls of ricotta, scatter in some mozarella and parmesan, then another pasta layer, then back to more tomato, continuing until you’ve used up all your ingredients.

Cook in oven for around half an hour, or until it’s hot all the way through and the pasta in the middle is cooked enough that you can poke a fork through it.

Variation: Add

Basil pesto

in little droplets scattered on to the tomato sauce layers.

Variation: Add

goat cheese

in chunks scattered on to the ricotta layers.

Variation: Add

a purple onion and

a couple of bell peppers

cut into thin strips and sauteed with balsamic vinegar, and then

placed between pasta layers, alternating with the tomato and ricotta.

Variation: Make a

Bechamel sauce, and

melt almost all of the parmesan cheese into it (saving some for the top), and

place between pasta layers, alternating with the tomato and ricotta.

Variation: Make a

Bechamel sauce, and

melt almost all of the parmesan cheese into it (saving some for the top), and

a package of frozen spinach

that has been thawed and cooked for several minutes in a microwave, then

place between pasta layers, alternating with the tomato and ricotta.