Lasagna

1 whole chopped green pepper
1 medium chopped onion
1/3 cup olive oil
1 pound of ground beef
1 can tomato paste (small)
1 tsp of cracked black pepper
6 minced cloves of garlic
5 basil leaves (chopped fine)
1 tablespoon of chopped oregano leaves
2 tsp of salt
20 ounces of tomato sauce
9 lasagna noodles
1 large ball of fresh mozzarella cheese (grated)
1 cup of Parmesan cheese (grated)
1 pint of ricotta cheese
cottage cheese (optional)

1.In a medium to large sized pot, heat up your olive oil on high heat. Now, add in your ground beef, coat with cracked black pepper and cook through. This should take approximately 5 minutes.
2.Once cooked through, remove the ground beef from the pot and put in the pepper,onions, minced garlic and your herbs. Reduce heat to medium and cook until the pepper is soft.

3.Next, add in the tomato sauce and paste, season with salt and pepper to taste and simmer on medium heat for 1 hour.

4.While this is cooking, bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the lasagna noodles. Cook al dente. When it’s done, take the noodles out and place on a large baking sheet covered with olive oil. Make sure to toss the noodles on the baking sheet to cover both sides in oil.
5.Mix your Parmesan and Ricotta cheeses in a small bowl.
6.In a medium baking dish ( 9×12), put down a layer of lasagna noodles. Next, evenly spread your cheese mixture over the noodles and then put a layer of meat sauce on top of that. Keep repeating these steps until you get to the top of the baking dish making sure that your top layer is Parmesan/Ricotta cheese mixture.
Spread your shredded fresh mozzarella over the top.

7.Cover with tin foil and bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes.

8.Once done, take it out of the oven, uncover and let it sit and brown for about 15 minutes.