Amazing lasagna does not need to be complicated. This simple lasagna recipe is a pure comfort food with simple homemade meat sauce, cheese, noodles and fresh basil.
It’s no secret that we love lasagna here. I mean, we’ve shared this sausage and beef lasagna, easy vegetable lasagna and ultimate cheese lasagna (made with five cheeses). So why would we share another recipe for fancy noodles with you? Well, even if we love all of these recipes, we feel that the blog lacks no doubt simple lasagna that anyone can make. Too easy!
Like other lasagna recipes you find on your blog, this simple lasagna is made entirely from scratch. The sauce is very similar to this simple spaghetti sauce that we use to make it simple for our weekday spaghetti.
Key Ingredients
- sausage: Classic lasagna usually requires grated meat (such as beef), but the sausage is full of extra flavor and spice. In the past, we used pork sausage (delicious), and even Turkish sausage (light) to make this easier lasagna. You can always swap sausages for minced meat (beef, lamb, turkey or chicken) if you want.
- Aromatic: Onions, carrots, garlic and red pepper flakes help make our lasagna rich and delicious. We also added a lot of basil to the sauce, just like finishing the cooking.
- Roasted red pepper: When we made the recipe for vegetable lasagna, we stumbled upon the idea of adding roasted red peppers to the sauce. They add rich sweetness, just to make the sauce stunning. I like to use harsh red peppers because they are cheap and easy to obtain.
- Canned tomatoes: As you would expect, canned tomatoes form the bottom of our sauce. We won’t add anything like wine, soup or water, a simple can of crushed tomatoes will solve the problem and make the sauce illuminate its feet.
- cheese: We used three cheeses in this lasagna. Ricotta makes up our buttercream layer (you can use it for cheese if you like), and then we followed up with a lot of mozzarella and parmesan.
- Noodle: Use traditional lasagna noodles and cook according to packaging instructions, or save some time and use hanging-free noodles.
How to make lasagna easy
From start to finish, lasagna takes about 1½ hours. This includes making sauces from scratch, assembled and grilling lasagna. If you don’t have time, you can always make the sauce in advance. It can be in the refrigerator for up to three days!
I’ll make the meat sauce first. It’s very simple and you can do it ahead of time. Brown the sausage to present some fat. Remove the cooked sausage and cook the vegetables with fat (adding a lot of flavor). When the vegetables are soft and sweet, pour in the tomatoes and cook on low heat until slightly reduced.
For the cheese layer, you will mix the ricotta with eggs and seasonings. Depending on the brand of ricotta you purchase, you may find it needs a little help in the seasoning department. I always try my ricotta before mixing with the eggs to see if it requires extra pinched salt (usually so).
I always need to remind myself that it is the correct order of the lasagna layer, right? I started with a small amount of sauce at the bottom and then went for a layer of noodles. From there, we added half of the ricotta, one-third of the mozzarella and Parmesan, and then a third of the meat sauce. Repeat again, then we end up with a layer of noodles, sauce, cheese and parmesan cheese on the top.
Last but not least, you’ll bake lasagna. I like to bake lasagna for 20 minutes and then find another 10 to 15 minutes.
Lasagna without fuss
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It doesn’t take you a few hours to make amazing lasagna. This simplified lasagna recipe calls for sausage, light homemade tomato sauce and fresh basil. The sausage is pre-mixed and spiced, adding a lot of favor to the sauce. Do this with pork, chicken or turkey sausage. For the vegetarian version, take a look at our simple Vegetable Lace Noodles, or swap sausages in this recipe for 3 to 4 cups of your favorite veggies.
Make 12 servings
You will need
For the sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 lb (450g) bulk Italian sausage
1 medium onion, chopped, 1½ cup
2 medium carrots, chopped, 3/4 cup
1 tablespoon chopped garlic, about 3 cloves
1/8 teaspoon chopped red pepper flakes, or more
1 (12 oz) jar of roasted red peppers, drained and cut into 1/2-inch pieces, 1 pile cup
1 (28 oz) can crush tomatoes
A small amount of fresh basil leaves, chopped
For lasagna
14 wide noodles
One (15 oz) container of ricotta or cheese
2 large eggs
2 oz (60g) Parmesan cheese, grated, 1 cup
8 oz (230g) low mozzarella cheese, chopped, 2 cups
Salt and fresh black pepper
direction
- Prepare the sauce
1Heat olive oil in a wide skillet in a wide frying pan over medium heat.
2If the sausage is in link form, cut the gaps in each sausage and pull the shell away from the meat.
3Add the sausage meat (without hat) to the pan and separate the meat with a wooden spoon. Cook, stirring occasionally, until browned and cooked, about 8 minutes. Transfer the cooked sausage to the plate with a slotted spoon.
4If you remove the sausage, you have 2 tablespoons of fat that are on the bottom of the pan, remove it so that only 2 tablespoons are left.
5Lower the calories to medium and add onions and carrots. Cook, stirring occasionally until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir the garlic, red pepper flakes and a little salt and cook for another minute.
6Add roasted red peppers, crushed tomatoes and cooked sausage. Cook on slow heat and cook until the liquid thickens and decreases by one third, about 10 minutes. Add basil and season to add extra salt and pepper to taste. (We ended up adding 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of fine sea salt.)
7Make lasagna or transfer the sauce to a glass container and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
- Making lasagna
1Preheat the oven until 350°F (177°C). Spray a 13-inch 9-inch baking tray or non-stick cooking spray with light oil.
2If you use unstoppable noodles or fresh noodles, no cooking is required. For regular/classic noodles, bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook the lasagna according to the direction of the packaging. (We added a few teaspoons of olive oil to the water so that the noodles won’t stick together). Drain and lay flat on a piece of aluminum foil.
3Add ricotta cheese to a medium bowl and taste for seasoning. If it looks seasoned, add a little salt. Stir the eggs and a pinch of fresh black pepper.
4Pour enough meat sauce into a baking dish to gently cover the bottom (about 1 cup). Arrange three to four noodles vertically and cover the bottom side by side. (If the noodles are not enough at one end, you may need to cut one noodles and put it in a plate to cover where other noodles don’t have).
5Sprinkle about half of the ricotta mixture over the noodles. Sprinkle with one third of parmesan cheese and one third of mozzarella. Top with one-third of the meat sauce. Add another layer of noodles and repeat in the remaining cheese and sauce. The last layer of noodles, sauce, parmesan cheese and cheese.
6Cover loosely with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes, then bake, then bake for 15 minutes, until the cheese is topped on the edges. For the golden brown top, slide the lasagna under the broiler for 1 to 2 minutes.
7Rest for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.
Adam and Joanne’s Tips
- Production: The sauce can be made three days in advance, you can refrigerate assembled and unbaked lasagna for 2 days and can freeze the grilled lasagna.
- For gluten-free lasagnamake noodles layers using gluten-free noodles or using vegetables such as zucchini or eggplant.
- For dairy-free and egg-free lasagnaswap ricotta and eggs for almond ricotta. You can make it yourself or buy it (Kite Mountain is a popular brand). I also like to change cheese in recipes for a lot of nutritious yeast.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
Nutrition per serving
Service size
1 piece (total 12 pieces)
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Calories
348
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Total fat
17G
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Saturated fat
7.1g
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cholesterol
85.3mg
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sodium
770.5mg
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carbohydrate
28.9 grams
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Dietary fiber
3.8 grams
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Total sugar
5G
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protein
19.4g
