Homemade Lasagna

This homemade lasagna is the hearty, delicious and the perfect crowd pleaser. Made with a from-scratch sauce, beef, sausage and cheeses, this lasagna is sure to become one of your favorites!

When it comes to Italian food, I think lasagna is a favorite of many. If you love Italian food, I’m willing to bet my bottom dollar that lasagna is one of your favorites. Well, it’s definitely one of mine. Lasagna can me made many ways. You can make seafood lasagna, lasagna roll-ups, veggie lasagna and the list goes on. I will be posting recipes for all types of lasagna in the future, but today I’m sharing my version of traditional homemade lasagna.

Growing up, my mom made the best lasagna, and it was something I always looked forward to. Not only me, but the rest of the family as well. I adopted her recipe, and transformed it into my own, by removing some of her ingredients and adding others. There’s a full printable recipe below. There is also a small video of me preparing it on my IGTV channel.

How to prepare homemade lasagna

Ingredients:

• Ground chuck
•  Italian sausage
• Salt & pepper to taste
•  Extra virgin olive oil
• Yellow onion (chopped)
• Bell pepper (chopped)
• Garlic cloves (minced or diced)
• Can tomato paste
• Can crushed tomatoes
• Can tomato sauce
• Can diced tomatoes
• Sugar
• Crushed red pepper
•  Italian seasoning
• Fresh basil (chopped)
• Fresh parsley
• Lasagna noodles
• Egg
• Whole milk Ricotta cheese
• Dash of nutmeg
• Italian seasoning
• Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• Shredded Mozzarella cheese
• Provolone cheese

Simple steps

• Heat olive oil in a dutch oven or large enameled pot over medium-high heat. Crumble ground chuck and Italian sausage, and seasoned lightly with salt and pepper. Stir until meat is browned.
• Remove from heat and drain meat, then return to pot.
• Add onion and bell pepper. Stir and cook about 5 minutes.
• Add tomato paste ,crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, garlic, salt, sugar, Italian seasoning and crushed red pepper. Stir together. Add basil and parsley. Stir together.
• Bring to simmer, and reduce heat to low. Cook covered for minimum of 1 hour.
• Cook pasta according to instructions until al dente. Drain pasta. Do not rinse.
• In a small mixing bowl, lightly beat egg. Add Ricotta cheese, dash of nutmeg and tsp of Italian seasoning. Mix together thoroughly.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In baking dish, spread a generous amount of meat sauce in bottom of dish (about 1 cup). Align 4 noodles over sauce (I align 3 horizontally, then 1 vertically at the end). Spread half of ricotta mixture over noodles. Sprinkle 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese evenly over ricotta mixture. Add layer of meat sauce (about cup and a half). Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese.
• Align 4 noodles over sauce. Spread rest of ricotta mixture over noodles. Sprinkle 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese evenly over ricotta mixture. Add layer of meat sauce (about cup and a half). Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese.
• Align 4 noodles over sauce. Spread remainder of meat sauce over noodles. Sprinkle rest of mozzarella over sauce. Layer pieces of provolone with mozzarella. Sprinkle with rest of Parmesan.
• Cover with foil and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, then uncovered for 20 min.

Homemade Lasagna

Danielle Dunn

Layered noodles with meat sauce and cheese

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 2 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 50 minutes mins

Cuisine Italian

Servings 12

Equipment

• 10 x 15 baking dish. 9 x 13 can be used as well.

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 lb Ground chuck
• 1 lb Italian sausage
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 1 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 Large yellow onion (chopped)
• 1 Bell pepper (chopped)
• 3 Garlic cloves (minced or diced)
• 6 oz Can tomato paste
• 28 oz Can crushed tomatoes
• 15 oz Can tomato sauce
• 14.5 oz Can diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp Salt
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
• 5 oz Fresh basil (chopped)
• 1/2 cup Fresh parsley
• 12 Lasagna noodles
• 1 Egg
• 15 oz Whole milk Ricotta cheese
• Dash of nutmeg
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1 1/2 cup Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 cup Shredded Mozzarella cheese
• 6 slices Provolone cheese

Instructions

 

• Prep your ingredients. This includes chopping veggies, shredding and grating cheeses.
• Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a dutch oven or large enameled pot over medium-high heat. Crumble ground chuck and Italian sausage in heated oil. Seasoned lightly with salt and pepper. Stir until meat is browned.
• Remove from heat and drain meat. Once drained, return to pot.
• Return pot to medium-high heat. Add onion and bell pepper. Stir and cook about 5 minutes.
• Add tomato paste ,crush tomatoes, tomato sauce, and diced tomatoes. Stir together. Add garlic, 1 tsp salt, sugar, Italian seasoning and crushed red pepper. Stir together. Add basil and parsley. Stir together.
• Bring to simmer, and reduce heat to low. Cook covered for minimum of 1 hour. The longer the sauce cooks, the better it will be. Stir occasionally. Sauce will reduce and thicken. Taste sauce after it has cooked, and add more salt if needed.
• Cook pasta according to instructions until al dente. Drain pasta. Do not rinse. I recommend cooking more than 12 lasagna noodles. Sometimes these noodles break. It's always good to have extras on hand.
• In a small mixing bowl, lightly beat egg. Add Ricotta cheese, dash of nutmeg and tsp of Italian seasoning. Mix together thoroughly.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In baking dish, spread a generous amount of meat sauce in bottom of dish (about 1 cup). Align 4 noodles over sauce (I align 3 horizontally, then 1 vertically at the end). Spread half of ricotta mixture over noodles. Sprinkle 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese evenly over ricotta mixture. Add layer of meat sauce (about cup and a half). Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese.
• Align 4 noodles over sauce. Spread rest of ricotta mixture over noodles. Sprinkle 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese evenly over ricotta mixture. Add layer of meat sauce (about cup and a half). Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese.
• Align 4 noodles over sauce. Spread remainder of meat sauce over noodles. Sprinkle rest of mozzarella over sauce. Layer pieces of provolone with mozzarella. Sprinkle with rest of Parmesan.
• Cover with foil and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes.
• Remove foil and return to oven uncovered for 20 minutes.
• Remove from oven and let sit for 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

Notes

Add about Tbsp olive to boiling pasta water.  This will help prevent noodles from sticking together.

Cook more noodles, just in case some noodles break or you decide to layer yours differently.

This recipe make a lot.  If it’s too much for you, use smaller baking dish, and layer noodles according to size of baking dish. Freeze remaining sauce up to 3 months.

 

Keyword lasagna, pasta

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