Monstre is right. Don’t bother cooking the noodles ahead of time; it’s a wasted step. Start with a layer of sauce, add the noodles and go from there.
And be on the lookout for my Italian gramma. She heard you’re using cottage cheese and she’s heading your way with a wooden spoon to knock some sense into you! :eek:
My suggestions:
[ul]
[li]Bump up the herbs. Add some marjoram, and definitely some rosemary. Makes a world of difference. Also, sprinkling each layer of ricotta cheese mixture with some celery salt improves flavor.[/li][li]The cheese mixture sounds wrong; the texture will be better without the huge amount of parmesan cheese. Try changing your cheese mixture to 2 1/2 cups whole milk ricotta, 1/2 cup parmesan, 1 beaten egg, 1/2 cup parsely. Lose the cottage cheese entirely. The egg makes the cheese mixture light and fluffy when it bakes (it doesn’t “scramble.”)[/li][li]Canned sauce is fine despite the naysayers. I love making my own tomato sauce, but sometimes I get a craving for an immediate fix so I open a jar or a can or whatever. I suggest that you try using a jarred or canned pizza sauce in your lasagne instead, because those are usually more highly seasoned and somewhat thicker.[/li][li]I would put more garlic in. A lot more. But that’s just personal preference.[/li][li]If you spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the pan before your first layer of noodles, you won’t have any problems with sticking, but if you use oil use olive oil for the flavor.[/li][/ul]
Good luck.
The vowel at the end of my last name is crying, too. No cottage cheese. It must be ricotta.
And there’s nothing wrong with a beaten egg added to the cheese. It won’t scramble in this instance. The cheese won’t be hot when you add it, so there’s nothing to worry about. It just adds an extra richness.
Are you using real parmesan, or that grated crap from a can? You must use real parmesan, the shredded kind (that actually spoils) and is sold in the cold case. It makes all the difference in the world.
Words of wisdom.
The answer isn’t more spices. The answer is better ingredients. Most of the best advice has been given. Use real parmesan (or substitute something cheaper, but still real, like grana padano or pecorino). The stuff in the green can? That’s sawdust. Seriously. It’s bad. Trash it.
I don’t know why every single American lasagna recipe contains ricotta. I mean, sure, ricotta is authentic and all, but I much prefer Sierra Indigo’s bechamel version. You don’t see much of the bechamel variety around here (in fact, I never have.)
My favorite lasagna recipe is simple, yet time-consuming. I’ve never had a lasagna this good. You start by making a homemade bolognese (meat sauce) with beef (or beef and pork), prosciutto (or pancetta), tomatoes (canned Italian plums are perfect, although now would be a good time to shop for fresh tomatoes), milk, white wine, carrots, celery, beef stock, tomatoes. Notice. No orgegano. No basil. In fact, no herbs and spice beyond what’s in the beef stock, and some salt and pepper.
Then, you make some homemade spinach lasagna noodles. (It’s easier than it sounds, but does take some time), and a simple bechamel (butter, flour, milk, salt, white pepper, nutmeg). You then layer it, and top off each layer with generous coat of parmesan cheese.
I’ve found if your recipes aren’t working, it’s generally not the fault of the recipe, but rather the ingredients used. While I do love herbs and spices (you should see my herb garden), I find that beginners often throw in everything but the kitchen sink in the hopes of snazzing up their bland dishes. Fresh, good quality ingredients–that’s the key.
Oh, I forgot, there’s also a couple of chicken livers finely minced in the bolognese. You won’t even taste em, but they add an extra layer of richness to the sauce.
I think we’d all be more help if we examined this from the ground up.
As has been mentioned before, the quality of your end product will depend entirely on the quality of your ingredients, so let’s focus there.
Ground turkey: if that’s what you’re used to, then use it. I’d simply suggest that you make sure to season it thoroughly, and not use something that’s too lean (otherwise it dries out and is flavourless).
Using a can or jar of spegetti sauce is fine, just make sure it is a sauce that you like. This means actually having a spoonful of it before you use it. Is it something you’d want another spoonful of? If not, toss it and get a jar of something you like. Then keep in mind that it usually saves a lot of time, but in this recipe you’re already sauteing onions, garlic, and meat. You can just as easily add a can of pure tomatoes, some tomato paste, and then adjust the seasoning to what you like. One note here, consider adding a bit more salt, it brings out and enhances the flavour. 9/10 recipies fail because we have become conditioned to fear salt. Secondly, add just a little bit of sugar, it helps cut the acidity of the tomatoes.
