Simple Sunday “Spagagna” (or Lasagna)

One of our family’s favorite meals is lasagna (right after spaghetti), and I just discovered that you can make lasagna with uncooked noodles in your crockpot.  Perfect for Sunday dinner, especially when you don’t know exactly when you’ll be home from church!

But first, I had already been making something our family calls “spagagna” (rhymes with lasagna) because it’s basically a layered lasagna made with cooked spaghetti noodles instead of lasagna.  I make it in the crockpot, and it’s great for potlucks because a crockpot will stay hot for a long time even after it’s unplugged. 

So here’s how I make “spagagna”, but this time I substituted uncooked lasagna noodles for the cooked spaghetti noodles, and it was even easier to prepare!  (Maybe not as fun to eat, though.)  🙂

• 1 lb. ground sausage (or beef, seasoned with onion, garlic and oregano), browned
• 1 28 oz jar spaghetti sauce (or use homemade—better for you!)
• 8 or 9 lasagna noodles OR 1 lb pkg of spaghetti, cooked
• 1 container cottage cheese – add to this one egg and some garlic and oregano (you can beat the egg right in the container)
• 1 lb mozzarella cheese (approximately)
• Seasoning – onion and garlic powder, oregano (or Italian seasoning)

Then I just layer it (actually, my two oldest sons assembled it last night for our dinner today) . . .

1. First layer – sauce, 2-3 lasagna noodles (broken to fit), cottage cheese mixture, meat, mozzarella (about enough to look like the top of a pizza)
2. Second layer – same as the first
3. Third layer – by now you may be out of meat, so just do sauce, noodles, cottage cheese and mozzarella
4. Fourth layer – if you have room and enough sauce, you can add another layer of sauce, lasagna, then final sauce and mozzarella and seasoning.  Otherwise, just add the rest of the sauce and top it with mozzarella and seasoning.  (With the uncooked noodles I recommend adding about a 1/2 cup of water to the last of the sauce–shake it up in the jar–it will make it more moist.  No need to add water to cooked noodles.) 

I cooked mine on low for five hours, and it turned out great!  (My kids sprinkled a little more cheese on top after it was dished up.) 

Note:  It’s taken me almost 16 years to get used to the idea of Italian food for Sunday dinner, since I grew up with either roast beef or pork roast every Sunday!  (Italian is for Friday and Saturday, right?)