Bill Granger's Ham Lasagne

This is a great meal, delicious with a salad and large enough to feed 6-8 people.  If I use a foil lasagne tray (from the supermarket) the quantities below will make two smaller lasagnes - one for the freezer.

My only change to this recipe is that I don't normally need 600g lasagne sheets - I usually use about 375g, which is one packet of the fresh Latina sheets.

3 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
500g cherry tomatoes
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp olive oil
sea salt
600g fresh lasagne
12 thick slices leg ham
750g fresh ricotta
450g fresh mozzarella or bocconcini, sliced
100g parmesan cheese, grated
freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil, extra

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Empty the tins of tomatoes into a saucepan with the cherry tomatoes and bring to the boil.
Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20-25 minutes.
Add garlic, olive oil and a generous pinch of salt and cook for another minute.
Cut lasagne sheets to fit a 25cm x 35cm ovenproof dish.
Lightly grease the dish with olive oil and spread with three tablespoons of the tomato sauce.
Top with a sheet of pasta and then and eighth of the tomato sauce.
Tear and scatter an eighth each of the ham, ricotta and mozzarella over the sauce.
Repeat the layers until the pasta, sauce, ham and cheese have been used up.
Sprinkle parmesan, salt and pepper over the top and drizzle with the extra olive oil.
Cover lasagne with foil and bake for 20 minutes.
Remove foil and bake for another 30 minutes or until brown.
Scatter with basil leaves to serve.
Serves 6.

Recipe by Bill Granger from Simply Bill, page 40.