For this recipe, we are essentially making a thick, meaty tomato sauce and layering that with noodles and cheese into a casserole. Here’s the run-down:

Start by making the sauce with ground beef, bell peppers, onions, and a combo of tomato sauce, tomato paste, and crushed tomatoes. The three kinds of tomatoes gives the sauce great depth of flavor.
Let this simmer while you boil the noodles and get the cheeses ready. We’re using ricotta, shredded mozzarella, and parmesan — like the mix of tomatoes, this 3-cheese blend gives the lasagna great flavor!
From there, it’s just an assembly job. A cup of meat sauce, a layer of noodles, more sauce, followed by a layer of cheese. Repeat until you have three layers and have used up all the ingredients.
Bake until bubbly and you’re ready to eat!

Ingredients

For the meat sauce:

Extra virgin olive oil
1 pound lean ground beef (chuck)
1/2 onion, diced (about 3/4 cup)
1/2 large bell pepper (green, red, or yellow), diced (about 3/4 cup)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 28-ounce can good quality tomato sauce
3 ounces (half a 6-oz can) tomato paste
1 14-ounce can crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano, or 2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (preferably flat leaf), packed
1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning
Pinch of garlic powder and/or garlic salt
1 tablespoon red or white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon to 1/4 cup sugar (to taste, optional)
Salt

To assemble the lasagna:

1/2 lb dry lasagna noodles (requires 9 lasagna noodles - unbroken)
15 ounces Ricotta cheese
1 1/2 lb (24 ounces) Mozzarella cheese, grated or sliced
1/4 lb (4 ounces) freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Special equipment:

9x13 casserole dish, preferably pyrex or stainless steel (avoid aluminum pans if you can, they can react with the acidity of the sauce)
A couple large sheet pans to cool the noodles