by Holly
Homemade Lasagna is a classic that every cook should have in their rotation. Tender sheets of pasta, a cheese filling, and a rich meaty tomato sauce make the perfect dish!
While there are a few steps to this recipe, it’s easy to make and has huge flavor. This dish can be made ahead of time and freezes well either before or after baking!
How to Make Lasagna
Homemade lasagna may have a few steps, but each step is easy – and I assure you it’s worth the time; the perfect Italian meal!
The ingredients in this recipe are all things you know and it’s not difficult at all! All you’ll need for this easy lasagna recipe is one pan, one bowl, and a 9×13 baking dish!
A quick overview of the layers:
- Cheese Filling Mix the ricotta and cheeses (per recipe below) with an egg in a bowl, and set aside. No ricotta? No problem, cottage cheese works just fine in this recipe!
- Meat Sauce Brown the onion, garlic, and meat in a pot on the stovetop. Add the pasta sauce and tomato paste & simmer a few minutes.
- Layer Together Layer the meat sauce and cheese mixture with noodles and bake until bubbling
SPINACH LASAGNA To make a spinach lasagna, squeeze out most of the moisture of defrosted frozen spinach and add it along with the cheese layer. Lasagna ingredients don’t have to be limited to the ones you see here.
Substitute meats or different cheeses, or try different meat sauce variations.
How to Layer Lasagna
Once you have prepared the meat sauce and cheeses, you’re ready to layer. This is the order of layers:
- sauce – noodles – cheese
- sauce – noodles – cheese
- sauce – noodles – cheese
- noodles – sauce (bake) – cheese
- Spread about a cup of meat sauce into a 9×13 pan. Add a layer of noodles.
- Top the noodles with some of the cheese mixture.
- Repeat the layers, ending with a layer of noodles and sauce
- Cover with foil and bake.
- Remove foil, top with mozzarella and parmesan and bake another 15 minutes.
How Long to Bake
Baking time lasagna for this recipe is about one hour total. To get that perfect browned cheese topping, you’ll need to bake it in two stages.
- Layer, cover it tightly in foil to retain the moisture.
- Once cooked, remove the foil, top with cheese, and return to the oven for another 15 minutes, or until the top is browned and your easy lasagna is bubbling.
Important Tip: Let the lasagna sit/rest for at least 15 minutes once removed from the oven (even 30-45 minutes is fine). This will keep it from becoming runny and help it to keep its shape when cut.
Resting is not required when reheating.
Serve this easy lasagna with a chunk of Homemade Garlic Bread.
We love serving a classic lasagna dinner, complete with a caesar salad or Italian salad and dinner rolls slathered in Homemade Garlic Butter. It’s the world’s best meal!
Make Ahead
Lasagna can be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated up to 2 days before baking. It can also be frozen before or after baking.
To Freeze
Lasagna is one of the best meals to make ahead and freeze. Double or triple the recipe and freeze some for another day. Defrost in the refrigerator overnight and bake as directed.
To Reheat Lasagna
If you’ve frozen leftovers, pop them in the oven at 350°F covered, until reheated. This should take about 30 minutes! Of course, leftovers are perfectly heated in the microwave too!
More Italian Favorites
- Spaghetti Carbonara – quick
- Chicken Lasagna – 5 star recipe
- Baked Rigatoni Pasta
- Baked Ziti
- Easy Chicken Parmesan – personal favorite
- Spaghetti and Meatballs
Did you enjoy this Homemade Lasagna? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Easy Homemade Lasagna
Prep Time 30 minutes
Servings 12 servings
Ingredients
- 12 lasagna noodles uncooked
- 4 cups mozzarella cheese shredded and divided
- ½ cup parmesan cheese shredded and divided
Tomato Sauce
- ½ pound lean ground beef
- ½ pound Italian sausage
- 1 onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 36 ounces pasta sauce *see note
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Cheese Mixture
- 2 cups ricotta cheese
- ¼ cup fresh parsley chopped
- 1 egg beaten
Follow Spend with Pennies on Pinterest
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350°F. Cook pasta al dente according to package directions. Rinse under cold water and set aside.
- Brown beef, sausage, onion and garlic over medium high heat until no pink remains. Drain any fat.
- Stir in pasta sauce, tomato paste, Italian seasoning. Simmer 5 minutes.
- Make Cheese Mixture by combining 1 ½ cups mozzarella, ¼ cup parmesan cheese, ricotta, parsley, and egg.
- Add 1 cup meat sauce to a 9x13 pan. Top with 3 lasagna noodles. Layer with ⅓ of the Cheese Mixture and 1 cup of meat sauce. Repeat twice more.Finish with 3 noodles topped with remaining sauce.
- Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes.
- Uncover, sprinkle with remaining cheese (2 ½ cups mozzarella cheese and ¼ cup parmesan), and bake an additional 15 minutes or until browned and bubbly. Broil 2-3 minutes if desired.
- Rest 10-15 minutes before cutting.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Information
(Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.)
I absolutely LOVE this recipe, as does my family! Because my husband is lactose intolerant, I use Lactose Free Cottage cheese and mozzarella cheese.
Last time, I doubled the recipe and froze one. Is it possible to bake it from frozen or should I definitely thaw in the refrigerator?
Thank you. I never leave reviews but this is fantastic!
Thank you so much for leaving a review Caroline, I’m glad you loved the recipe! Lasagna can be baked from frozen and should be baked covered about 90 minutes at 375°F. Remove the foil and place a butter knife in the center to ensure it is heated throughout (depending on the shape/size of the pan you might need a few minutes more). You can broil a couple of minutes to brown the cheese if needed. You will still need to let the lasagna rest before serving. Let us know how it goes!
