The Ultimate Simple Lasagna Recipe
This amazing simple lasagna recipe has it all: creamy ricotta, melty mozzarella, savory ground beef, tender lasagna noodles, all encompassed in a yummy tomato sauce! Yum!
Servings 6
Ingredients
- 1 box lasagna noodles will use half of the box or 9 noodles exactly
- 1 ½ pounds ground beef
- 2 teaspoons oregano for ground beef
- ½ teaspoon salt for ground beef
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper for ground beef
- Ricotta cheese 15 ounce container
- 2 ½ cups Mozzarella cheese shredded
- 6-8 cups pasta sauce homemade or jarred
- oregano
- garlic salt
- ¼ cup flat-leaf parsley chopped
Instructions
- First, bring a large pot of water to a boil. As you wait for that to boil, start the next steps.
- Set a large saucepan on high heat and saute the ground beef with the oregano, salt and pepper. Stir to ensure all of the ground beef gets browned. Set it aside.
- Next, lay out all of your ingredients so they are ready to layer. This includes the ground beef, ricotta cheese, mozzarella, pasta sauce, oregano and garlic salt. *Tip: You can use a spoon to spread the ricotta or plop the ricotta into a reusable silicone piping bag or ziplock baggie with the corner cut, and pipe it out in rows (refer to the pics above).
- Once the water boils, boil 9 pieces of lasagna noodles only halfway through!You want to boil the lasagna noodles for about half of the time it says on the box because we do not want to fully cook the noodles. We just want them pliable but uncooked in the center because they will do the rest of their cooking in the oven.
- Get a 9x13 inch oven-safe casserole dish and let's begin layering!There are three layers to this recipe.Before we start layering, spread about 1-2 cups of sauce to cover the bottom of the casserole dish.
- LAYER 1:Layer three lasagna noodles on top of the sauce. This begins the first layer. Spread half of the ricotta cheese onto the three lasagna noodles (using the spoon or piping method).Then sprinkle a ½ cup of mozzarella cheese on the ricotta.Then sprinkle some ground beef on top of the cheese.Lightly sprinkle garlic salt and oregano onto each row.Add another 1-2 cups of sauce on top. The next layer of lasagna noodles will rest atop this sauce.
- LAYER 2:Place three noodles atop the sauce and gently press down. Now, repeat the exact layering process from the previous step: Spread the remaining half of ricotta onto the noodles, sprinkle a ½ cup of mozzarella cheese and some ground beef. Sprinkle the oregano and garlic salt. Then, top off with another 1-2 cups of tomato sauce.
- LAYER 3/Top and Final Layer:In this layer, you will place the final three noodles atop the sauce and press gently. Pour the remaining sauce on top of the noodles. Then, add the rest of the ground beef and season lightly with the oregano and garlic salt.Finally, sprinkle the remaining 1 ½ cups of mozzarella cheese atop the ground beef.
- Cover the lasagna with aluminum foil and cook it at 350°F for 30 minutes. Then, take the cover off and cook for an additional 30 minutes.
- Add chopped parsley for garnish.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- The first step I do is boil the water. This way, I can prep all the ingredients so I’m not wasting any time waiting for water to boil.
- Use a 9x13 inch baking pan or casserole dish as it fits the lasagna noodles perfectly.
- You can use homemade pasta sauce for this or jarred pasta sauce. I have a very easy homemade pasta sauce recipe that I use for this lasagna. I also use jarred pasta sauce when I’m in a pinch, and both taste great in this lasagna recipe. There is definitely a minium to how much sauce you need to use, but you can always add more sauce to suit your preference. I personally like my lasagna somewhat saucy so I will usually add an extra cup or two of pasta sauce.
- I sprinkle some of the ground beef in the first two layers but I usually save a majority of it for the top layer.
- One box of lasagna usually has 18 pasta noodles. This recipe uses half. Usually, when I make lasagna, I will double up the ingredients (except for the lasagna noodles), and make 2 batches of lasagna. One for dinner that night, and one in a freezer-safe dish that I can freeze for another night.
- I just layer it but I don’t bake it. That way, I have a batch of lasagna that is ready to cook whenever we’re craving lasagna (while saving me the prep work).
- I freeze it unbaked, then just pull it out of the freezer and cook it in the oven with an aluminum foil cover at 350 for about an hour before removing the foil to check if the center is unfrozen. If it is unfrozen, remove the cover and bake for an additional 30 minutes.