Homemade Lasagna is a classic recipe that every cook should have in their rotation.
Tender sheets of pasta, a creamy ricotta cheese filling, and a rich meaty tomato sauce are all topped with more cheese and baked until browned and bubbly.
While there are a few steps to this lasagna recipe, it’s easy to make and has so much flavor. This dish can be made ahead of time and freezes well either before or after baking!
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 best lasagna recipe is made with ingredients that 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!
Lasagna Ingredients
- Cheese Filling: For this classic lasagna recipe, the filling contains ricotta and parmesan with seasonings and a couple of tablespoons of parsley. No ricotta? No problem, cottage cheese works just fine in this recipe!
- Meat: I use both Italian sausage and ground beef for great flavor. If using all beef, add a ¼ teaspoon of fennel seeds and some Italian seasoning to the meat mixture for flavor.
- Sauce: To keep this sauce quick, I use pasta sauce or marinara sauce (it’s easy to make from scratch with crushed tomatoes and canned tomatoes if you’d prefer).
Spinach (variation): 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 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! This is a really easy lasagna recipe.
- Boil pasta: Cook in a large pot of salted water per the recipe below.
- Prepare meat sauce: Cook sausage and beef with onion and garlic. Drain well, add the pasta sauce & simmer it for a few minutes to thicken.
- Combine cheese mixture: Stir the cheese mixture together in a bowl.
- Layer & bake: Layer the meat sauce and cheese mixture with lasagna noodles and bake until browned and bubbly.
How to Layer Lasagna
- Spread about a cup of meat sauce into a 9×13 pan. Add a layer of noodles.
- Top the noodles with some of the ricotta 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 for another 15 minutes.
Once you have prepared the meat sauce and the cheese mixture, you’re ready to layer. This is the order of layers:
- sauce – noodles – cheese
- sauce – noodles – cheese
- sauce – noodles – cheese
- noodles – sauce (bake) – cheese
How Long to Bake
Bake this lasagna recipe for a total of one hour. To get a perfect browned cheese topping, you’ll need to bake it in two stages.
- Layer and cover it tightly with aluminum foil to retain the moisture.
- Once cooked, and heated through, remove the foil, top with cheese, and return to the oven for an additional 15 minutes, or until the top is browned and the lasagna is bubbling.
Serve with a big slice of Homemade Garlic Bread and garnish with fresh basil or a couple of tablespoons of parsley.
Finish the meal with a Caesar salad or Italian salad.
Make Ahead
Lasagna can be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated for up to 2 days before baking. It can also be frozen before or after baking.
To Freeze Lasagna
Lasagna is one of the best meals to make ahead and freeze. Double or triple the recipe and store it tightly wrapped in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Thaw in the refrigerator overnight and bake as directed. If the lasagna is cold from the fridge, it may need an extra 20 minutes or so of cooking time.
How 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 Baked Pasta Recipes
Did you enjoy this Homemade Lasagna? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Easy Homemade Lasagna
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
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large pot of salted water, boil lasagna noodles until al dente according to package directions. Drain, rinse under cold water, and set aside.
- In a large skillet or dutch oven, brown beef, sausage, onion, and garlic over medium-high heat until no pink remains. Drain any fat.
- Stir in the pasta sauce, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, ½ teaspoon of salt, and ¼ teaspoon of black pepper. Simmer uncovered over medium heat for 5 minutes or until thickened.
- In a separate bowl, combine 1 ½ cups mozzarella, ¼ cup parmesan cheese, ricotta, parsley, egg, and ¼ teaspoon salt.
- Spread 1 cup of the meat sauce in a 9×13 pan or casserole dish. Top it with 3 lasagna noodles. Layer with ⅓ of the ricotta cheese mixture and 1 cup of meat sauce. Repeat twice more. Finish with 3 noodles topped with remaining sauce.
- Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.
- Remove the foil and sprinkle with the remaining 2 ½ cups mozzarella cheese and ¼ cup parmesan cheese. Bake for an additional 15 minutes or until browned and bubbly. Broil for 2-3 minutes if desired.
- Rest for at least 15 minutes before cutting.
Video
Notes
- Ricotta cheese can be replaced with cottage cheese.
- Use all beef (or even ground turkey) in place of sausage if needed. If using all beef, add ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning to the meat (and ¼ teaspoon fennel seeds if desired).
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Casserole, Main Course, Pasta
Cuisine Italian© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Like our recipes?
Follow us on Pinterest!
I made it. I found the cheese mixture skimpy, personal preference. It would help if all cheeses were listed in ingredients instead of in the recipe steps. Meat sauce amounts was perfect!
Thanks for the feedback Linda!
