I make a lot of lasagnas with my volunteerism with Lasagna Love – a nonprofit matching a lasagna chef volunteer with those who need a meal in the community. I make them a traditional one but went wild for my family!

Sausage & Pesto Lasagna
Ingredients (for 9×9, serves ~6, or double for 9×12 pan)
~8 lasagna noodles
3 Sweet Italian sausage links, casing removed
1 teaspoon dried Italian Seasoning
1/4 cup alfredo sauce + 2 tablespoons
1/4 cup pesto sauce
15 oz ricotta cheese
1 egg
~8 oz shredded mozzarella
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoon Parmesan
Directions:
Boil water and cook the lasagna noodles just until halfway cooked, about 6 minutes.
Pan fry the sausage breaking up big chunks and cooking through. Drain the oil and sprinkle in the dried Italian Seasoning.
Mix together the ricotta, egg, and oregano.
Spray the pan with non-stick spray then spoon in the 1/4 cup alfredo sauce (save the additional 2 tablespoons of alfredo).
Lay noodles down (9×9 pan needs 2 lasagna noodles trimmed with the remnants to make 3 across)
Top with sausage, then another noodle layer.
Spoon the ricotta mixture on next. Sprinkle with half the parmesan cheese and half the mozzarella.

Add another noodle layer.
Mix together remaining alfredo sauce and pesto sauce. Spread onto the noodles.

Top with remaining shredded mozzarella.
Cover and bake 30-40 minutes at 375 degrees, uncover for the last 5 minutes to melt all the cheese.
Let stand for 5-10 minutes before serving.

I was into this! I only made a 9×9 just to not have leftovers forever, but this gave us dinner plus a few more lunch portions. We eat pesto regularly in our quest for the kiddos not to be obsessively attached to pasta looking one way. One kid (not-so-secretly) wished it was noodles + pesto but then ate it all. The other little one ate a bit but was a bit too silly and it wasn’t the biggest meal of the day.
The alfredo is great to mix in since there are big flavors here so the pesto getting a little bit mellowed is nice. I’ll freeze the rest of the alfredo.
After the fact, I was thinking a buttered panko topping would have been fun. This idea would work well as lasagna roll ups and or as stuffed shells. Maybe next time!
