Big Batch Lasagna

I grew up helping my father make lasagna. Whenever we had lasagna at our house, we always made two 9x13 inch panfulls and ate it for a few days, or froze extras. It was also a favorite dish to have when company came over. If you are going to go through all that trouble, you may as well make two big lasagnas and get more than one meal out of it. Also, the lasagna noodles fit larger pans better and one container of cottage cheese was always enough for us to make two lasagnas. We always made one meat lasagna and one vegetarian - I did the meatless and my father handled the meat. We would work side by side, I preparing the cheese and sauce, and eating the broken noodle pieces, and my father cooking up the meat. At work recently, I made one really big lasagna in a much bigger pan. It was definitely a different recipe than my father and I always made together, but the techniques were the same and it certainly brought back memories, especially since I didn't have a helper and was making this all by myself. 

This lasagna consists of a spicy meat tomato and pepper sauce, four layers of noodles, a layer of cottage cheese mixed with spinach, and a top layer of shredded mozzarella cheese. I like how lasagna can be prepared in advance, stuck in the fridge, and baked shortly before serving. Pictured here is the unbaked version. I also love the layering process and don't find it to be tedious at all, as long as you have all your mise en place in order beforehand.