Filling; Others have suggested using a bechamel, that’s my preference, but its a lot more work. With your recipe, I would suggest an egg yolk, not whole egg, just the yolk. But as mentioned above, check the filling before you cook it to make sure you like the taste of the ricotta and/or cottage cheese. Then adjust the seasoning, including adding salt and pepper.
Lasagna doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive, just properly seasoned and include ingredients that you would eat on their own.
If you find all beef too oily - why not mix the beef and chicken.
(Whenever my dad made ‘gravy’ for pasta, he typically used two types of meat.)
If your husband doesn’t like ricotta, then make a lasagna using bechamel, or pick something else entirely to make.
You can use extra-lean beef (5% fat) if you think regular is too greasy. You can also use ground pork - about the same fat content as ground chicken, but it’s cheaper and tastes better. Adding a bit of hot Italian sausage is good too.
Take the time to make a good ragout for your lasagna, or at the very least use a good-quality jar sauce with red wine in it. It will make a difference. I never have problems finding the time to make a ragout - basically all you are doing is putting some ingredients together and letting it simmer for a long time. You just check on it about every half hour and go back to whatever you were doing - it’s not like you are standing over the stove all that time.
Parmesan spoils? Never lasts long enough to when I’m around. I eat it straight. 
(licking lips)
Even better than shredded Parmesan is Parmesan that comes in a block or a wedge. You can grate it with a rotary cheese grater or use a food processor. Don’t use a box grater unless you’re:
[ul]
[li]less of a klutz than I am[/li][li]very experienced with box graters[/li][li]or a vampire who likes the taste of blood mixed with your cheese[/li][/ul]
It doesn’t look like a bad recipe. But it definitely looks like it’d be kind of bland, as you say. I’ve got a few ideas, many of which will repeat the advice of others.
I’ll second this one emphatically: get rid of the cottage cheese. As a matter of fact, get rid of the ricotta, too. I used to use it, but the Cook’s Illustrated Best Recipes book has a long discussion about why it’s unnecessary and perhaps even undesirable. I went with their recommendation, and my lasagna improved immediately. Turns out it adds mostly mushy texture and takes up a lot of room that would be better used for stuff that has an actual, y’know, flavor. 
Don’t cook the noodles, at all. The moisture in the sauce will cook them during baking. Just put down a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the pan before laying down the first layer of pasta. (This works the same whether you’re using dry or fresh.) Occasionally, I’ll cut a beefsteak tomato into thin slices and lay them down over the noodles as the first part of each layer of assembly, which helps with the moisture and adds a fun textural surprise to the dish.
If you’re going to use ground turkey, season the hell out of it. Salt, garlic (lots), sage, fennel, fresh black pepper, maybe some coriander or thyme. Treat it like you’re making sausage from scratch.
Ditto if you’re using a premade sauce. Taste it, and then dress it up. Add some more herbs per the meat paragraph above, or fresh vegetables. Crush in a couple of roma tomatoes, say. Add a couple of cloves of garlic, minced, or some chopped bell peppers, or finely diced onion, or even a shallot. Or I’ll sometimes dice half a zucchini, sautee it in butter with paprika, cumin, and a dash of salt until medium-soft, and add that to the sauce while it simmers.
Use better cheese. I don’t just put mozzarella in my lasagna; I throw in some fontina, provolone, and myzithra, usually, as well. Plus the recommendation for fresh parmesan instead of sawdust-in-a-green-can is excellent advice. Include fresh romano as well.
And let us know how it goes. 
Whaddaya making a curry here or meat sauce? Personally, I think that’s way way overkill on the spices, but I suppose we can chalk it up to philosophical culinary differences. More spices is not the answer. Better ingredients. Judicious use of spices. A bolognese sauce should taste like the essence of meat, perhaps accented by an herb or spice or two. It’s rich, creamy, complex, but melded well together with a minimum of spices. The milk, wine, and prosciutto (or pancetta) take care of the flavorings well enough. Why hide these wonderful flavors under a mound of spices?
The best pasta sauce I’ve ever had contained three ingredients: fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, and high quality olive oil. You don’t need more if your base ingredients are good. You don’t want more if your base is good.
