Ultimate Lasagna

Emma Schafler • March 14, 2023

Ultimate Lasagna

Lasagna is one of those comfort dishes that never gets old. The perfect make ahead meal that always seems to satisfy. This recipe is super simple, easy to put together and has minimal ingredients. Don't worry though, where it lacks in time and effort, it is loaded with flavour and all those cozy comforting feels.

There are three main components to this lasagna; pasta, a creamy spinach ricotta mixture and the meat sauce. These components get layered together with fresh mozzarella and baked until bubbly and golden brown...Yum! Let's see what goes into each part...

Spinach Ricotta mixture: This mixture is filled with creamy goodness from the ricotta, cottage cheese and eggs. The spinach and garlic add an amazing freshness. This is certainly one of my favourite parts of this lasagna


Meat Sauce: This is a super simplified meat sauce. In fact so simple, that it only contains three ingredients. Fresh basil, your favourite jarred marinara, and ground meat of your choice. You can use ground beef, veal or pork - all are wonderful! Simply brown the meat, add your sauce and basil and stir to combine. How easy is that?!


The final component is the lasagna sheets. I love the dried, oven ready lasagna sheets but feel free to use fresh pasta sheets as well. I never bother with pasta that needs to be pre boiled - who wants to take that added step!


This lasagna goes perfectly with a ceasar salad and garlic bread...and of course a glass of red wine never hurts! Enjoy!

Serves: 6 - 8 people

Total Time: 1.5 hours


INGREDIENTS:

For the cottage cheese mixture:

2 handfuls of spinach, roughly chopped

2 cloves of garlic

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup of ricotta

2 cups of cottage cheese

2 eggs

½ teaspoon of salt

¼ teaspoon cracked black pepper

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg


For the Meat Sauce:

450 g of ground beef, veal or pork

3 cups of jarred marinara

¼ cup of fresh basil, roughly chopped


For the Lasagna:

One box of dried lasagna sheets, oven ready (375 grams)

2 cups of mozzarella, shredded

1 cup of grated parmigiano reggiano


INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit

In a medium skillet, saute the spinach with olive and garlic until just wilted and the garlic is fragrant. A couple of minutes

Transfer the spinach mixture to a medium bowl and add the remaining ingredients.

Stir to combine and set aside

In a medium skillet (it can be the same one as the one used to saute the spinach - no need to clean it in between), cook the meat until browned.

Add the marinara and basil to the meat to create your meat sauce. 

Pour the sauce into a bowl and set aside.

In a greased 9 x 13 baking dish begin assembling the lasagna. Starting with a layer of the meat sauce on the bottom followed by a layer of lasagna noodles (four strips should fit across). The order will be meat sauce, cottage cheese mixture, Mozzarella and parmigiana and lasagna sheets. Repeat until you have used all the ingredients. The last layer should be the meat sauce with a sprinkling of mozzarella and parmigiana reggiano

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes covered with foil. After 30 minutes, remove the foil and bake for an additional 25 -35 minutes until the top is golden brown and bubbly. 

Rest for 15 minutes before serving and enjoy

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