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Lasagna is one of those dishes with almost limitless possible variations. You can have eggplant lasagna, cheese lasagna, white lasagna, the list goes on and on. This recipe is, what I personally consider, basic, default, lasagna. Any other lasagna recipe that I may post in the future will require some other word to describe it, as illustrated previously, but when I think of simply “lasagna”, this is it. While just about any style of lasagna can be absolutely delicious, this recipe is my favourite version. This lasagna tastes like home.

This, like so many of my other recipes, is a variation of my mother’s recipe. The main differences with my version, all of which are optional, are that I make my own lasagna pasta, I use Bison meat instead of ground beef, and I often mix some soft unripened goat cheese in with the ricotta cheese, though I did not do so for this tutorial, since it is not that important and I think that most people will not choose to add it. You can buy your lasagna noodles and use ground beef or turkey or whatever your heart desires, and you will still have a great lasagna! I urge you, however, if you have the time and can access all of the ingredients necessary, try making it my way. While substitutions in this kind of recipe are totally acceptable and don’t necessarily ruin the dish, there is a reason why I made the choices that I have made. Short of discovering new ingredients, this recipe, in my opinion is as good as it gets, and when I am forced to compromise it due to time restrictions or lack of a certain ingredient, I find that it is just slightly less than perfect.

This recipe will yield about 8 servings of lasagna.

-Ingredients-

Pasta Dough (or store bought lasagna noodles)

The recipe for the pasta dough can be found here. One batch of pasta dough, as found in that recipe is the perfect amount to make this lasagna.

Tomato Sauce

You can use your favourite store bought tomato sauce, of course, but I would not dream of using anything other than my own. What I have today is a two day old batch. This is when the flavour is at its peak.

It is best to have the sauce cold or room temperature when compiling the lasagna.

I do not know an exact amount to tell you that you will need since you pretty much just eyeball it, but I think a safe bet is somewhere around three to four cups.

1/2 pound Ground Meat

I go with bison, but you can use beef or whatever else you like.

1/2 pound Hot Italian Sausage

Be sure to use a sausage that has a good flavour. Italian sausages vary greatly in quality. I rant a bit more about Italian sausages in my tomato sauce and in my meatball posts, so I’m not going to go nuts here. If you want more advice on the subject refer to those articles, or ask me directly via personal message or in the comments. The sausage in the picture is still in its casing. You will take the meat out of the casing before using it in this recipe.

1 pound (16 oz) Ricotta Cheese

This will be the bulk of a cheese mixture that you are going to make.

Now, I often like to add to the ricotta, a half pound package of soft unripened goat cheese. If you want to add this in, do not change anything else about the recipe for the cheese mixture. Simply smoosh it in evenly with the rest of the mixture. This will be most easily done if the goat cheese is at room temperature at the time of mixing. The goat cheese adds a tanginess to the ricotta mix, as well as a little more bulk, which I find desirable. Whether you add it or not will not effect any other aspect of this recipe, so the choice is yours.

about three cups Mozzarella Cheese

You will need a half cup for the Ricotta mixture and the rest is for layering in the lasagna. The amount you use may vary since you just layer as much or as little as you want. Three cups is just a rough estimate and you may need more or less.

1/4 cup Romano Cheese

Or Parmesan. I typically like to use Romano because it is saltier. If you can, use Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano, because these are the true versions of these cheeses and they really do taste superior to the imitation varieties.

2 tablespoons Parsley

You can use dried or fresh parsley that is chopped finely. The two tablespoons are for the ricotta cheese mixture. If you want to sprinkle parsley over the top of the lasagna have another tablespoon ready.

1 Egg

Black Pepper

No need to measure, but around a half teaspoon is a good amount to aim for. I always recommend using fresh cracked pepper.

-Method-

First, cook the ground meat and Italian sausage in a frying pan, breaking it up as much as possible. You can cook both at the same time and just mix them all together. When fully cooked, drain any liquid fat that has rendered and set the meat aside and allow it to cool while you do the other preparations.

Prepare the ricotta cheese mixture by combining 16 oz of ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup mozzarella, 1/4 cup Romano cheese, 2 tablespoons parsley, 1 egg, and black pepper. If you want super spectacular cheese in your lasagna add a half pound of goat cheese to the mix. Otherwise you will merely have awesome cheese. The choice is yours.

