Uploaded October 2022 | Updated September 2026, 14 hours ago
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As a child born in the 70s, I was probably first interested in lasagna because of Garfield the Cat. Garfield’s particular taste in pasta aside, lasagna is a delicious pasta casserole which is made in a bunch of different ways in different contexts. We will likely produce more than one recipe for lasagna, to explore the different ways it can be made. To start with, we present this recipe for “traditional”, “home-style” or we might say “expensive” lasagna. It is made with a bunch of meat, with actual ricotta cheese as well as mozzarella, and generally is more oriented toward making the richest lasagna with the best ingredients.
I have always felt that it is a mistake to boil lasagna noodles before using them. Neither is it especially important to buy “oven-ready” lasagna noodles. Regular ones which claim to need boiling will work fine. If, like I did, you make your own sauce and get it really thick, just add some extra water to it before starting. The noodles will cook quite adequately while the lasagna bakes. On that note, to get a really thick and rich tomato sauce I made my usual (1-can) recipe for tomato sauce, but also used about a quarter-cup each of chopped sun-dried tomatoes and also tomato paste. Add the SDTs while sweating the other veg (for an extended period of time), and add the paste toward the end when the canned tomatoes go in.
Once finished baking, let the lasagna rest for 10-15 minutes before attempting to cut it. Some feel that it is simply better the next day; I think both fresh and leftover lasagna have their merits. For best results, warm leftover lasagna with up to 90 seconds in a microwave followed by some time in a hot oven or under a broiler; I typically use my toaster oven.
Makes enough for 10 people, roughly 300 cubic centimeters.
Equipment:
• 13”x9” baking pan (ours is a little larger and worked fine)
• one or more nonstick skillets for browning meat
• saucepan if making sauce
Ingredients:
1 box lasagna noodles perhaps only 3/4 of a box
1 lb ground beef
1 lb mild Italian sausage or ground pork + herbs, anise and extra garlic
32-48 oz marinara sauce 1-can recipe of homemade sauce as described above
9-16 oz ricotta cheese or cottage or “farmer’s” cheese, drained if especially wet
2-3 cloves garlic minced
4 Tbsp parsley chopped
2 ea eggs
400 g mozzarella grated and split in half
Procedure:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F
2. In one or more skillets, saute the beef (with the garlic) and the sausage, breaking it up to brown it as thoroughly as possible. Do not crowd the meat as that will prevent it from browning properly. If need be, cook the meat in batches in a single skillet.
3. Make cheese mixture by combining ricotta, eggs, parsley and half the mozzarella.
4. Drain any excess fat from the browned meat and then mix it with the tomato sauce. Optionally reserve a small amount of sauce for the bottom of the pan w/o meat in it.
5. Butter or oil the lasagna pan to help prevent sticking.
6. Add a little bit of sauce in the bottom of the pan, ideally without meat lumps but it is not crucial.
7. Spackle one side of 3-4 lasagna noodles, enough to cover the bottom of the pan with ruffly edges just barely overlapping. Arrange the spackled noodles in the bottom the pan, cheese-side up.
8. Spread a layer of sauce over the cheesy noodles.
9. Repeat the spackling, arranging and saucing procedure until you run out of cheese mix. We got an even number of layers putting on about as little as seemed sufficient.
10. After the last layer of cheesy noodles, spread sauce, place on a layer of naked noodles, more sauce, and then the other half of the grated mozzarella to cover the entire casserole.
11. Cover the baking dish with foil. I really appreciated my large baking dish for this as the foil did not touch the cheese for the most part.
12. Place into the center of the oven for 50 minutes.
13. After 50 minutes, remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes.
14. After 10 minutes uncovered, check the appearance of the top layer of cheese and if it is not toasty enough, turn on the broiler briefly, keeping a close eye to prevent the cheese burning.
15. Once done baking, allow the lasagna to rest at least 10 minutes, perhaps a bit longer, to stop simmering and firm up enough to be handled.
