Lasagna

Posted on September 3, 2013

What:

Lasagna

Recipe by: Kim and Chad E.

 

Why:

This is a very easy, relatively quick, delicious lasagna recipe. When my wife and I have a hankering for some lasagna, we make this one! Ditch the frozen, chemical filled lasagna and make a delicious, homemade one instead!

 

The Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 package of no boil lasagna noodles

1/2 – 1 pound ground beef (we don’t like a lot of meat in the recipe so we use a half pound, but if you like beef, add more!)

1 small onion, chopped

1 garlic clove (I almost exclusively use minced garlic you can buy in a jar. If you use that, put about 1 to 2 teaspoons in)

Salt and Pepper

1 egg

2 cups cottage cheese

2 cups mozzarella cheese

1 23.5 ounce jar of spaghetti sauce (I use Prego Traditional style sauce)

Parmesan cheese (optional)

9″ X 9″ baking pan

 

Directions:

Set oven to 425 degrees

In a medium skillet, add onion, beef, salt and pepper to taste, and garlic

Cook and chop beef until beef is desired size and cooked through

While the beef is cooking take out two medium bowls

In one bowl, mix together the cottage cheese, 1 1/2 cups of mozzarella cheese, the egg, and parmesan cheese (if desired)

In the other bowl, add pasta sauce and cooked beef mix

Put a couple spoonfuls of sauce on the bottom of the baking pan, this will keep the noodles from sticking to the bottom of the pan

Place the first layer of noodles down

Place a few spoonfuls of sauce on the first layer, spread it around as evenly as possible, fully covering the noodles

Place a few spoonfuls of the cheese over the sauce, mix it around so the cheese and sauce are blended and covering the noodles

Place the second layer of noodles so that they are perpendicular to the first layer

Add the cheese and sauce like the previous direction

Repeat until you are out of noodles (I was able to get four layers, if you don’t like is at noodly, add more sauce and less layers of noodles)

Spread any remaining sauce and cheese you may have on the top layer

Take the remaining mozzarella cheese and sprinkle it over the sauce

The final product before baking should look something like this

Place lasagna in oven for 35 – 40 minutes (Ovens vary, so it may take longer for some)

Bake until top layer of cheese is golden brown and sauce is bubbling

Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes (This lets everything settle and it makes it easier to cut)

Enjoy!

 

 

Cost:

This recipe is fairly inexpensive, especially since it makes enough for a couple meals. I purchased all the ingredients and the total was around $10.

 

Variations:

If you don’t like a lot of noodles, follow the directions as shown, and just add more sauce to each layer and use the desired layers of noodles, but still cook it the same way.

 

Review:

My wife and I love this recipe. It’s very simple and doesn’t take too long to make, in total maybe an hour, and more than half of that is the lasagna cooking in the oven. This recipe also doesn’t need any fancy equipment, just a skillet, a square pan, a spoon, and an oven. It has a great flavor and it is very filling too! Try this one out for a great, homemade Italian dinner.