Dinner tonight: Ina Garten's turkey sausage lasagna

Ah, lasagna. That high-calorie and hearty dish. Fans include Garfield the cat and Joey Tribbiani. Its newest addicts? Jack and Nellie Hill-Ries. I actually had to cut them off at dinner last night, a huge change from earlier in the week when Jack had to be lovingly coaxed into eating half a peanut butter sandwich. Now, I realize that 97-degree weather may not be ideal for eating mountains of pasta and cheese, but it's a comfortable 70 in our apartment, and this bakes in just 30 minutes, so I went for it. Dinner success!

Ina Garten manages to make everything special, and her turkey sausage lasagna has just enough twists to make the classic dish extraordinary. First: turkey sausage. Lighter than ground beef or pork, more flavorful than ground turkey. Second: fresh herbs. Her recipe calls for a good amount of fresh basil and parsley, which freshens up each bite. Third, and perhaps most important: the addition of goat cheese to the classic ricotta/parmesan/egg mixture. It's subtle but pretty darn amazing.

Recipe adapted from Barefoot Contessa Family Style, one of my favorite cookbooks

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 onion)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 pounds sweet Italian turkey sausage, casings removed
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes in tomato puree
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, divided
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
2 teaspoons kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pound lasagna noodles (I used a pound of farfalle, see note below)
15 ounces ricotta cheese
3 to 4 ounces creamy goat cheese, crumbled
1 cup grated Parmesan, plus 1/4 cup for sprinkling
1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten
1 pound fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Heat the olive oil in a large (10 to 12-inch) skillet. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes over medium-low heat, until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the sausage and cook over medium-low heat, breaking it up with a fork, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until no longer pink. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, 2 tablespoons of the parsley, the basil, 1 1/2 teaspoons of the salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Simmer, uncovered, over medium-low heat, for 15 to 20 minutes, until thickened.

Meanwhile, fill a large bowl with the hottest tap water. Add the noodles and allow them to sit in the water for 20 minutes. Drain.

In a medium bowl, combine the ricotta, goat cheese, 1 cup of Parmesan, the egg, the remaining 2 tablespoons of parsley, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Set aside.

Ladle 1/3 of the sauce into a 9 by 12 by 2-inch rectangular baking dish, spreading the sauce over the bottom of the dish. Then add the layers as follows: half the pasta, half the mozzarella, half the ricotta, and one 1/3 of the sauce. Add the rest of the pasta, mozzarella, ricotta, and finally, sauce. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of Parmesan. Bake for 30 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling.

Note: I used farfalle instead of lasagna noodles because that's the only short pasta I had in the pantry. I've used classic lasagna noodles and rigatoni for this dish, but I like the farfalle the best. They're fairly flat, so it felt like a layer of noodles (as opposed to the rigatoni, which just gets combined with everything), but since they're short, it was easy to break up and feed to toddlers. It was a major hit with the entire family, and it makes a ton, so we'll be having leftovers tonight.