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.
I found this recipe and made it last night. It was a huge hit with the family! Quick and easy to make. It’s now the family go-to recipe for lasagna .Loved it, thank you!
Easy to make. Tastes delicious.
This was my first lasagna ever and it was awesome! I will be making it again!
Where does the remaining 1/4 Parmesan go?
Sprinkle on the top for the last 15 minutes of baking.
Tasty recipe, terrible write-up.
The write up is confusing and I had to constantly look back and forth to find needed information.
Ok, some cheese gets divided – why not state the proportions right there? Same with baking temperature and baking time. The summary says cook time is 45 minutes, but if you read everything that’s only the first part – you have to then add the final cheese and bake for another 15 minutes. It’s also not clear if that last bit of cheese is supposed to have the mozzarella and parmesan mixed or not. Again, it turned out OK but I was winging it due to the poor instructions.
I added a clarification of the cheese based on feedback. Also, corrected the cook time (thanks for that!). The video above the recipe card may help with seeing the layers put together.
My goto lasagna recipe, I added a few more ingredients to the cheese mixture just to make it more cheesssyyyy! ;) Everyone loves it, including my neighbor! Said it was the best she’s ever had! Thanks for the recipe !
You’re very welcome Rachel! So happy to hear that!!
My family loved this recipe and if was easy to make!
This looks delicious and I plan on trying it this weekend. I was curious on what brand of pasta sauce you used for this recipe?
Thank you!
I usually just buy whatever sauce is on sale at the time Kim. Your favorite sauce will work.
This was my first time making lasagna and this was a huge hit! The lasagna came out amazing. My husband and I loved it. Thank you so much!
You’re very welcome Jessica!
Basic ingredients that was a plus however the directions are not well stated. When you are given directions for the cheese mixture it is not stated where the rest goes. You are required 4 cups of mozzarella and 1/2 cup of parmesan, but the recipe only tells you to use 1 1/2 cups of mozzarella and 1/ 4 of parmesan . When do you use the rest and do you use all the ricotta with this mixture? Some clarity would make this recipe much more user friendly. I am trying to teach my sons and husband how to use the kitchen and help out more. But this was very difficult to follow for beginners. Make the directions more organized and clear. Then it shall be a wonderful recipe.
Hi Jess,
The layering order in step 5 is…
1 cup sauce
3 noodles – ⅓ of cheese mixture- 1 cup sauce
3 noodles – ⅓ of cheese mixture – 1 cup sauce
3 noodles – ⅓ of cheese mixture- 1 cup sauce
Finish with
3 noodles – remaining sauce
= 12 noodles total
Step. 6 Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes.
Uncover, sprinkle with remaining cheese (2½ cups mozzarella cheese and ¼ parmesan cheese), and bake an additional 15 minutes or until browned and bubbly. Broil 2-3 minutes if desired.
Hope that helps.
You didn’t specify where the rest of the mozzarella cheese goes though? The recipe calls for 4 1/2 cups of mozzarella cheese, but you stated to use 1 1/2 cups of it for the cheese mixture, where does the rest of 2 1/2 cups of mozzarella cheese goes??
The remaining cheese is sprinkled on the top during the last 15 minutes of baking. I updated the recipe card to be more explicit. You can also watch the video above the recipe card. Hope that helps!
I agree with Jess, and I feel like your clarification doesn’t address her main point (and mine) which is that the last step ‘uncover, add cheese’ is vague. Especially considering the previous parts of the instructions clearly note the quantity of ingredients.
That aside, I thought it was a good recipe, and it turned out delicious.
Thanks!
Hi! Sorry new to making lasagna. So the boxed lasagna noodles that are hard. You don’t have to cook them before you put them in? Thanks for your patience. ♀️
In step 1 of the recipe, we do cook the noodles for this lasagna Lori.
Or you could learn how to read properly!
Came out very very good !! I’m not the best at cooking but I tried. Made a mistake by putting the pasta on top just realized after watching the videos that was meat on top instead. Anyway came out very good!! Thank you for sharing your recipe.
You’re welcome Cinthia! Happy you tried. You didn’t make a mistake, you made it your own, and it worked great!
Great recipe I made 1/2 meat sauce and 1/2 spinach
it’s cooking now!! I needed 15 sheets of lasagna not 12 as stated in the recipe…it’s changing figuring out the layering it was helpful to have you state in the recipe the layering system but I did come out short of lasagna noodles
Can I use oven ready lasagna ? If so what do I need to change?
I think it would be great. You might need to add a bit of extra sauce or liquid.
Very good recipe will use again!!! Loved the meat sauce!! Never had that before, I will use that from now on. Thank You for the recipe.
You’re very welcome Toni! Enjoy!
Love this recipe! Just wondering I started making extras and freezing. Can you cook from frozen if you haven’t baked it yet?? And if so what temperature and how longish.
Amazing recipe
I recommend that you defrost in the refrigerator overnight and bake as directed. To cook from frozen, bake at the same temperature, but it will take longer, approximately 15 or more minutes.
Easy and tasty. Added some red pepper flakes to the sauce as we like it a little spicy and a splash of Burgandy wine as it was handy and on my counter. Used a full package of noodles (layered 4 in a row)….. delicious and easy to make.
Good recipe using classic ingredients we are used to using. Not one to stick to exact measurements, but this was very close to coming out without too much leftover cheese, meat sauce, or noodles. Did need more noodles than noted: 16 instead of 12. Very tasty. Will use again.
Oh my goodness people!!! So absolutely fantastic! This is so delicious!!! So easy!!! And So perfect!!! I’m not kidding. I had to improvise with the sauce cos I only had like 1/8 cup of Ramono’s Marinara left, but I just ninja’d up some diced tomatoes and added extra Italian seasonings to it along with salt & pepper, but it was stupendous! Thank you!!!
Delicious! I’ll definitely make it again. (I did have issues though.)
Clarity around cheese quantities would’ve helped. E.g. Add an extra sentence to line 6: “Sprinkle the remaining 2.5 cups mozzarella and .25 cups parmesan cheese on the top and bake for an additional 15 minutes.” Line 4 could also say, “…2 cups ricotta…” Further, I agree with others that there wasn’t enough sauce, so I made a note to add more.
I made this twice now! So delicious! I added green pepper with my onion and garlic this time and did ground meat (no sausage)it was as delicious! I like my lasagna saucy so I did a 45 ounce ragu!