Traditional Lasagna

Homemade lasagna.

Lasagna is an intimidating dish that really shouldn’t be. It does however take some planning to make a traditional lasagna. This isn’t something your going to throw together at the last minute for dinner tonight.

I used homemade lasagna noodles in this recipe, you can find that recipe here. No, I’m not not completely crazy. Homemade noodles aren’t that difficult really. If your not up for it just grab some from the store.

Saute the meat until brown. I like to use ground italian sausage personally but you could just as easily use pork or beef. Add in the onion and garlic after you have broken up the meat.

While the meat is browning move ahead to making the cheese mixture.

Drain the meat and add in 1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce. If it doesn’t look like enough sauce for you add in part of the second jar, just save about half of the jar for the bottom of the pan.

Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the meat sauce mixture, this will be the top layer. This keeps you from running out and saying oh crap I have a naked lasagna later!

Green Goddess Basil Base! Mix up 4 Tbsp into your eggs.

This was made with frozen basil base, just break it up and stir it in. 2 cubes, 2 Tbsp each.

Stir in the ricotta, parmesan and mozzarella.

All mixed up and ready to go! On to the next step.

Spread the pasta sauce that you didn’t use earlier in the bottom of the pan. Yup I used meat sauce, but plain pasta sauce would work better. Just cover the bottom of the pan.

On to making layers. Lay your noodles on top of the sauce for the base. As you can see those are homemade noodles, if you are using store bought just snug them up beside each other.

With the homemade lasagna noodles make sure that you trim the excess off. The bunched up bit of noodles in the corners can get crunchy, so don’t be lazy like I was in this picture and tuck it in!

Top your noodles with a layer of cheese and then a layer of meat sauce. Each layer should be half of what you have. Another layer of noodles along with cheese and meat sauce and your almost done with your homemade lasagna!

Alright, get that bowl of meat sauce that you set aside in the beginning and top your lasagna with it. Cover the lasagna with foil and bake for 45 minutes at 350.

Almost there! Load it up with the remaining cheese and put it back in the over uncovered for about 10 minutes or until it’s all nice and bubbly.

And look at that, you’ve made your very own homemade lasagna! Now the hard part, let it cool for at least 10 minutes. This cooling time will allow it to set up some so that all of the layers don’t run apart when you cut into it. IT will also keep you from burning your mount on molten cheese which is always helpful.

And since you have gone this far with making homemade lasagna you might as well add some freshly baked french bread to go with it! That is over here. And before you call me completely crazy, if you start with the easy french bread, let it rise and the move on to the lasagna you can have it all in the oven together. Your welcome. Enjoy