Ravioli Lasagna

Lasagna is one of my favorite Italian foods, but I almost never make it because I don't normally have the time. After this week that is going to change for sure. This was by far the quickest and easiest lasagna recipe EVER. Seriously. And as an added bonus you get to see the pictures. Now if only computers had smell-o-vision...

Here are the ingredients:
1 can spaghetti sauce
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1-lb ground beef
1 package of frozen spinach
1 large package of frozen cheese ravioli (you'll need about 48 ravioli)
Shredded mozzarella cheese for the top
spices/garlic to taste
baking dish suitable for lasagna (9x13 should be sufficient)

After setting the oven to preheat at 350, I started with the sauce. I mixed the spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, garlic, various Italian spices, and about a cup of water in the logical cooking vessel, a saucepan. I used low heat because it seems like I always wear spaghetti sauce if I cook it any higher. While the sauce was warming up I browned the beef in a pan and drained off the excess fat.

Before adding the beef to the sauce I ladled about 1/4 of it onto the bottom of my baking dish like so:
Layer two was the ravioli. I was careful not to overlap too much.
Next came layer three, half of the sauce (now with the meat in it), and then layer four, the spinach. This was my first time working with frozen spinach (as opposed to canned) and I learned an important tip from my mom: wring out the spinach between some paper towels before you put it in the lasagna. I squeezed out at least half of a cup of liquid!
Layer five: the rest of the ravioli. As you can see I had 9 or so leftover so I used them to plug up some of the holes.
Layer six: the rest of the sauce.
Quite possibly my favorite layer, number seven: the cheese.
See, wasn't that simple? Just bake it in the 350 degree oven for 45 minutes and when it comes out it will look something like this:
And here's a side view so you can see the nice little layered effect. Now (for all you Monty Python fans) all we need is a nice path running down the middle.

That's the end of the pictures and the end of this recipe. I can't wait to try it out again with a different kind of ravioli (maybe spinach, or even something wild like portobello mushroom or lobster) or sauce (this would probably be AMAZING with vodka sauce). Thanks for playing along at home, folks. Be sure to drop me a comment and let me know how it turns out for you!