Lasagna is my all time favourite meal. It has all the best things and a flavour that is only achieved in lasagna yet other dishes use the exact same ingredients (spaghetti)
Layers of carbs smothered in garlicky tomato sauce with cheesy goodness in there.. Oh yes, if there ever was a perfect dish, it is Lasagna.
Let me tell you a little secret about my ingredients:
The Sauce: I only will make something from scratch if its WAY more delicious to do so (bread) or a lot cheaper than the store bought version (insert a million things). Pasta sauce is just not one of those things I can get behind making from scratch. I am not a gardener so I do not have tomatoes growing out of my ears. I am a Costco Member and I can get Prego Pasta sauce for SO CHEAP! Its also, in my opinion, damn delicious. So in this recipe I use Prego Pasta Sauce. JUDGE ME! 😎 Lasagna is kind of time consuming to make too so using some store bought sauce on this.. you deserve it. I deserve it.. we all deserve it!!
The Cheese: This recipe is AQUEENA's version. Look at the URL 😉 I know that Ricotta is more traditional than the cottage cheese I use in Lasagna. However, they are seriously interchangeable in this recipe.. so do whatever makes you happy!
The Pasta: I am capable of making fresh homemade pasta noodles. But they just hit different than store bought noodles in Lasagna.
The Beef: Some People Mix Italian Sausage and Ground Beef. I don't. I really love that beef flavour in Lasagna. We have Grass and Oat finished Alberta Beef in our freezer, from our farm. It is so delicious, I am not about to mess with that by mixing in some pork. But if you love pork or need to mask the flavour of some weird ground beef you got on clearance then do a 50/50 blend of pork and beef. 😀
If you're in the mood for another casserole, try Cottage Pie (Shepherd's Pie) next!
Homemade Lasagna
Ingredients
Meat Sauce
- 2 pounds Lean Ground Beef Alberta
- 1 Large Onion Yellow, White or Red. Finely Diced
- 4 Cloves Garlic Minced or Finely Diced
- 2 Cups Mushrooms Sliced
- 4 Cups Pasta Sauce Such as Prego Original
- 1 tablespoon Dried Basil
- 1 tablespoon Dried Oregano
- 1 tablespoon Dried Parsley
Cheese Mix
- 1 750ml container of Cottage Cheese or Ricotta
- 150 grams Frozen Spinach Thawed and Drained
- 1 Egg
- ½ Cup Parmesan Cheese Kraft
- 1 teaspoon Black Pepper
Topping
- 2 Cups Mozzarella Cheese Shredded
Pasta
- 1 package Lasagna Noodles Cooked just under el dente
Instructions
Meat Sauce
- Brown the ground beef. If you are using regular fat content ground beef please drain off the fat after browning the meat.
- Wash and Slice the mushrooms, dice the garlic and onion. Add all of this to the browned beef. Let it saute for about 5 minutes.
- Add pasta sauce along with the seasonings.
- Simmer on Low for 10 minutes
Pasta
- Prepare past to package instructions while making meat sauce
Cheese Layer
- Mix the Cottage Cheese, Spinach, Parmesan and Egg and seasonings together in a bowl, set aside.
Assemble
- prepare a deep 9"x13" casserole dish by lightly brushing it with canola oil or spraying it with cooking spray.
- layer the dish in this order. Noodles sauce cheese Repeat until you are out of ingredients with your top layer being noodles and then spread all of your mozzarella on top of the noodles.
Cook
- Bake in a preheated 350°F Oven for 1 hour. I like to tent the lasagna with tin foil for the first 40 mins and then remove at the end so that the cheese doesn't burn.Tenting just means folding the tinfoil down the center and setting it on top of the lasagna. Tenting it prevents the cheese from sticking to the foil.
