ingredients

1 lb. Italian sausage without casing (optional)
several cloves garlic (can be whole or chopped, raw or roasted)
.5 c chopped onion (optional)
a good handful of mushrooms, fresh or canned, sliced
28 oz of either diced tomatoes or spaghetti sauce
15 oz ricotta cheese
8 oz shredded hard cheese (parmesan, romano, asiago, or a combination)
.5 c heavy whipping cream (or half-and-half)
1 egg
a dash salt
a dash pepper
a dash nutmeg
9-12 lasagne noodles, cooked al dente
12 oz shredded mozzarella (or a mozzarella mix)

The sauce
Okay. Brown & stir sausage with garlic (and onions) until it's brown, and in small crumbles. Add mushrooms (or if no meat, brown mushrooms with garlic and onions). Drain off excess grease.

At this point, if you like a cooked sauce, add your diced tomatoes and let simmer until slightly thickened, 20-25 minutes. If you like a fresher sauce, just add the tomatoes (with some but not all of the juice) and set aside. Or, if you want the easy route, just add bottled or canned spaghetti sauce.

the dairy component
Combine ricotta, cream, egg and hard-shredded cheese. Add salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste (or a smidge of each).

assembling

1. preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Using your trusty lasagne or cake pan (a standard 13x9x5), pour a smidge of sauce in -- enough to coat the bottom thinly.
3. 1. Put down a layer of noodles (3 or 4 depending on how many noodles you cooked, and how noodly you like your lasagne)
   2. then about a third of the ricotta mixture
   3. then half of the sauce
   4. and a third of shredded mozz.
4. Repeat with the second layer
.
5. Cover the top layer of noodles with ricotta and mozz.
6. Bake 25-30 minutes, let stand about 10 (or as long as you can stand it, but really, it's much less messy if you let it stand).