Italian Sausage Lasagna

1 lb. ground Italian sausage 12 uncooked lasagna noodles
1 clove garlic, crushed 1 container (15 oz.) cottage cheese
3 Tble chopped fresh parsley ¼ cup parmesan cheese
1 tsp. dried basil 1 ½ tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. sugar 2 cups shredded mozzarella
1 can (14 ½ oz.) diced tomatoes
1 can (15 oz.) tomato sauce

Cook sausage and garlic over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sausage is no longer pink.

1. Stir in 2 T. of the parsley, the basil, sugar, tomatoes, and tomato sauce.
2. Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low. Simmer uncovered about 45 min. or till slightly thickened.
3. Heat oven to 350˚
4. Mix cottage cheese, ¼ cup parmesan, 1 T. parsley, and oregano.
5. Layer in baking dish 9X13. Sauce, noodles, cheese mixture, sauce, mozzarella, repeat.
6. Cover and bake for 30 min. Uncover and bake 15 min. longer. Let stand 15 min. before cutting.

I always improvise this recipe. I use oven ready noodles, Hunts spaghetti sauce in the tall cans. I use about 1 ½ cans. I don’t use the diced tomatoes either. I buy the bigger containers of cottage cheese as well, because the 15 oz. container does not seem to go as far as I’d like.