How to Make Lasagna

One of the main and unique dishes of Italian cuisine is lasagna – a delicious dish that cannot be missed on the dining table. You can enjoy variations with lasagna easily; Although it looks elaborate, this dish is very simple to make. Whether you’re making a traditional meat lasagna or with more special ingredients, check out the steps and suggestions below to create the perfect meal.

Prep time (for traditional meat lasagna): 20-30 minutes
Processing time: 60-70 minutes
Total time: 80-100 minutes

Table of Contents

Ingredient

Traditional meat lasagna

450-700g ground meat, to taste (salami, beef, veal, lamb or a mix of meats)
450g ricotta cheese
450g grated mozzarella cheese
1 egg
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of minced garlic
400g canned crushed tomatoes
800g tomato sauce
170g concentrated tomato sauce (optional)
1 box lasagna noodles (9-12 leaves)
Shredded Parmesan or Romano cheese, to taste
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups cheddar cheese (for sprinkling on top)

Make basic lasagna

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Boil water to boil the leaf noodles. Make sure the noodles are not torn as you will need the whole noodles to make the complete dish. Add a little salt to the pot of water before adding the noodles, and then boil the noodles for the time specified on the box, usually 10-12 minutes. Stir often every 1-2 minutes. When you’re done, strain out the water and wait for the noodles to cool. ^{[1] X Research Source}

Using a large pot, pour water about 2/3 of the pot to cover all the noodles. While waiting for the water to boil and cook the noodles, you can move on to making the filling.
Some brands sell “Oven Ready” noodles – which can be baked right away without boiling; So, be sure to double-check the information on the box.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Do not touch the pan until the oil is simmering, ie when the oil is hot; Adding ingredients too soon can make food mushy and oily.

Add one diced onion and 2 minced garlic cloves to the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes until the onion becomes transparent. Transparency here means that the edges of the onion are no longer as white as they were originally. You don’t need to sauté the onion until it’s cooked right now.

Want to add more veggies to your lasagna? Add 1/2 cup chopped carrots, celery and/or green bell peppers to the filling and make a delicious sauce. In this case, you need to stir-fry for another 1-2 minutes to cook the vegetables.

Add 450g of ground meat to the pan and sauté until golden brown. Put the meat in the pan with the onions and garlic and stir over medium heat until the meat is golden brown. Add salt and ground black pepper to taste while stir-frying. If you have time, you can sauté the meat in another pan, but this step is optional.

If using sausage, cut off the outer wrapper and remove the ground meat inside.
You can also add 1/2 tablespoon dried marjoram, basil or rosemary, or just 1 tablespoon dry Italian seasoning right at this step.

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Place the meat and vegetables in the large saucepan used to cook the sauce and bring to a boil over medium heat. The pot should be large enough to hold the sauce and tomatoes.

Now it’s time to check the noodles (if you forgot). The noodles should be supple and soft, but not crushed.

Add the sauce and tomatoes to the pot and bring to a simmer. Pour 800g sauce, 400g tomato puree and 170g tomato sauce concentrate into the meat and vegetable mixture and stir well. Heat the sauce over medium heat until it comes to a simmer and bubbles continuously pop on the surface.

You can use 1 quart of ready-made pasta sauce instead of using 3 different tomato products to make a simple sauce.
At this point, you can add any seasoning, such as garlic powder, sugar or other seasoning, one teaspoon at a time. Many chefs like to add sugar to balance out the natural acidity of the tomatoes.
Reduce heat to low if the mixture boils vigorously; You should just let the mixture simmer.

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Simmer the sauce for about 10-15 minutes. The longer the sauce is cooked, the richer it becomes. Stir often, but be sure to stir close to the bottom of the pot so the sauce underneath doesn’t burn. When you’re ready to make the lasagna, remove the pot of sauce from the heat and let it cool.

You don’t have to wait for the sauce to cool down to move on to the next step, but the cold sauce will make it easier to work with.

Stir in ricotta cheese with scrambled eggs. Use a fork to stir an egg as you would for scrambled eggs and add ricotta cheese and stir well. The eggs will help the cheese stick to the layers of the noodles, leaving the lasagna intact when it’s done. ^{[2] X Research Source}

Drizzle a thin layer of sauce into a large oven-safe tray. You need to use a high-walled tray, such as a tray with a size of 33 x 23 x 5 cm or a tray with a capacity of about 2 liters. Spread so that the sauce covers the entire bottom of the tray.