Mix the ricotta cheese well and set aside. You can leave it at room temperature for about an hour and it is best to use while at room temperature, so depending on how soon you plan on doing the rest of the recipe you may want to leave it out or refrigerate it. Sometimes I make the cheese mix the day before or even make a big batch of prepared cheese and store it in the freezer and thaw it before use.

Now you must prepare the noodles. If you are using store bought pasta then this step is as simple as boiling water and dropping them in until they are soft, then straining. If this is what you are doing just skip these next few steps where I explain how to make the pasta sheets.

You will have a batch of pasta dough that has been resting for at least 20 minutes at room temperature after following this recipe. Cut this lump of dough into four equal pieces.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll one of the pieces of dough out until it is roughly the size of the pan (a 9×13 baking pan) that you are going to use to make the lasagna.

Place the pan on top of the rolled out dough and cut the pasta to the size of the pan.

Now you have a flat sheet of pasta that fits the pan perfectly! Apply these steps to all four pieces of dough.

When all of the pasta sheets are formed you can proceed to boil water to cook them in. Use a large pot that will give the sheets plenty of room to move around in. If necessary, do one or two sheets at a time. Drop the pasta into boiling water an agitate them to keep them moving and let them cook evenly. It will only take about a minute for them to be cooked through. Perhaps even less. They are done when the whole sheet has turned a lighter pale yellow colour.

Strain the water from the pasta and immediately flatten each sheet out over foil or wax paper or some other material that they will not stick to and be sure not to stack the noodles in a way that they touch because they will stick together. Also do not rinse the sheets during the straining process. This will make your lasagna watery and will make all the fillings slide off of the pasta when you are trying to eat it.  I slacked a bit on removing the pasta from the strainer due to my attempts to document the process for this post, and you will see that my sheets are a bit wrinkled and also a bit torn because they started to stick together. Even if you do have a little tearing it really doesn’t make a huge difference. As long as your can pretty much cover each layer with noodle it is ok. I like to go for OCD lasagna so it is a little annoying when it is not perfectly perfect, but this is only an aesthetic issue.

Now the fun part! Time to assemble the lasagna!

First put a thin layer of tomato sauce on the bottom of the pan. This will keep the noodles from sticking to the bottom.

Lay down the first sheet of pasta.

Using about a third of the ricotta cheese mixture, spread an even layer atop the pasta.

Now lay about a third of the meat mixture evenly over the ricotta cheese.

Sprinkle a layer of mozzarella cheese over the meat.

Top this layer with tomato sauce. Don’t be stingy. The lasagna can take a lot of sauce. Give it a nice generous amount of sauce. What I added in the picture is a good amount, but after the lasagna was done I realized I could have used a bit more sauce. No harm either way. You can always serve the lasagna with extra sauce if it needs it.

Now lay down the next sheet of pasta.

Repeat the layers as before.

Ricotta cheese, meat, mozzarella cheese, sauce.

Lay down another sheet of pasta and repeat the layers once again.

Ricotta cheese, meat, mozzarella cheese, sauce.

Lay down the last sheet of pasta.

Cover the top of the lasagna with sauce.

Finally top it all with mozzarella cheese, and a bit of parsley for colour if you wish. (I ran a bit low on mozzarella cheese so I compensated with extra Romano cheese. It is all good!)

Bake at 350 degrees, uncovered for about 45 minutes.

If the top of the lasagna starts browning too much before it is finished baking just lay a piece of foil over it. No need to tuck all the edges in or anything.

When the lasagna is finished cooking let it sit at room temperature for at least 20 minutes before cutting and serving. I know it is hard but it will be far easier to cut once cooled.

I did not take my own advice and this is the prettiest slice I could get after only letting it sit for about five minutes. Not the prettiest thing, I know, but it still tastes great!

Here is a better looking specimen that I cut from the lasagna after it had cooled.

If you want to really impress someone, this dish will do it. It is not difficult but it is a beautiful and totally delicious dish! Make it my way and tell me this is not the best lasagna you have ever made! I DARE YOU!

-Printable Version-