Homemade lasagna is labor intensive, but the response it gets when you serve it makes it a labor of love. Making sausage lasagna with sweet Italian sausage gives it a rich, authentic flavor, but if you don’t have any available, you can substitute regular sausage. The seasonings in regular sausage and sweet Italian sausage are not that different from each other. With a little ingenuity and a quick look through your spice cabinet, you can get the flavor – and the response – you’re expecting.

Gather the same amount of regular sausage as the sweet Italian sausage your recipe calls for; 1 lb. of regular sausage is only different in flavor from 1 lb. of sweet Italian sausage, so you can make a straight exchange.

Cut the ends off of the sausage casings and squeeze out the raw sausage into a small bowl.

Add basil, marjoram, oregano, pepper, rosemary and thyme. Start with 1/2 tsp. each per pound of meat.

Mix the spices into the raw meat with your hands, and then wash your hands thoroughly with soap and hot water.

Coat the bottom of a skillet with olive oil and heat it until the oil starts to shimmer.

Add the spiced sausage and cook it, stirring frequently, until it is cooked through.

Taste the sausage and adjust the seasonings. Continue with your lasagna recipe.