Homemade Lasagna is a family favorite and a great way to feed a crowd.
In this classic lasagna recipe, sheets of pasta are layered with a cheesy filling, a rich meaty tomato sauce, and more cheese and then baked until bubbly and browned.
While there are a few steps, this lasagna recipe is relatively easy to make and has so much flavor.
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This Is Our Go-To Lasagna Recipe Because…
- This recipe has been called the best by many and has thousands of 5-star reviews!
- It uses simple ingredients that you likely have on hand, and it packs big flavor!
- This is an easy lasagna recipe. It requires just one pan, one bowl, and a 9×13 baking dish.
- It reheats well and can be made ahead of time. You can freeze lasagna either before or after baking.
Lasagna Ingredients
- Cheese Filling: For this classic lasagna recipe, the cheese filling has ricotta and parmesan with seasonings. You can make homemade ricotta cheese or replace it with cottage cheese.
- Meat: I use both Italian sausage and ground beef for great flavor. If using all beef, add ¼ teaspoon of fennel seeds and some Italian seasoning to the meat mixture for flavor, or make my homemade Italian sausage.
- 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). If using store-bought sauce, I love Rao’s for flavor.
Spinach (variation): Spinach is optional but delicious in lasagna. For spinach lasagna, thaw 10oz of frozen spinach, squeeze out the moisture, and add it along with the cheese layer.
How to Make Lasagna
While homemade lasagna may have a few steps, each step is easy – and I assure you it’s worth the time; the perfect Italian meal!
- Boil pasta: In a large pot of salted water boil lasagna noodles per the recipe below.
- Prepare meat sauce: Cook sausage and beef with onion and garlic. Drain well, add the pasta sauce (I love this brand) & 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 the top of the lasagna is golden brown.
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
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.
Holly’s Tips for the Best Lasagna
Here are my tips to ensure this is the best lasagna recipe you’ve ever had!
- Choose a quality pasta sauce.
- Bake this lasagna recipe for one hour.
- Cover it with aluminum foil for most of the cooking time so it doesn’t dry out.
- Add the cheese during the last 15 minutes of cooking so it becomes browned and bubbly.
- Let it rest at least 15 minutes before cutting.
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!
Ingredients
- 12 lasagna noodles uncooked
- 2 ½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- ¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Tomato Sauce
- ½ pound lean ground beef
- ½ pound Italian sausage
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 36 ounces pasta sauce *see note
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon salt more to taste
Cheese Mixture
- 2 cups ricotta cheese or cottage cheese
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1 large egg beaten
- 1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- ¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the lasagna noodles and cook until al dente (firm) according to package directions. Drain, rinse under cold water, and set aside.
- Meanwhile, in a large skillet or Dutch oven, brown the 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 slightly thickened. Taste and season with additional salt if desired.
- In a separate medium bowl, combine 1 ½ cups mozzarella cheese, 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 1 cup 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 the top of the lasagna with 2 ½ cups mozzarella cheese and ¼ cup Parmesan cheese. Bake uncovered 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.
Super yummy! Made with the marinara sauce recipe. Seasoned each layer with garlic salt and pepper to taste as well
This stuff rocks! Made it yesterday. For my Mom and myself. Very tasty.I’m going to freeze the rest for later.will be making more in the future. Good job Holly!
Thanks, Robert! So glad you enjoyed it.
Ingredient amounts are incredibly suspect. I actually took out a measuring tape to measure my pan to make sure it was actually 9″ x 13″. It was. 1 cup of meat sauce did not come close to covering the bottom of the pan, as thin as I could make it, still left it rather barren. Since when does just 3 lasagna noodles cover the entire surface? I needed 3 lengthwise and a 4th sideways. The same with the cheese mixture. The 3 layers of that were very sparse. The recipe is otherwise okay but figure about 25% to 33% more for your meat sauce and cheese mix.
You can watch the video to see how we put the layers together. As mentioned in the notes, if you prefer more sauce in your lasagna, increase the pasta sauce to 48 oz which will allow for a thicker layer.
