my parents were in town a couple of weekends ago for my mom's birthday celebration, and i cooked dinner at our house on friday night for all of us. i was trying to think of something different than i don't cook all the time, something that i knew she would like, and something big enough to feed 6 people (including 2 garbage disposals aka my husband and brother). lasagna seemed like a good fit, so i set out to find a recipe. i didn't even have a lasagna recipe in my cookbooks! the horror.
like it always does, southern living came through for me in a big way (link to the original recipe here).
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| stolen from southernliving.com |
the sauce is homemade, so it is a little time-consuming, as opposed to buying a storebought sauce. it was so worth it though! you could make the sauce in bulk and freeze it for future use too.
here's what you need:
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 2 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 pound ground beef
- 14.5-oz can italian seasoned diced tomatoes
- 2 6-oz cans tomato paste
- 8-oz can italian seasoned tomato sauce
- 1 tsp italian seasoning
- 1 1/4 tsp salt, divided (honestly. who measures out salt in a recipe like this?? i didn't.)
- 3/4 tsp pepper, divided (same same. no measuring here)
- 12 lasagna noodles, uncooked
- 8 cups boiling water for pasta
- 16-oz container ricotta cheese
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/4 c grated parmesan
- 2 6-oz packages mozzarella cheese slices
1. saute onion in 1 tbsp. hot oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until tender (roughly 5 minutes). add garlic, and saute 1 minute. add beef and cook, stirring occasionally, until beef is fully cooked through. drain, then return mixture to skillet.
2. stir in diced tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, italian seasoning, salt and pepper. bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.
3. set meat sauce aside.
4. place lasagna noodles in a 13x9" pan. carefully pour the 8 cups of boiling water and 1 tbsp olive oil over the noodles. let stand 15 minutes. (you might want to check these every 5 minutes or so to make sure they're not sticking together).
5. stir together ricotta cheese, eggs, parmesan, salt and pepper until blended in a small bowl.
6. spoon half of the meat sauce mixture into a lightly greased 13x9" dish. shake excess water from noodles, and arrange 6 noodles over the meat sauce. top with half of the ricotta mixture and one package of mozzarella slices.
7. repeat layers once.
8. bake, covered with foil, at 350 for 55 minutes. uncover and bake for 10-15 more minutes or until bubbly. let sit for 10 minutes before serving.
3 reasons i love this lasagna:
-using the mozzarella cheese slices layered over each other instead of shredded mozzarella makes such a huge difference! the top of this lasagna was perfectly cheesy.
-it's easy to cut! i don't know why, but even piping hot right out of the oven, it was so easy to cut and serve.
-it's so delicious.
-it's so delicious.
enjoy!
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