• Lay puff pastry on a cutting board and cut thin strips, about ¼ inch wide. Spiral strips around the sausage until covered. Place on a baking sheet and brush with egg. Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes until puffy and golden brown.
• For sauce, whisk mustard, bourbon and honey in a bowl. It’s that easy.

Noodles

• I like to have a plan before I assemble. If needed, I break the noodles up to fit my pan. I save the nice ones for the top layer, hiding the broken noodles in the middle. It will be a little weird at assembly; the noodles will be stiff and it may seem awkward spreading out the cheese and the sauce.

Sauce

• There are lots of options for sauce: Bolognese, your grandmother’s tomato sauce, whatever your go-to sauce is. If you don’t have a go-to sauce, you're not going to start making one now. Just buy one and jazz it up with the meat options. How much you use depends on how much tomato flavor you like.

Meat

• I love a combination of sausage and beef. I like to break the meat into large chunks, cook, remove fat and add to the sauce. Try not to season until the sauce and meat have come back to a simmer. You can always add, but it is hard to take away seasoning. If you are not going to use meat, add in some sauteed mushrooms, onion, peppers, eggplant or other vegetables as filler.

Cheese

• I normally go with a blend of my favorite cheeses and save some of each to top at the end. The rest I mix with an egg and chopped parsley.
  

Assembly

• First, make your lasagna plan of attack. Are you making a single batch? How many noodles wide is your pan? How many layers are you making? Roughly eyeball how much of each product you need for each layer, then begin. I always start with a thin layer of sauce to keep the noodles from sticking. Then I pattern sauce, noodles, cheese … and so on.
  

Moisture

• You need to have enough extra moisture to cook your noodles. My rule of thumb is: is there standing moisture at the end of assembly? You want standing moisture around the noodles, not just sauce. The noodles will soak up quite a bit of moisture; you will also have a second bake where more moisture will evaporate. Use stock, water or, if you make your own ricotta, the leftover whey. Add a little salt. This will prevent your lasagna from becoming bland.
  

Wrapping

• This recipe will work with just foil, but I prefer to add a layer of plastic wrap to the pan. It keeps in the moisture and helps cook the noodles. I know what you’re thinking: plastic wrap plus oven equals disaster. But some brands don’t melt until they reach 300 or 350 degrees. While your oven may be hotter than that, the wrap under the foil is colder.
  

Baking

• Once your lasagna is wrapped, place it in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes. Take out and let sit for five to 10 mi utes. Then uncover, top with cheese and place back in the oven for 15 to 25 minutes until the top is bubbling and the cheese is a speckled golden color (only bake for 10 minutes if you plan to freeze). Let rest for another 10 to 15 minutes, then serve. If you are going to freeze, cool completely, wrap and store.
  

Storing

• Suggested freezer storage should be two to three months (but I have had luck up to six months if wrapped tight). Individually-wrapped portions have the same length of time, but I also find they can bewrapped even tighter and sometimes last longer.

Reheating

• Thaw in the refrigerator for one to three days, then bake for 25 minutes covered. Repeat uncovered for another 15 to 20 minutes until the lasagna is bubbling, the top is speckled brown and the temperature has risen to 165 degrees.