Elevate Your Lasagna And Add In Some Italian Sausage

When you think of traditional Italian comfort food, there's a solid chance the image of a cheesy layered slab of classic lasagna comes to mind. Apart from the quintessential layers of béchamel sauce, mozzarella, and ricotta cheese, what truly brings every lasagna recipe together, regardless of any extras, is a full-bodied tomato sauce. Crushed or diced tomatoes, and sometimes tomato paste and water are added to an aromatic blend of sauteed beef and minced veggies to create a tasty base. If you have a soft spot for meaty lasagna and want to take your recipe up a notch in the flavor department, you may want to consider adding some Italian sausage to the mix.

Most recipes call for a meat-based sauce which is often made with ground beef, giving your baked lasagna more depth of flavor. Even though ground beef is often enhanced with a variety of Italian seasonings like parsley, basil, and oregano, adding in some ground Italian sausage adds an undeniable flavor boost.

Italian sausage is typically made with ground pork and several spices ranging from anise seeds to paprika and dried minced onion. While ground pork has a milder flavor than ground beef, the higher fat content in pork sausage can add extra flavor to that rich and tasty tomato sauce. Before we get into other ways you can use sausage to elevate your next batch of lasagna, let's discuss how you to upgrade your next layered pasta dish with some zesty Italian sausage.

When compared to ground pork, Italian sausage contains not only ground pork but added seasoning and extra fat. While the specialty blend of meat, spices, and fat in Italian sausage melds beautifully with your sauce-specific ingredients to give your tastebuds an added dose of extra flavor, making sausage lasagna can be elevated even further with two different cuts of meat.

Try using both ground and sliced sausage to jazz up this new and improved dish. While ground sausage can be cooked with various herbs and vegetables to make a savory ragu-style sauce, chopped up sausage links can be added directly to your beloved lasagna layers. Not only will you have a rich and flavorful tomato sauce to enjoy, but you'll also be pleasantly surprised by the added texture and flavor of sliced sausage. If you don't yet feel 100% comfortable switching the meat of your lasagna to sausage, try mixing ground beef and Italian sausage for your sauce base. You'll still be able to detect a noticeable difference in your meal's overall flavor. Next to adding Italian sausage to this week's lasagna, there are a few other ways you can use sausage to dress up your favorite lasagna-inspired Italian meals.

Besides using a combination of ground Italian sausage and sliced sausage links, you have a few additional options to consider. For starters, Italian sausage comes in both mild, sweet, and hot varieties. You can use a combination of sweet and hot Italian sausage to make your next lasagna sauce the perfect combination of sweet and savory. Another way to give your meal more depth is to include additional color and texture. Add in a few simple layers of greens to make spinach and sausage lasagna or incorporate a layer or two of extra vegetables using pre-roasted slices of eggplant and zucchini. These vegetable additions are a delicious way to balance out the bold flavors of Italian sausage.

While there are various ingredients you can add to your sausage lasagna to give this dish heightened flavor and texture, you can also get creative in the serving department. Beyond adding your lasagna in layers, you can try rolling up your ingredients in separate lasagna sheets to make more individually sized portions. Next to making another rectangular pan of lasagna, you can also transform your traditional pasta and meatball soup into a tasty, TikTok-ready lasagna soup. Simply swap out the meatballs for Italian sausage and small pasta shapes for broken lasagna noodles and add in a bit of ricotta cheese. No matter how you decide to enjoy lasagna, try using Italian sausage for a much-welcomed upgraded flavor.