Remove sausage casings and crumble sausage. Brown meat in large pot,stirring occasionally to break up the meat. Drain off fat.

Remove meat and set aside. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in the same pot, addonion, garlic and bell pepper and cook over medium heat, stirringoccasionally, about 5 to 8 minutes or until onion is tender.

Stir in the reserved meat, tomato puree, tomato paste, water, basil,oregano, sugar, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper and bay leaf andbring to boil. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, about 2 hours,or until flavors mingle and mixture thickens slightly (there will beabout 4 1/2 to 5 cups of sauce).

Combine ricotta, 1/4 cup parmesan, egg, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4teaspoon pepper in a medium bowl; set aside.

Bring 3 quarts of water to boil in a large pot. Add 1 tablespoonsalt, then gradually add lasagne noodles so that water continues toboil. Cook noodles until barely tender, about 5 minutes, stirring onceor twice; do not overcook. Drain noodles; rinse in cold water and drainwell. Return noodles to pot and toss them gently with 1 tablespoon oil toprevent them sticking.

Line the bottom of a a buttered 9 x 13 x 2-inch pan with 4 lasagnenoodles, cutting one as necessary to completely cover the bottom. Spreadevenly with half of ricotta mixture (1 generous cup). Sprinkle evenlywith half of mozarella (about 2 cups). Spread with half of the tomato/meatsauce.

Top with remaining 4 noodles, cutting one noodle as above so that thesauce mixture is completely covered. Evenly layer on remainingingredients in the same order as above. Sprinkle the top of the lasagneevenly with 1/4 cup parmesan and 1/4 cup mozzarella.

Bake in a preheated oven at 375 for about 45 or 50 minutes or untillasagne is hot in center. Remove from oven; let stand for 15 minutes.

Cut in squares and serve on heated plates with garlic bread.