Cottage Cheese Lasagna

I've been wanting to make a lasagna ever since Tom mentioned that he liked lasagna. Who knew? The problem is that I've never really been a lasagna fan. Whenever we had lasagna when I was a child, I hated it. But, when I started working at Tidewater Grille back in 1996, the lunch menu had a "Pasta of the Day" on it, and it was always lasagna. Usually a cheese lasagna, but sometimes a meat lasagna. Now that lasagna, I liked. Then, in later years, whenever we offered lasagna for banquets, and we servers would be allowed to eat the leftovers (don't judge, we're poor and hungry), I hated it. First, one of the chefs, I think it was Samba, would just use Stouffer's in the food service size. Then, another chef, probably Frank, would make a veggie lasagna. I eventually decided that I didn't like lasagna because of the ricotta cheese.
So, flash forward to a month or so ago. Mike, the chef who used to work at Tidewater back when we had the "Pasta of the Day," has been coming in once in a while for Happy Hour. I decided to ask him what made his lasagna so good. He said he didn't use ricotta, he used cottage cheese with egg. It was like the heavens opened up, shined a light on me and the angels sang. I bought some ingredients, did some internet research on quantities of ingredients to use and finally decided that today would be the day.

Cottage Cheese Lasagna

Ingredients:

• 12 lasagna noodles
• 1 lb ground beef
• ¼ c chopped onion
• 24 oz jar marinara sauce
• ½ t dried oregano
• ¾ t salt, divided
• ¾ t pepper, divided
• ¼ t minced garlic
• 16 oz cottage cheese
• 1 egg, beaten
• ¼ c parmesan cheese
• 1 t dried parsley
• 2 c shredded mozzarella cheese
• 12 slices provolone cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare 9x13 lasagna pan by spraying with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Prepare lasagna noodles as directed on box.
   
3. Brown ground beef and onions. Drain. Return to pot, add marinara, oregano, ¼ t salt, ¼ t pepper and garlic. Stir together and continue to heat on low.
   
4. Mix together cottage cheese, egg, parmesan cheese, parsley, ½ t salt, ½ t pepper and mozzarella cheese in a bowl.
5. Assemble lasagna. Spread a small amount of meat sauce in bottom of pan and place three lasagna noodles on top. Spread ¼ of the cheese mixture over the noodles, followed by four slices of provolone, a couple of spoonfuls of meat mixture and three more noodles. Repeat two more times. Spread remaining cheese mixture (and/or meat sauce) on top of lasagna.
   
6. Cover pan with aluminum foil. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove aluminum foil and bake for 10 more minutes.

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this - and Tom liked it, too! I think I put a little too much oregano and pepper in it, but that didn't detract from the dish overall.