It’s been a couple weeks since I brought the slow cooker out, but I’m back and with full force!
On my quest to find all things wonderful to be made in a slow-cooker, I kept coming across lasagna recipes. My first thought was that lasagna in a slow cooker sounded like a recipe for hard noodled disaster.
Boy was I wrong.
What you need:
For the sauce:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 lb hot(or sweet) lean Italian turkey sausage
1 can tomato sauce
1 can tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tbsp pesto
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
salt
pepper
The layers:
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/4 cup grated parmesan
8 oz. grated mozzarella
6 oz. freshly grated parmesan
1 box oven ready noodles
Optional:
1 tbsp crushed garlic
5 baby bella mushrooms
1/2 lb spinach
How To:
Add the olive oil to a pot. Once it begins to heat up, add in the diced onion and garlic. When the onions and garlic have cooked down, add in the Italian sausage. ***You must remove the sausage casings before adding*** You want the sausage to resemble ground turkey in the end, so that’s an essential step.
While the turkey browns, heat a little olive oil in a skillet pan and add in chopped garlic, the baby bella mushrooms and the spinach. Allow the spinach to cook until it cooks down. Set aside.
Once the turkey has browned, drain the excess oil and return to the heat. Pour in the tomato sauce, paste and diced tomatoes. 
Mix together and now is the time to season your sauce. I like to add in salt, pepper, garlic powder(can you all tell I love garlic??) and Italian seasoning(if you don’t have that, parsley, oregano & basil will suffice). Add the tbsp of pesto. Allow the sauce to warm up and then set to simmer.
Combine the ricotta, 1 egg and parmesan cheese in a bowl and set aside.
Now it’s time to assemble the lasagna.
Spray the slow cooker with non-stick spray.
Start with a layer of sauce, followed by noodles, the ricotta mixture, the spinach & mushrooms and then the mozzarella and freshly grated parmesan.
And repeat!
You should be able to get at least 3 sets of layers and top the lasagna off with a healthy layers of mozzarella and parmesan.
Set the slow cooker on low and let it go for 4-5 hours. You’ll know when it’s done once the top gets bubbly and brown around the edges.
The finished product:
@LifeandDimSum
lifeanddimsum 