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Plan Z Phase: This is a Z3.5 (ZReboot 3.5) recipe. Photo submitted by dieter Misty.

What makes this Zola Lasagna is a reasonable amount of pasta. Most lasagna recipes run at least 3 or 4 layers of noodles. This one has 2. And I promise, you won’t miss the other two layers.

Servings: Keep the portions reasonable and you can eat pasta without guilt. If you gain a pound, just eat lighter the next day and you’ll be fine.

Ingredients:

• 4 large servings or 6 regular servings
• 4 Barilla pasta lasagna sheets. The no-cook version. I use Barilla because it tastes the BEST. I have used other, more flimsy, rippled, no-cook pasta versions but this one is far and away the most authentic-tasting. The mouth-feel (or creaminess) you’ll feel on your tongue when you eat it is the best. Look for the blue box in your store.
• 1 Tbl of olive oil
• 3 Italian sausages, you can use mild or spicy. Slice the casings open horizontally and take out the meat. Throw away the casings. Or you can buy loose Italian sausage.
• ½ of an onion, diced
• 8 oz of sliced mushrooms
• 1 tsp (or to taste) of Italian seasoning
• 15 oz of diced tomatoes (you can get the one flavored with garlic/basil/oregano)
• 15 oz of tomato sauce (you can use a flavored one or plain)
• 8 oz of mozzarella, shredded
• 8 oz of parmesan, shredded

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a large sauté pan add the olive oil and sausage. Continually break up the sausage into bite-sized chunks as the meat cooks. You can assign this job to a novice cook while you chop the other ingredients to speed up the cooking process. When the sausage is about 1/3 of the way cooked you can add the onion and the mushrooms and cook all 3 at the same time. Add the Italian seasoning blend then, too. Cook all until the sausage has no more pink and the onion and mushrooms are soft.

Now for assembly: Take out a 9” x 9” oven-proof pan. Pour about 3 Tbl of tomato sauce in the bottom of the pan and spread it around to make it moist. Then put two of the pasta sheets on the bottom. They don’t need to overlap. Just lay them in there.

Now add half of the sausage mixture. On top of that add 1/2 of the tomatoes right from the can. Add 1/3 of the tomato sauce and spread it across the top. Add ½ of the mozzarella and ½ of the Parmesan. Now add another layer of pasta. Sort of squish it down. Repeat the process with the meat, tomatoes, sauce and cheese. Lastly drizzle the final amount of the tomato sauce across the top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Take it out of the oven and let it sit for 10 minutes before cutting. This way the lasagna firms up so it will slice more evenly and you won’t burn your tongue while you eat it.

Options: if you want, you could add some diced red bell pepper or other veggies for variety. You could also use shredded, cooked chicken instead of sausage or even a layer of pepperoni. You can add a few dollops of ricotta cheese too if you want. Many don’t like ricotta so I left it out. I just did this recipe in a straightforward manner so you can add your own creativity. This looks and tastes like regular lasagna without all the extra carbs, so enjoy!

Enjoy!

Cheers,