Simple Homemade Lasagna

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I tend to make meals that are easy and simple. I love coming home, whipping up something delicious and sitting down to a home-cooked meal. What I don’t like are recipes that involve too many ingredients and too many difficult steps. Easy-peasy, that’s how I like it!

Over time I developed an easy homemade Lasagna recipe that satisfies me every time. Not to say I don’t try to change it up a bit. One of my favorite types of lasagna to make is a Portobello Lasagna Roll-Up with Arrabiata sauce. The assembly takes a while so it’s fine for when I have an afternoon free. On a busy day, I’d rather have a simpler version of Lasagna. The best part is that lasagna tastes better the next day. It makes for great leftovers!

For this recipe, I keep it simple by just using lasagna noodles, marinara sauce, ground beef, ricotta, mozzarella cheese and a few other building blocks and seasonings.  I keep it simple because I don’t want to resort to the no-cook lasagna noodles. You can add some veggies by cooking the ground beef with some zucchini and summer squash or by adding a bit of thawed frozen spinach to the ricotta mix.

I love to serve lasagna with garlic bread and salad but it’s also great with a side of white rice and steamed green and wax beans. If you don’t already have a go-to lasagna recipe, give this one a try!

Ingredients

1lb of ground beef

garlic powder

salt and pepper

extra light olive oil

1 jar of marinara

1 cup of pasta water

1 package of lasagna noodles

4 cups of ricotta cheese

2 eggs

shredded mozzarella cheese 

Preheat oven to 380 degrees

Start a large pot of water boiling. Cook the lasagna noodles according to package instructions. While that is working, heat up a large skillet with some olive oil. When the oil starts to sizzle, add the ground beef. Season with garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Once the meat is cooked, drain the extra fat. Add the marinara sauce (minus a few tablespoons) and a cup of the pasta water to the pan. Stir and cook on low for a few minutes.

Add your cooked noodles to a bowl of cold water. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, add the ricotta cheese, 2 eggs and season with salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly.

Take your lasagna pan and add the extra few tablespoons of the marinara to the bottom and coat. This will help prevent the noodles from sticking to the bottom.

Layer noodles, then half the ricotta mixture, then noodles, then 1/3 of the meat sauce, then noodles and repeat. Cover the top with the last of the meat sauce and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover the pan then cook for an additional 15 minutes so the cheese can start to brown. Serve hot or at room temperature. Enjoy!