Italian Baked Cheesy Lasagna
Warm cheesy Italian Lasagna with layers of meat-filled red sauce and tender dry cottage cheese is a refreshing take on this favorite one pan meal. Serve it with your favorite salad and baked garlic bread for the perfect Italian meal your entire family will love.
Italian Baked Cheesy Lasagna
Warm cheesy Italian Lasagna with layers of meat-filled red sauce and tender dry cottage cheese is a refreshing take on this favorite one pan meal. Serve it with your favorite salad and baked garlic bread for the perfect Italian meal your entire family will love.
Servings
6servings
Servings
6servings
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté ground beef 3 to 4 minutes or until meat is mostly cooked. Drain meat in a colander and return to skillet.
  3. Stir in pasta sauce, mushrooms, Italian seasoning, allspice, ground cloves and pepper. Stir well, cover and simmer sauce on low for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  4. In large pot, bring 12 cups of water to a boil. Add lasagna noodles, 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 teaspoon salt. Boil until noodles are almost al dente.
  5. Drain and rinse noodles in colander under cold water until they are cool to the touch.
  6. Using a 9 x 12 baking pan, lay noodles on the bottom to fit the width of the pan, overlapping the edges slightly. If the noodles do not reach the end of the pan, cut another noodle to fit across that end, making sure the entire bottom of the pan is covered.
  7. Drain excess oil from sauce and pour 2 3/4 cups sauce over noodles. Using large spoon, spread the meat sauce over the noodles evenly.
  8. Sprinkle 1 cup cottage cheese evenly over meat sauce.
  9. Sprinkle 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese evenly over cottage cheese.
  10. Repeat layers 2 times. Finish by sprinkling parmesan cheese on top layer. (Feel free to add another layer if you have enough ingredients. Be sure to cook 5 additional noodles for an extra layer.)
  11. Spray a piece of tin foil with cooking spray before covering the pan tightly. Bake 45 minutes, remove from oven and let sit covered for 15 minutes before serving.
Recipe Notes

– Drain all excess oil and liquid from ground meat before adding in sauce so that the lasagna will not be runny.
– Make sure the noodles are cooked only to al dente. Because they continue to cook during the baking process, they will fall apart when cutting if cooked too soft during the boiling process.
– Adding oil to the pasta water keeps noodles from sticking together.
– Spraying the inside of the tin foil before covering the pan prevents cheese from sticking to the foil as it bakes.

Recipe by Lorraine Soldo for www.culinarybutterfly.com

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