Arrange the noodles over the entire bottom of the tray. You will be able to arrange three noodles vertically, slightly overlapping each other. The noodles may overlap slightly (about 2.5cm or less), but you can still use clean scissors to cut the noodles if needed. You need to arrange so that the noodles cover the bottom of the tray.

Pour 1/3 of the ricotta mixture over the noodles. Spread the ricotta layer evenly on the surface of the noodles so that every time you eat you can feel the fat of the cheese. Remember to keep the remaining 2/3 of the mixture – you will need to spread the remaining layers.

Drizzle 1/3 of the sauce mixture over the ricotta layer. Next, you pour as much filling into the tray so that the lasagna surface is covered.

Sprinkle plenty of mozzarella cheese over the top of the sauce. Cheese is the last layer of the first layer of lasagna. Sprinkle cheese over top so you can see only a little of the sauce underneath, or reduce cheese for a healthier dish.

Continue creating more layers in this fashion – noodles, ricotta, sauce, mozzarella cheese until all the noodles are gone. The final topping should be mozzarella cheese. You just have to keep layering it this way to get an epic lasagna finished product.

Sprinkle some grated fresh Parmesan or Romano cheese on top of the dish before placing it in the oven.

Variation with Multiplier

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Add new flavors to ricotta cheese for a different taste. When whisking eggs with ricotta cheese, you can tweak it a bit to create a subtly different flavor to your lasagna. Try these ingredients:

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 teaspoon salt and black pepper
1/2 cup minced parsley
1/2 tablespoon nutmeg powder ^{[4] X Research Source}

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Add “meat” vegetables to the sauce for a vegetarian twist. Vegetables are a great substitute for meat, but can also be an addition to meat sauces. Sauté vegetables with oil, onion and garlic for about 5-7 minutes, until soft, then continue to add sauce ingredients in the usual way. If you’re making a sauce with meat, prepare half of the following vegetables separately and add them to the meat sauce.

1 large eggplant, diced
1 large zucchini, sliced
450g small white mushrooms, sliced

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Make a layer of fried eggplant to top the sauce. Cut the eggplant into about 6mm slices and fry until tender with 1-2 tablespoons olive oil. Set the eggplant aside and pat dry with a paper towel, then lay the eggplant slices over the sauce. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the top and continue to layer as usual, layering a layer of eggplant after each layer of sauce. You can also try making classes like this:

Roasted pumpkin zucchini.
Blanched spinach.

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Use ppenta bread in place of the loaves if you want gluten-free ingredients. You can still enjoy lasagna without the noodles, just replace the noodles with the ppenta layer and do the rest in the usual way. ^{[5] X Research Sources}

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Use squash noodles instead of leaf noodles to make small servings. For this slightly offbeat and low-carb recipe, you won’t layer it the usual way, but the deliciousness isn’t diminished. You will do the following:

Cut the squash in half and remove the seeds.
Place the squash in a baking tray with the cut side down and bake for 45-60 minutes (at 230°C) or until you can easily poke the squash with a fork. Pour water about 2.5cm high into the tray to prevent the squash from drying out.
Layer each squash halve, starting with some ricotta mixture, then sauce and mozzeralla cheese. Repeat the operation until the squash is full.
Bake portions of lasagna for about 20 minutes at 230°C, until cheese is melted on top of squash.

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Use Southern flavors to create Mexican-style lasagna. You can use grilled or shredded chicken in place of the beef if you prefer, but this step is not necessary. The recipe is still similar to Italian lasagna, but you can create a different flavor by changing a few ingredients as follows:

Tomato Sauce → Taco Sauce
Riccotta/Mozzarella → Queso Fresco/Cheddar cheese
Noodles → Tortillas
Italian seasoning → Egyptian cumin powder, cayenne pepper, red bell pepper, onion powder
Add 1 can of black beans and 1 can of corn to the sauce mixture

Advice

You can make lasagna with noodles that don’t need to be boiled if you buy pre-cooked noodles. When you cover the lasagna tray with foil before you put it in the oven, the moisture in the baking process will also cook the noodles. This way will help you reduce a step and save time.
For a bold Italian lasagna, you can make your own by using equal amounts of celery, carrots, and onions and simmering them with canned tomatoes.
If you can make your own ricotta cheese at home (which is usually very easy to do), the dish takes it to another level.
If you’re adventurous, you can actually heat up lasagna in the dishwasher.

Warning

Remember to cook the meat well before adding it to the lasagna.

Things you need

Big bowl
Silver paper
Tray size 23 x 33 cm