Gluten Free Italian Sausage and Ground Turkey Meat Sauce Lasagna
Makes 1, 9 x 13" tray, 6-8 servings
Ingredients
For the Italian Sausage and Ground Turkey Meat Sauce:
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion finely minced
- 4-5 large cloves garlic crushed or minced
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 pork or chicken Italian sausage links gluten free brand, casing removed and crumbled
- 1 pound ground turkey 85% or 90% lean
- 1 or 2 anchovies or ½ teaspoon anchovy paste, gluten free, optional
- 2 - 28 ounce can stewed diced tomatoes unsalted
- 1 - 6 ounce can tomato paste
- 1 ½ cups water
- 2 teaspoons dried basil gluten free
- 5-6 large leaves fresh basil torn
- salt and pepper to taste
For the Gluten Free Italian Sausage and Ground Turkey Lasagna:
- 1 - 8.8 ounce package of Le Veneziane Gluten Free Corn and Rice Lasagna Noodles uncooked
- 6 ½ or 7 ½ cups Italian Sausage and Turkey Meat Sauce
- 16 ounces whole milk ricotta
- 1 egg
- 3 tablespoons parmesan cheese
- ¼ cup flat leaf parsley chopped
- 1 tablespoon basil chopped
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 16 ounces mozzarella cheese grated
- 1 cup parmesan cheese finely grated
Instructions
For the Italian Sausage and Ground Turkey Meat Sauce:
- In 1½ tablespoons of the olive oil, in a Dutch oven or a large stockpot, sauté the onion with ½ teaspoon salt until soft, translucent and just starting to brown. Add the garlic and continue sautéing for another minute, while stirring. Remove to a plate.
- Heat the Dutch oven or stockpot with the remaining olive oil over high heat. Add the ground turkey and crumbled sausage, together with a sprinkle of salt and black pepper, and sauté to brown, stirring often. Remove the excess liquid fat and discard.
- Add the anchovies at the bottom of the pot, or anchovy paste, breaking the anchovies up and melting them in the oil at bottom of the pan.
- Add in the sautéed onion and garlic, the cans of tomatoes, tomato paste, dried basil, and water. Stir and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 1½ -2 hours over very low heat, with the lid slightly cracked. If using a Dutch oven, you can also bring the sauce to a simmer and move to a 285 degree preheated oven to cook for about 2 hours. Add the torn basil near the end of the cooking time. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Break up the larger pieces of diced tomato using a fork.
- The sauce is ready to use in your lasagna now!
For the Gluten Free Italian Sausage and Ground Turkey Lasagna:
- Preheat the oven to 410 degrees F.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the egg. Add the ricotta, 3 tablespoons of parmesan cheese, parsley, basil, salt, and pepper and stir to combine.
- In a 13” x 9” inch casserole dish, spread a layer of meat sauce at the bottom. Add layers of lasagna noodles, top with meat sauce, and drop heaping tablespoons of ricotta mixture intermittently across the sauce, top evenly with mozzarella and parmesan. Add remaining layers, reserving enough sauce and cheese for the top of the lasagna.
- Bake uncovered for 28 - 35 minutes, until golden brown on the top, turning in the oven as needed to brown evenly. Remove from the oven and let sit for 10 -13 minutes before slicing and serving.
Notes
Yum! This recipe uses ground turkey and just a small amount of pork Italian sausage (or you can use a gluten free chicken sausage), but you would never know that it is lower in fat, because it certainly doesn't lack any flavor! Lasagna has been a favorite of mine for so many years, and before they had gluten free lasagna noodles available, I went without.
Now, I have so many choices of gluten free noodles, but my favorite is still Le Veneziane Gluten Free Corn and Rice Lasagna Noodles. They don't need to be par cooked before putting the lasagna together, which makes it a bit easier. The lasagna cooks quickly as well. I order mine through Amazon. They make many types of pasta. My other favorites are their Le Veneziane Rigatoni (Gluten Free) and Le Veneziane Capellini- Gluten Free Pasta "nests".