Lasagna

This recipe is my pride & joy. Originally based on Michael Chu's meat lasagna from Cooking for Engineers, I make this multiple times a year; usually during the winter. It's a great way to guarantee you won't need groceries for the next few days.

The food


(Click images to see them in full size)
  • Three pounds of ground meat
  • Garlic & onion, either whole or powder
  • Some kind of cooking oil
  • One pound of mozzarella cheese
  • 60 ounces of ricotta cheese
  • 30 ounces of parmesan cheese
  • Two eggs
  • 60+ ounces of tomato sauce
  • Lasagna noodles

    The tools

  • A big cooking pan
  • A big pot (if you're using boiled noodles)
  • A big bowl
  • A big deep baking dish (mine is 14x10x4 inches)
  • An oven

    The steps

    If you use whole garlic & onion
    Soften an onion & garlic in a tall pan w/ fat of your choice. I use vegetable oil, but you can also use bacon grease, olive oil, grapeseed oil, whatever. You can also skip this step and use garlic/onion powder later down the line (which I prefer).

    Brown a pound of meat in the same pan. I use ground beef, but you can also do pork, or a mix of both. If you skipped the last step, don't forget the fat. Again, vegetable oil, olive oil, grapeseed oil, bacon grease, whatever. Be sure to break up the meat as much as you can with a wooden spoon. This is labor-intensive but a necessary step to avoid it becoming a giant meatball.


    Once browned, add your tomato sauce. You can get these in one big container or two medium-sized jars. Bring the heat down low and let it simmer. This is also the point where you can add garlic & onion powder if you skipped the first step, along with some salt. You can add more spices here too you want.

    In a separate container, mix equal parts parmesan cheese and ricotta. At a minimum you can do a 15oz containers of each, but I say double it. You can't overdo ricotta. Do not use shaker parmesan, as it won't melt all the way and be noticeably grainy.

    This is a good time to preheat your oven to 375°F. You can do it earlier, but I do it now to save energy & let the sauce simmer.

    If you're using boiled noodles
    Boil your noodles. If you get em boxed, it'll have instructions. If you made em yourself, good for you.

    If you're using oven ready noodles
    This is the one and only place in the recipe where I care about brand. The best oven ready lasagna noodles you can buy come from Barilla and Giovanni Rana. If you have my baking dish size, you'll need two boxes of Barilla, or three bags of Giovanni Rana. You'll end up with extra Barilla noodles, but trust me, one box isn't enough.
    #NotSponsored

    Once the oven's ready, get a big pan (at least 12") and layer.



    Sauce -> noodle -> ricotta -> mozzarella. Do this three times.

    If you're using oven-ready noodles, you can spread the ricotta mix directly onto the noodle for easier application. Just remember to put it face-up in these steps.



    Then do sauce -> all the ricotta you have left -> noodle -> all the sauce you have left -> all the mozzarella you have left.

    In an effort to try and avoid wasting a reasonable number of Barilla noodles, I sandwiched two noodles between the final ricotta layer. I've never done this before, but it turned out okay.

    Bake it for 15 minutes, covered.

    After 15 minutes, take the cover off and bake for 25 more minutes.

    When it's out of the oven, let it cool. 15 minutes at most. If you cut in now, it'll leak out into slop; which is delicious on its own, but it's not lasagna. When the rest of the lasagna cools, you can fridge it for leftovers. If you cut one piece into four bite-sized squares, it microwaves really well too.

    Bonus variant: Baked ziti

    This is almost the exact same recipe with slightly different ingredients. I make this when I want a lasagna-like food with a little less of the effort.

    The food

    All of the above, except

  • 1lb mozzarella string cheese
  • One large box of Ziti or Rigatoni noodles

    The tools

    All of the above, but you probably want a second bowl for your mozzarella

    The steps

    For ease of baking, make the sauce in the same pot you want to bake in. You could even boil the noodles in the same pot before making the sauce, but they'll get a little dry in the sauce-making process.

    Instead of lasagna noodles, boil some Ziti, or anything in that size with a straight hollow tube shape. Rigatoni, Penne, Cannelloni, whatever.

    Instead of shredded mozzarella, buy some string cheese and chop em up into cubes. Make the ricotta/parmesan mixture as is.

    Thoroughly mix noodles, sauce, and mozzarella cubes, then partially blend in globs of the ricotta/parmesan mix. If you mix it too thoroughly, it'll come out kinda grey & unappetizing. You can bring some color back by adding tomato sauce as a topping post-bake.

    Bake just like the lasagna. 375°F, 15 minutes covered, 25 minutes uncovered.

    Unlike the lasagna, you can dig into this immediately. The end result will be slop no matter what, but it'll be delicious slop.

    Other variants

    The best thing about lasagna & ziti is you can do basically anything with it. Here are some variants I've tried that turned out really good.

  • Want something even easier? Cook the meat sauce & Ziti noodles with no cheese at all, then add mozzarella as a topping. Especially helpful in microwaving leftovers.

  • Ricotta too expensive? Use cottage cheese instead! It's cheaper, and a lot of people prefer it over ricotta.

  • Want it to feel fancy? Instead of a ricotta mix, make a parmesan cheese sauce by melting it into some milk or cream. Then alternate red sauce, noodles, white sauce, noodles until you run out, add streaks of the red & white sauce, and top with mozzarella. Loosely based on Adam Ragusea's insane lasagna.