Whenever I don’t have much time in the evening to make dinner, I like to make dishes that are baked in the oven, like casseroles. I think my favorite one of such dishes is the Italian lasagne. It’s the ultimate comfort food full of aromatic herbs and flavorful potatoes. In this post, I am going to share with you the recipe I usually use to make trademark lasagne at home.
My favorite aspect of making lasagne is that I don’t need to stand over the stove all the time. I can just assemble all the ingredients in the baking dish, pop it in the oven, and wait for it to be ready with no input from me necessary. It gives me ample time to either clean up the kitchen without feeling like I need to hurry or to relax with my family in the living room before dinner.
I can prepare all the ingredients and assemble the dish beforehand. This is very helpful if, for example, I have some time at noon but know that I will be running errands all afternoon later. When I get back home, I just put the dish in the oven and don’t need to do anything else! Heating the leftovers is also very simple and I sometimes even prepare a piece of the lasagne from the day before as school lunch for my son.
The only thing I regret about this recipe is that I had to resort to store-bought lasagne noodles. I have tried several recipes for homemade lasagne noodles before my none have turned out like I would like them to. If you buy the noodles from a supermarket, like me, be careful to read the ingredients list to check if there aren’t any weird chemicals in your noodles. I noticed that gluten-free noodles tend to be made from better ingredients so maybe try them out.
Necessary equipment:
- a large baking dish
- aluminum foil
- a jelly roll pan
- a strainer
- a saucepan
- a wooden spoon
- two glass mixing bowls
- a whisk
Ingredients:
- 8 to 10 large lasagne noodles (the number will depend on the size of your baking dish)
- 5 cups of marinara sauce
- 2 cups of ground beef
- 2 cups of chopped frozen spinach
- 2 cups of ricotta cheese
- 4 eggs
- dried basil
- dried oregano
- salt and pepper to taste
- 6 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup of grated parmesan
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Thaw the frozen spinach using a strainer over the sink or another large bowl.
- Cook the ground beef with salt and pepper in a large saucepan. Set aside to cool.
- Prepare your baking dish by lining it with aluminum foil. Use butter to help it stick to the surface.
- Prepare the first layer of your lasagne in one glass bowl. Combine three cups of marinara sauce with the eggs, ricotta cheese, salt and pepper. Stir all the ingredients thoroughly.
- In another glass bowl, prepare the second layer of your lasagne. Combine two cups of marinara sauce with thawed spinach and the ground beef.
Assemble your lasagne:
- Put about 1/3 of your marinara and ricotta layer on the bottom of the baking dish evenly.
- Spread out 4 or 5 of your lasagne noodles on top.
- Layer half of the marinara meat sauce on top of the noodles.
- Put another 1/3 of the marinara ricotta sauce on top.
- Sprinkle with two cups of shredded mozzarella.
- Cover with the remaining lasagne noodles.
- Layer the second half of the marinara meatsauce.
- Put the last 1/3 of the marinara ricotta sauce on top (but leave a few large dollops of it for later)
- Sprinkle with another two cups of mozzarella.
- Ladle the remaining marinara ricotta sauce over the whole lasagne.
- Cover with the last two cups of shredded mozzarella.
- Sprinkle the parmesan cheese on top.
- Season the top of your lasagne with basil and oregano. This will give flavor to the crisp crust that will form later.
- Now cover your baking dish with another piece of aluminum foil.
- Place the baking dish on a jelly roll pan. You might want to put some more aluminum foil or parchment paper underneath the baking dish in case it bubbles over.
- Bake for 55 minutes.
- Uncover the top of the lasagne and bake for another 15 minutes.
- Take out of the oven and let cool for at least 10 minutes.
- Sprinkle with some more parmesan cheese if you want and serve while still warm!