Made it but personal preference, needed more cheese mix. I had to skimp. The meat mix was perfect.
Will it taste ok if I make it the night before? Having company over and would love to just reheat it in the oven
Yes, it will taste the same if you reheat it the next day!
Hi Holly! I am a Latin and Latin Fusion food blogger. Super picky about recipes, as you can imagine. I cook a lot of Italian dishes for my family and always change the recipe up. I must to tell you that this is THE BEST LASAGNA I have ever had!!!! I don’t make any changes to the recipe because of how perfect it is. Thank you for this delicious culinary gift!
So happy to hear that you loved this recipe! ❤️
Easy and Delicious. Will be making again very soon. Merry Christmas.
My first time making lasagna and my family enjoyed it. I added mushrooms to the meat sauce and spinach to the cheese mixture.
Recipe was poorly written and this lasagna turned out terrible. Disappointed.
Which part did you find difficult Curt? Sorry to hear that you didn’t enjoy it. What was the issue with it? This lasagna is well loved by my family and readers too. It’s always turned out well for us, so perhaps I can offer some suggestions.
As half Italian and making everything from scratch I have to say this is pretty much how authentic Lasagna is made. I make my own sauce but use ground beef and Italian sausage for the meat sauce. Ricotta is a must with the egg and parmesan cheese, and mozzarella. Most people don’t realize you really need to put some sauce down first before starting the assembly. I do noodles, sauce, some parmesan, ricotta, mozzarella, Repeat. Great recipe for a quick and really good lasagna! You must be Italian! Thanks, DaveF
I do put the meat sauce first then start layering the rest. I use ricotta which is also a must. I melt the Mozzarella and Parmesan on top after I uncover it then bake a little longer.
The best lasagna ever! I added sausage out of the casing to the meat sauce
Can I use ground chicken instead of meat?
Hi Lynn, other readers have made this recipe with ground chicken and had great results. You will have to let us know what you think!
This looks super delicious and I’m tempted to put on the menu at our house. My only hold out is I can’t do ricotta cheese. I got sick off of it and haven’t been able to eat it since. Are there any alternatives for it? I had read maybe cottage cheese, but I can’t do that either.
Your recipes are fabulous and I thank you for sharing your gift with us!
Sorry to hear that, Elaine! Cottage cheese definitely would have been the closest substitute but you can use any soft cheese that you are able to eat. I haven’t tried using either of these but possibly cream cheese or goat cheese. You will have to let us know which one you use and how it turns out!
I have never made meat lasagne before only butternut squash lasagne. This was a wonderful recipe and very easy to follow. I probably used closer to 3/4 lb of both ground beef and Italian sausage because that’s how they were packaged, so, I added a little more tomato sauce. It was perfect. Thanks for so many great recipes.
Absolutely Awesome !!! I’m a 65 year old man who has never made Lasagna before and I gotta tell ya, it was fantastic (if I don’t say so myself) !! Everyone at the family dinner loved it !!! Thank you !!!
So happy to hear that, Craig! Glad to hear it was a hit!
Easy + wonderful + simple recipe! I had made about 30 meatballs intending to use them in lasagna. I just sliced them and put sauce over them in the sauce step. I used fresh mozzarella on top, after baking for 40 minutes… I served additional meatballs on the side with sauce and garlic bread. Thank you for a great recipe! :)
I have made this several times and everyone loves it. I only use ground beef or bison and Rao’s marinara sauce in mine. Delicious!!
I made this for my nan’s birthday dinner! I followed the exact recipe and it turned out amazing! everyone kept saying how great it was! Thank you for sharing this recipe :)
So happy this recipe was a hit for you, Cassidy! I hope Nan had a great birthday dinner :)
I found the recipe very easy to follow. And had just the right amount of cheese mixture and meat sauce. It was a big hit with my family! My son even had seconds! Will definitely be making it again!
GOOD
1 Star for directions. The first time I made it, I used 2 C ricotta cheese, parsley and one egg. Thinking “Boy! this cheese doesn’t spread at all well.”
The second time I made it: 2 C Ricotta, parsley, egg and 1 1/2 C mozzarella cheese- as found in the recipe.
The third time I made it I added more meat.
I used oven ready lasagna, so I added 1.5 C water per the box directions.
This is a hard recipe to follow for an easy dish! Be careful.
Oh no, sorry to hear that, LeiAloha. You will want to make the meat sauce and the cheese mixture then layer as follows: 1 cup meat sauce, 3 noodles, 1/3 cheese mixture, and repeat on that order until out of the cheese mixture. To finish off the lasagna, top with 3 noodles and the remaining sauce, then sprinkle with cheese. I hope that helps!
Easy and delicious recipe.