I never do reviews, however, EVERYONE loved it. So give it a try.
Thank you so much for coming back and leaving a review Elle. so glad everyone loved it!
Hey there, we just premade this lasagna to stick in the oven later for dinner (around 3 hrs from now) and realized we forgot to precook the noodles… oops. Are we totally screwed?
If you leave the pasta overnight I know they can be uncooked but I haven’t tried it after just a few hours (while it will be firm, I do think it will work ok). If your sauce was really thick, you might like to add a little bit of water (maybe 1/4 cup) on top and cover tightly it as it cooks which will help steam the pasta. Uncover and poke the lasagna with a butter knife to see if the past has softened. I haven’t actually tried but keeping my fingers crossed, I think you’ll be ok!! Let us know how it goes!
Great recipe! My family loved it.
This is the third time I make this and it is so good !
This was a super easy recipe and delicious! I did add a few extra spices to it but overall stuck to the recipe. Family loved it
What temp do I cook this at
This cooked at 350°F.
This is a pretty generic recipe. Not a huge fan.
Frustrated..in a hurry to make to take. Don’t understand the two separate cheese mixture. You only mention 1 to layer. I will just wing it.
Some of the cheese is added to the ricotta in step 4 (there will be some left over to sprinkle on top in step 7).
The cheese mixture with ricotta is divided and added to the layers directly on top of the noodles in step 5.
The leftover cheese that wasn’t added to the ricotta is sprinkled on top in step 7.
Super easy recipe!! Tweaked it a little with some different seasonings but still on point
If you mess this recipe up, you weren’t meant to cook
So glad you enjoyed it Maddie!
This was only my husband and I’s first time having/making homemade lasagna… but i can’t imagine it gets better than this! Absolutely Delicious! We added one more pound of Italian sausage to make it extra meaty and a little more sauce to make up for it and it was perfect!!
I made an altered version using crumbled tofu , sauteed eggplant,zucchini added in with Hamburg, onion and garlic . Quick and easy to follow definetly glad I read a recipe . Had no tin foil so improvised with a second pan for covering . The way she showed you how to create layers was really easy to read real quick then go get down to cooking very clever idea !
I tried this recipe today and was quite skeptical because of some comments, and also because for me this was a new way of making lasagne (no white sauce, adding riccota etc)
However, I have got to say I love how its turned out!
I followed the recipe as it is except for the following switch ups:
Increase meat amount to 1.5 kilos
Increased pasta sauce to 40 oz
Included a sprinkling of mushrooms sauteed with onions and garlic
The taste is so fulfilling, thanks for sharing a simple enough and tasty recipe!
I look fwd to making it the next time exactly as the recipe has listed.
I gave it 4 ☆ just b/c of my own personal tastes. That said, this is one of the BEST BASE RECIPE out there. Both the method, and base ingredients are great. I was a suprised by the 4 layers over the often listed 3 layers in other recipes. But it works out perfectly. I bake as directed up to the very last step where you add the top layer of mozzrrella & parmesan. For that part, I turn the oven up to 375, when I remove the foil and add on the last layer of mozzarella and parmesan
Like other reviewers, I like the meat sauce increased to almost double, using: 2 lb beef ( or beef/Italian sausage mix) keep the 1 medium onion diced. Use 3 to 4 fat cloves . UP the marinara to the 48 oz option Maybe a little more if needed. ( I serve more marinara on the side as well.
I too, double the cheese mixture. But that is just my personal taste If you do not increase the amt (s) in the meat & cheese layer be very careful about how much you use on each layer …you may run out if being generous on 1st 2 layers
I also like a few( 3 to 4ish, depending on size) torn leaves of fresh basil added into the cheese mixture. But I grow basil, so I may be biased
One tip: If using no boil noodles you may need 1/4 to 1/2 C water or more marinara.. to prevent the dryness that some who used no boil noodles had.
You can tweak the recipe to your own liking. HOWEVER when you share ” your” tweaked version It would be only fair to give this source OR AT LEAST say ” Inspired by “spendwithpennies.com. or # this site.
Your additions sound delicious. Thank you for sharing your tips with us!
Loved the recipe was a huge hit with my family. I did cook the noodles separately though and then layer the cooked noodles. It brought the cooking time down to only 30 to 35 min. Followed everything else.
I just made this and doubled the batch to freeze one. I used no boil noodles. I would suggest doubling the cheese mixture, in my case, quadrupling for two pans. I used the large aluminum pans. I would probably add more sauce as well. Its on the oven and cant wait for it to be done!
I am making 2 right now, how long will bake time be for a pre-made, frozen one?
As noted in the post Jann, defrost in the refrigerator overnight and bake as directed. Enjoy the lasagna!
I think there’s confusion about the term “pre-made.” Where the recipe says “bake as directed,” it sounds like she is referring to a lasagna that’s been pre-assembled and frozen before baking, as opposed to one that’s been completely pre-made through the baking step and then frozen – is that correct?
Hi Susan, hope this helps clarify. For a lasagna that has been assembled but not baked – you will want to let defrost in the fridge overnight and then bake as directed in the recipe. If the lasagna is premade and prebaked you will still want to let it thaw in the fridge and bake as directed or until heated through.
The recipe was very good thank you! I did exact but did add in some salt and pepper to the ricotta, egg, parsley mixture. ☺Will definitely make again!!
I’ve made these three times in less than a month. They are so easy and so delicious. Thanks for the great recipe!