Kim's Italian Enchiladas

Well, I decided to make my experiment into a little date night, so we started with this:

And finished with this:

Here's my recipe:

Sauce:

8 roma tomatoes, halved

3-5 cloves garlic, peeled and whole

1 onion, quartered

5-7 leaves fresh basil

olive oil

salt

pepper

Place all ingredients except basil on a baking sheet and bake at 375 for 10 minutes, adding basil for an additional 2-3 minutes. Blend together in blender.

Filling:

1 lb. spicy sausage

1/2 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

16 oz. cottage cheese

1 can cannellini

1/2 box frozen spinach, thawed and drained

2 roma tomatoes, diced

Fry sausage with onions and garlic, drain. Mix all 7 ingredients together.

Cook 1 box (12 noodles) wide lasagna, al dente. Drain. Pour half the sauce into 9x13" pan. Place scoop of filling in each noodle, rolling to form "enchilada" shape. Cover with last half of sauce. Top with mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until bubbly and brown on top.

Ok, despite the poorly written instructions, this actually turned out pretty well. As you can see, I leaned more towards Italian and less towards Mexican. My "Mexican" influences were the spiciness of the meat, the beans, and the shape of the enchiladas. Next time I will make a few changes, such as: Use a high-quality spicy sausage, or else use plain sausage and season it yourself. Make sure not to use old noodles, because they're gross. In fact, it might be fun to make your own or buy fresh. And one last tidbit: The sauce part makes a delicious roasted tomato basil soup.