My family loves Italian-style meals, and lasagna is probably one of their favorite choices when I ask them what they’d like for dinner. I don’t mind making a huge lasagna, but I wanted to do something a little different for dinner tonight, so I decided to make Italian Sausage Roll-ups. I’ve made these in a variety of ways in the past, using ground beef, adding spinach and mixing up the different cheeses, but tonight I decided to make them with Italian sausage.

These are really easy to make, although they can be a little bit messy, but in the end, this is a fun dish you can make for your family and when friends come over for dinner. This is also a good recipe to get little hands in the kitchen to teach them how to cook.

Italian Sausage Roll-ups

1 pound Italian pork sausage

1 package lasagna noodles

1 carton ricotta cheese

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1 egg

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning blend

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 jar of your favorite spaghetti or marinara sauce

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Fresh Parmesan cheese for grating

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cook lasagna noodles according to package direction. Set aside.

In a skillet, brown the Italian sausage until no longer pink and nicely browned. Drain.

In a large bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, egg, 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning and garlic powder. Stir until thoroughly combined. Add the browned and drained Italian sausage. Mix well.

To assemble, take 1 cooked lasagna noodle, and place 1 tablespoon of the meat and cheese filling on one end. Roll up the lasagna noodle like you would a jelly roll.

Place in a greased 9 x 13-inch baking pan, seam side down. Continue with the remaining noodles until you’ve filled the pan.

Pour the jar of spaghetti or marinara sauce evenly over the tops of the lasagna rolls.

Sprinkle the shredded mozzarella cheese over the tops of the rolls, and grate fresh Parmesan cheese over everything.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 30 minutes, or until the cheese on top is nicely browned and the dish is bubbly.

Yield: 18 lasagna rolls

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