1/2 lb. ground beef
1 (32 oz.) jar spaghetti sauce
1/2 c. water
1 1/2 c. Ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/4 tsp. pepper
8 oz. lasagne noodles (uncooked)
1/2 lb. grated Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese

Crumble ground beef and cook on high in microwave for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce and water. Meanwhile, combine Ricotta cheese, egg and pepper. In oblong microwave dish, spoon 1/2 cup sauce, alternately layer noodles, egg mixture, Mozzarella cheese and sauce, forming 2 layers. Heat covered 8 minutes on high, then 30 to 32 minutes on medium-low. Let stand uncovered 15 minutes. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Cooks Notes: Use uncooked noodles. It sounds bizarre, but it works. Don't boil the noodles, and you save a lot of time cooking and cleaning up. You don't have to boil a huge pot of water, you don't have to dirty a colander to drain the noodles, you don't have to handle hot, sticky noodles with your fingers. Use a bottled sauce, and you can assemble the recipe lickety-split. And the resulting dish is easier to handle. Since the noodles cook as the lasagna bakes, they take up extra moisture in the cheese and sauce. That eliminates the runniness of conventional lasagna. Cut a square of this lasagna, and it stays a square all the way to your dinner plate.

Use Provolone cheese in lasagna because it melts like store-bought Mozzarella and has a lot more flavor, eliminating the extra expense of using grated Parmesan. Mozzarella may be substituted in the recipe with great success, however, if that's what you prefer.

Substitutions can go on forever. If you like spinach in your lasagna, add it to the sauce recipe. Or use Italian sausage rather than hamburger. Season your sauce with a little allspice, which you could add to this recipe.