Homemade Lasagna

This recipe for homemade lasagna is a long time coming. I’m a pretty instinctual chef. I don’t often follow a recipe. I just throw it together until it’s what I want and it tastes good. Baking is another story, baking is much more technical and I do follow recipes when baking. 

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Lasagna is one of those things I’ve made on instinct alone for years and years. I finally decided to pay attention to what I do and create a recipe. The demand for a recipe has been too great based on my history of ooey, gooey, saucey lasagna pictures.

This is another meal I make courtesy of my husband. We hosted our first Thanksgiving in North Carolina in my apartment in 2015. It was hard for me to travel for such a short holiday on a teacher schedule so Dave and my family made the trek down from New York.

Dave loves the holidays. Dave loves food. Dave loves to go all out for the holidays with food. This particular year Dave wanted us to have lasagna on Thanksgiving. He wanted lasagna in addition to everything else we usually have. Lasagna and turkey? And stuffing? And potatoes? And pies? 

I was stressed. My dishwasher was stressed. Plus I had never even made homemade lasagna. But so as not to disappoint, I compromised and agreed to make lasagna for the day before Thanksgiving and thus, a tradition was born.

Every year since 2015 we have had a huge tray of lasagna, fresh Italian bread from the bakery, red wine, and of course, cannolis. I think if Dave had it his way he’d still try to have it all in one day but I think we would all die from overeating.

My homemade lasagna combines a homemade meat sauce, creamy ricotta cheese with spinach, mozzarella and romano cheeses, and of course perfectly al dente lasagna noodles. It’s not for the faint of heart. It’s a labor of love, and because of that we only usually have it once a year. 

Ingredients

For the Sauce

• 1 large onion (diced)
• 5 garlic cloves (minced)
• 2lb ground beef
• 1lb mild Italian sausage 
• 1 tbsp Italian seasoning 
• 3 cans crushed tomatoes
• ½ tsp pepper
• 1 tsp salt

For the Cheeses

• 32oz ricotta cheese (whole or skim is your preference)
• 1 block of frozen spinach (thawed & drained)
• 1 egg
• 16oz shredded mozzarella
• ½ cup grated pecorino romano (Parmesan is fine too)

Preparation

• 1lb box of lasagna noodles (Barilla is my favorite brand for all things pasta)
• Olive Oil
• 9×13 Baking Tray

Instructions

1. For the Sauce: Add 3 cans of crushed tomatoes to a crock pot or a large pot to simmer. Add Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Saute onion in 1 tbsp olive oil until translucent and fragrant. I like my onions a little brown and caramelized so saute according to your preference. Add garlic to onions and saute a few minutes until fragrant. Garlic browns fast so turn down the heat and saute only a few minutes. Add to the pot of tomatoes.
2. In the same pan you used for the onions and garlic, brown and drain ground beef and add to tomatoes. Brown and drain Italian sausage (if necessary to drain), and add to tomatoes. Allow sauce to simmer on low for a few hours, the longer the more flavorful your sauce will become.
3. For the cheese filling: In a medium bowl, thaw your spinach and drain thoroughly. I microwave my spinach for 5 minutes and drain using a mesh strainer. Drain well so your cheese mixture does not get too watery. In the same bowl, add the ricotta cheese and egg. Mix until combined. Refrigerate while finalizing your prep.
4. Grate mozzarella cheese into a separate bowl. I wrap my grater around a ziploc bag so I can easily store extra cheese. I also grate my own mozzarella but you can easily buy a bag of pre-shredded to save some time. Galbani whole milk mozzarella is the best pizza/melting cheese and makes any recipe extra special.
5. Boil your lasagna noodles. Set the timer one minute less than the minimum recommended time for al dente. Barilla suggests 8 minutes so I set my timer for 7 minutes. This gives me wiggle room to get it in the strainer. This also allows your noodles a chance to cook when baked and not turn to mush.
6. Remove your cheese mixture from the fridge. Ricotta cheese has a tendency to be very wet so I typically will pour out or strain excess liquid (using the same mesh strainer from the spinach). Too much moisture in the lasagna makes it soupy.
7. Preheat the oven to 350
8. Begin layering your lasagna by lightly coating the bottom of your pan with sauce. Place your first layer of noodles in the pan. Use a slotted spoon to cover the noodles with your meat sauce. This prevents any excess liquid from drowning your lasagna.
9. Layer your next set of noodles. Spread ricotta cheese mixture generously over each noodle. Sprinkle ¼ cup of your pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese on top. Sprinkle ¼ cup of shredded mozzarella on top as well.
10. Repeat the meat layer.
11. Repeat the cheese layer.
12. Once you have your final noodles set, layer with cheese mixture and meat sauce on top. Cover with the remaining shredded mozzarella cheese. (You will have extra cheese mixture and plenty of sauce. I recommend saving some of each and tossing with ziti to make a baked ziti for the freezer or a meal later in the week!)
13. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 until bubbly. Turn on broiler to crisp/bubble the cheese until desired browning is achieved. 
14. Allow lasagna to rest for 20 minutes before slicing.
15. Serve with Italian bread, meatballs, salad, extra cheese, red wine, or simply enjoy the meaty, cheesy goodness on its own!