You’re right, I wasn’t clear. I wasn’t intending to suggest that all these spices should be used at once. The idea is that different kinds of sausage are made with different flavors, and to choose and use those spices appropriately.
Oh, okay then.
Actually, this thread has inspired me, and now theres a pot of bolognese on the simmer. It’s going to be a long night. (I figure the lasagna will be in the oven in about, oh, two more hours or so.)
Here is a link to my recipe that I have posted before. It is extremely flexible. I have already had inquiries from friends and family about this year’s lasagna.
One easy thing you could try is making the lasagna the day before you serve it. I’ve never known a lasagna that wasn’t improved by giving the flavors a day or two to get acquainted.
If you’re taking a vote, I’m a cottage cheese is a tool of the devil voter, and a big fan of pork in the sauce. I like to brown up a rack of pork ribs, then cook it in the sauce until the meat falls off the bone. Fish out the bones, and your ready to go. Basil belongs in cooked tomatoes, fresh basil is best.
Oregano belongs not in lasagna, but on raw tomatoes, right from the garden, still warm from the sun.
Sorry, got a little distracted there and drooled on the keyboard.
There are some good jar sauces, and then some that have enough corn syrup or other sugars in them to qualify as candy. Sadly, paying a lot of money won’t guarantee a good sauce, but paying too little will guarantee a bad one. You’ll have to kind of shop around until you find one that fits with your family’s taste.
I sound pretty picky, but actually I’m the Will Rogers of lasagna, I never met one I didn’t like.
Or do it the other way around: I had some leftover stuff once before so I made a second one in a smaller dish and put it in the fridge, so it stayed unbaked until the following night. I’d be curious to make it again with the full sized pan to see whether the difference I noticed is really significant.
Lose the cottage cheese, and use slices or grated fontina or provolone.
I noticed the veggies too, mushrooms & spinach would be nice, but if you don’t like them…
More basil.
In the bad old days when I was a lowly E-5 in the military, I made lasagna with cottage cheese and swiss cheese. It wasn’t all that bad, as I recall. . .
::d&r::
I came in to primarily echo what Cervase said. Lose the ricotta and the cottage cheese. I’m not a fan of either and find the texture in lasagna to be unfavorable. It creates a lasagna that falls apart on the plate and adds too much wetness. I prefer to use a higher proportion of soft Italian cheeses instead. Typically a mix of mozzarella, asiago and provelone. I’m not too picky here, a few bags of shredded Italian blend (Kraft or whatever) do fine. I’ll then add a package of sliced mozz to layer in.
Also, I’ve never been able to accept Turkey in a Italian recipe. Something about it just doesn’t seem to play nicely with tomato and the typical Italian seasonings. A lean ground beef and/or pork/sausage mixture will be easier to meld in the sauce.
The key to me to making good lasagna is to make the meat sauce seperately and ahead of time. As others have suggested, making your own is key. Using canned sauces or spaghetti sauces is perfectly fine, but they are better treated as an ingredient instead of a finished sauce.
Brown your meat. Saute onions, shallots and garlic in olive oil. Add the meat to the mixture and season it. Then add your sauce. It can be a jar of spaghetti sauce or a combination of canned tomtao products or fresh veggies. Whatever. The key here is that you simmer it all together, season it and taste it frequently. If you get this part of the lasagna flavored to your liking, then the rest of the dish will taste good. Making a good ragout (I think it’s important that the meat is added here, not in the pan) thats seasoned right will dictate the end product. As you;re simmering it in the pot you still have the power to control the seasonings. Add more garlic, more oregano, more salt, a dash of sugar, anything you think it’s missing. Make this sauce yours. Make alot, it’ll be terrific on pasta, freeze small portions for quick and easy meals.
Then, once your meat sauce is perfect, you can start building the lasagna now.
I think it’s best to boil the noodles. I don’t like the idea of trying to manage the wetness of a dish that contains dry noodles. You can make it work, but it’s a trickier task. Boiling them ahead of time will allow you to better control the consistency of the dish.
Now build the dish as normal. Start with a layer of sauce. Then the noodles. Then shredded cheese mixture Then sauce, noodles, slices of mozz, noodles, sauce, shredded cheese, sauce, noodles, and topped with slices of mozz. A bit of parmesean can be sprinkled on to taste at any point in the middle.
This will create a very cheesey, denser lasagna that will be just havenly after a few days.