The recipe calls for eggs but unfortunately my daughter is severely allergic. Can I opt out of adding egg?
Hi Hope, it should be okay to leave the egg out of the cheese mixture. We would love to hear how it turns out!
Love this recipe! I didn’t change a thing. It’s easy and delicious. And it’s a perfect week night meal.
By the way, an ad messes up your easy homemade lasagna video; it goes straight to a 2nd ad after it shows you sprinkling the Italian seasoning. Then it moves on to a new video recipe (shrimp fettuccini). It’s frustrating because I love your videos. I’m a visual learner!
Hi Penny, thanks for letting us know. On the lower right-hand side (over the video) there should be the option to stay or next. If you click stay it should stop it from going to the next video.
This recipe was super simple to follow. My family loved it and I loved that it was easy to put on the table. Thank you for a new family favorite Holly!
I have never made lasagna in my life and this recipe is sooooooo good!!! I’m not much of a cook but I try. I didn’t have any Italian seasoning so I used about 2 teaspoons of the Olive Garden Italian dressing and wow!!!!! The flavors popped and my family freaked out! I saved this recipe!!!! ♥️
Sounds perfect Nancy!
Love this recipe…easy, steps laid out using ingredients that are commonly found in the kitchen household…and doesn’t take all day to make.
The only place I differed is that I make my own tomato sauce using a tomato called “Italian Stallion”(funny name) but it is a great tasting tomato that has a lot of depth….thanx for the recipe.
Made this tonight and it was a hit. The only modification I made was spice wise…I didn’t have italian sausage, but I had fennel and sage…so I threw a bit of that in along with oregano, garlic and onion powder…in addition to the fresh and it was so yummy!!! I truly appreciate the step by step on the layering process. I don’t make lasagna often…but this recipe made it so easy. Thank you…I will adopt this to low carb next time. Thanks again! Always enjoy your recipes.
Oh and added crushed tomatoes instead of paste…again…it was what I had on hand. :-)
You’re welcome Yolanda! So happy that the steps and tips are helpful! Thank you for sharing your substitutions!
Super easy!! I have to make a half and half- ricotta on one side and cottage cheese on the other. I also add mushrooms to the ricotta side. I just split the cheese recipe in half. Turns out really good!!
This recipe is easy and tastes like you spent all day making it.
Wonderful, tasty and easy. Made a double batch for my family. Now I’m the official lasagna maker.
Even my hubby loved it. Great to share with others.
This was so easy and so good!! My new favorite. But how long will it keep frozen baked and unbaked? Definitely want to freeze the left overs!!
Hi Tara, this recipe is great frozen baked or unbaked and should last about 2-3 months in the freezer.
Great recipe and great directions. Made exactly as written, except used ground beef instead of sausage (made for someone who doesn’t eat pork.) Delicious!
I’m polish but today is my husband’s birthday and he loves lasagne, So I wanted to give him homemade last year I ordered some.The kitchen is a mess but it tastes amazing and I followed the recipe to a tee Super easy. Now to clean the kitchen. Lol
So happy this recipe worked out so well for you, Dawn! Hope he enjoyed his birthday dinner.
Your recipes are always the BEST!
I made this today. First time making lasagna. It was sooo good. I added a little more seasoning to the meats, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. I didn’t use the entire cheese mix. I was delicious!
Hello,
Wanted to ask if it’s 1/3 of the cheese mixture on each noodle layer or 1/3 on the entire layer. Doesn’t seem like it’ll be enough. Instructions aren’t very clear .
Hi Kandace, we layer this recipe as follows: three lasagna noodles, ⅓ of the entire cheese mixture, 1 cup of tomato sauce, and repeat until all ingredients are used. Hope that helps!
Hi!! I’m making this tomorrow and was wondering with the sausage, do you slice it or take it out of the casing and crumble it? Thank you!
We usually buy ground Italian sausage for this recipe. So if using Italian sausages I would remove the casing and crumble it. Hope that helps!
This lasagna is super easy to make and delicious! Crowd pleaser for sure!