Music: bensound.com/royalty-free-music
Check our our Patreon!
patreon.com/loveyourfood
Need a kitchen thermometer? Check out ChefsTemp! Use code LoveYourFood for 15% off a meat thermometer!
shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=2084649&u=3322095&m=111859&urllink=&afftrack=
As a child born in the 70s, I was probably first interested in lasagna because of Garfield the Cat. Garfield’s particular taste in pasta aside, lasagna is a delicious pasta casserole which is made in a bunch of different ways in different contexts. We will likely produce more than one recipe for lasagna, to explore the different ways it can be made. To start with, we present this recipe for “traditional”, “home-style” or we might say “expensive” lasagna. It is made with a bunch of meat, with actual ricotta cheese as well as mozzarella, and generally is more oriented toward making the richest lasagna with the best ingredients.
I have always felt that it is a mistake to boil lasagna noodles before using them. Neither is it especially important to buy “oven-ready” lasagna noodles. Regular ones which claim to need boiling will work fine. If, like I did, you make your own sauce and get it really thick, just add some extra water to it before starting. The noodles will cook quite adequately while the lasagna bakes. On that note, to get a really thick and rich tomato sauce I made my usual (1-can) recipe for tomato sauce, but also used about a quarter-cup each of chopped sun-dried tomatoes and also tomato paste. Add the SDTs while sweating the other veg (for an extended period of time), and add the paste toward the end when the canned tomatoes go in.
Once finished baking, let the lasagna rest for 10-15 minutes before attempting to cut it. Some feel that it is simply better the next day; I think both fresh and leftover lasagna have their merits. For best results, warm leftover lasagna with up to 90 seconds in a microwave followed by some time in a hot oven or under a broiler; I typically use my toaster oven.
Makes enough for 10 people, roughly 300 cubic centimeters.
Equipment:
• 13”x9” baking pan (ours is a little larger and worked fine)
• one or more nonstick skillets for browning meat
• saucepan if making sauce
Ingredients:
1 box lasagna noodles perhaps only 3/4 of a box
1 lb ground beef
1 lb mild Italian sausage or ground pork + herbs, anise and extra garlic
32-48 oz marinara sauce 1-can recipe of homemade sauce as described above
9-16 oz ricotta cheese or cottage or “farmer’s” cheese, drained if especially wet
2-3 cloves garlic minced
4 Tbsp parsley chopped
2 ea eggs
400 g mozzarella grated and split in half
Procedure:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F
2. In one or more skillets, saute the beef (with the garlic) and the sausage, breaking it up to brown it as thoroughly as possible. Do not crowd the meat as that will prevent it from browning properly. If need be, cook the meat in batches in a single skillet.
3. Make cheese mixture by combining ricotta, eggs, parsley and half the mozzarella.
4. Drain any excess fat from the browned meat and then mix it with the tomato sauce. Optionally reserve a small amount of sauce for the bottom of the pan w/o meat in it.
5. Butter or oil the lasagna pan to help prevent sticking.
6. Add a little bit of sauce in the bottom of the pan, ideally without meat lumps but it is not crucial.
7. Spackle one side of 3-4 lasagna noodles, enough to cover the bottom of the pan with ruffly edges just barely overlapping. Arrange the spackled noodles in the bottom the pan, cheese-side up.
8. Spread a layer of sauce over the cheesy noodles.
9. Repeat the spackling, arranging and saucing procedure until you run out of cheese mix. We got an even number of layers putting on about as little as seemed sufficient.
10. After the last layer of cheesy noodles, spread sauce, place on a layer of naked noodles, more sauce, and then the other half of the grated mozzarella to cover the entire casserole.
11. Cover the baking dish with foil. I really appreciated my large baking dish for this as the foil did not touch the cheese for the most part.
12. Place into the center of the oven for 50 minutes.
13. After 50 minutes, remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes.
14. After 10 minutes uncovered, check the appearance of the top layer of cheese and if it is not toasty enough, turn on the broiler briefly, keeping a close eye to prevent the cheese burning.
15. Once done baking, allow the lasagna to rest at least 10 minutes, perhaps a bit longer, to stop simmering and firm up enough to be handled.
Music: bensound.com/royalty-free-music
