I’ve never used a vegetarian sausage to make a pasta dish before, but we had invited our friends, Bryan and Umut to dinner and to watch the NBA All-Star game a while back and I had lasagna on the menu for that night anyway, so I figured I would make an easy adaptation to the original recipe (swapping regular Italian Sausage for Tofurkey Italian sausage) and see how it turned out.
Overall, I was pleased with the lasagna, but I think that, because I assembled it the night before I cooked it, the noodles got too soggy and overcooked while it was heating up. It doesn’t take that long to cook (4-6 hours), so if you’ve got the time, I would suggest assembling it right before you plug it in rather than the night before. It’ll make for a much better outcome, I’m sure.
The Tofurkey actually added quite a bit of flavor to the lasagna. The Sun-dried tomato flavor that they make is one of our favorites and I wasn’t sure how it would turn out with a lasagna since the only way we’ve ever had it is as kabobs on the grill. Either way, it’s an awesome product, even for those of you with a phobia about Tofu or Tofu products.
Ingredients 1 pound Tofurkey Italian Sausage (I used the Sun-dried Tomato flavor) 1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup) 3 cans (15 oz each) Italian-style tomato sauce 2 teaspoons dried basil leaves ½ teaspoon salt 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (8 oz) 1 container (15 oz) part-skim ricotta cheese 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese 15 uncooked lasagna noodles
Preparation Cook sausage and onion in 10-inch skillet over medium heat 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until sausage is hot. Stir in tomato sauce, basil and salt.
Mix 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese and the ricotta and Parmesan cheeses. (Refrigerate remaining mozzarella cheese while lasagna cooks.)
Spoon one-fourth of the sausage mixture into 6-quart slow cooker; top with 5 noodles, broken into pieces to fit. Spread with half of the cheese mixture and one-fourth of the sausage mixture. Top with 5 noodles, remaining cheese mixture and one-fourth of the sausage mixture. Top with remaining 5 noodles and remaining sausage mixture.
Cover and cook on Low heat setting 4 to 6 hours or until noodles are tender.
Sprinkle top of lasagna with remaining 1 cup mozzarella cheese. Cover and let stand about 10 minutes or until cheese is melted. Cut into pieces.
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