When I was a little girl and Mom had book club or an evening meeting, she often left a frozen lasagna for Dad to make for dinner. I loved lasagna nights! Dad always served lasagna with frozen peas and he loved to eat the peas with bites of the lasagna. Although I was not obsessive about foods touching on my plate, I thought it was kind of strange that Dad liked to actually eat the lasagna and peas together. That is, I thought it strange until I accidentally tried the combination. I was so surprised to find that I really liked the rich tart sauce with the peas nearly as much as with the noodles! Now I almost always serve peas with lasagna.
My favorite part of baked pasta dishes has always been the crispy cheese and sauce layer on top and along the sides of the pan of pasta. I love the bits that are almost charred, but not quite! Nancy D has inherited this proclivity from me and I often find her beating me to the best parts after the pan of pasta comes out of the oven!
This recipe uses no-boil noodles, which are my favorite lasagna noodles because they are so much easier to use. For gluten free noodles, I like the Barilla flat sheets best, although they are difficult to find sometimes. Also, I prefer to base my sauce on jarred marinara sauce because it really cuts down on the preparation time and makes this dinner doable for me. Finally, my recipe calls for Greek yogurt in lieu of ricotta cheese because my guts like it better, but you can definitely use ricotta cheese.
I hope that you enjoy and let me know if you like it with the peas!
Lasagna and Peas
Ingredients:
- 1 Tablespoon oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 4 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- 1 lb ground pork or turkey sausage (you can make your own by mixing ½ teaspoon crushed fennel seeds, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper into plain ground meat at least a day in advance)
- 1 ½ 26 oz jars of your favorite bottled marinara sauce
- ¼ cup water
- 1 pound plain Greek yogurt or ricotta cheese
- 2 eggs
- 2 cloves garlic
- ½ teaspoon Italian herb blend
- No-boil lasagna noodles (use gluten free for gluten free lasagna)
- 12-16 oz shredded mozzarella or Italian cheese blend
- 1 pound petite or early harvest green peas
Step 1:
Preheat the oven to 375-degrees. Place oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and salt and cook for about 3-4 minutes until the onion softens a bit. Add the garlic and cook briefly while stirring constantly. Add the sausage and break it up into small pieces. Brown the sausage. If you are using pork, remove all but about a tablespoon of the residual fat. Stir in the marinara sauce and water, and bring it to a simmer. Remove from the heat.
Step 2:
Whisk together the two eggs, Greek yogurt, garlic, and Italian herbs.
Step 3: Place about ½ cup of the meat sauce on the bottom of a greased 8-inch square baking dish. Layer two noodles on top of this. Layer ¼ of the cream on top of the noodles and top with an additional 1 cup of sauce. Layer a handful of cheese over the red sauce and start again with the noodles. Repeat this 4 times. For the last layer, add only noodles, meat sauce and cheese. Cover the unbaked lasagna tightly with aluminum foil. Bake on a foil lined baking sheet for 45 minutes-1 hour, until the lasagna is bubbly and the noodles tender in the center.
Step 4:
Allow the lasagna to sit for 10 minutes or so. Prepare the green peas by placing them in a saucepan and just covering them with hot water. Bring to a simmer and remove from the heat. Drain and serve with the lasagna.
