Argentine Lasagna

When I was little, I never had a fondness for lasagna or spaghetti... it was too simple. Not my favorite. Nowadays, I LOVE a good bowl of pasta with meat sauce... yum. Comfort food :)

I love cookbooks... I have a lot of cookbooks. Before my Grandma died, she gave me a big box of her cookbooks and I love those... kind of retro, but fun. Lots of microwave magic cooking :)

Anyways, I get cookbooks for my birthday and for Christmas quite often. I'm perfectly okay with that :) My mama got me a cookbook for my birthday this year titled A+ Taste of Home Recipes from Schools Across America... I love reading it. It's a compilation of recipes submitted by people who work in our school systems... Awesome!

I found this recipe for Argentine Lasagna and had to try it :) It's very different... but very, very yummy.

One tip I'll follow next time: thaw the spinach and peas overnight. You'll thank me later.

all your ingredients. Notice I said 'your'... that means you need to make it!

after browning the beef/mushroom/onion/garlic mixture, your house will have an incredible smell. Mine definitely brought the hubs downstairs FAST.

White sauce... red sauce... mix the two. DELISH. 

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground beef
•  1 large sweet onion, chopped
• 1/2 pound sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
• 1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 4 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese 
• 1 jar (15 oz.) Alfredo sauce
• 1 carton (15 oz.) ricotta cheese
• 3 cups frozen peas, thawed
• 1 package (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1 package (9 oz) no-cook lasagna noodles
• Fresh basil & parmesan for garnish :)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a Dutch oven (large pot), cook the beef, onion, mushrooms, and garlic over medium heat until beef is browned. Drain Stir in the tomato sauce, tomato paste, pepper, and 2 cups of the mozzarella. Remove from heat.
3. In a large bowl, combine the Alfredo sauce, ricotta cheese, peas, and spinach. 
4. Spread 1 cup of the meat sauce into a greased 13x9 pan. Layer with four noodles, 1 1/4 cups meat sauce, and 1 1/4 cups of the spinach mixture. Repeat 3x. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella.
5. Cover and bake at 350 degreese for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake for 10 minutes more (or until cheese is melted). Let it sit at least 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with basil and parmesan if desired :)