Matt’s Lasagna
January 11, 2005
Our friend Matt gave us
this excellent recipe. The meat sauce
is great on pasta as well.
- 8 oz lasagna noodles
- 1 lb sliced cheese (mozzerella/provolone)
- Parmesan for the top (fresh grated is extra nice)
- Some olive oil (vegetable oil is okay too)
- Meat sauce:
- 1 lb ground beef (80% to 85% lean)
- 1 lb hot Italian sausage
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- Sliced mushrooms to taste
- 52 oz of Italian baking sauce (also called marinana)
- 4 cloves garlic, pressed
- ½ cup red wine
- Dash crushed red pepper
- Salt
- Lots of black pepper
- Ricotta mix:
- 15 oz large curd cottage cheese
- 15 oz ricotta
- ½ a box of frozen cooked spinach (drained)
- 2 beaten eggs
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup parmesan cheese (cheap powdery kind okay)
If you can’t find the baking sauce, just use spaghetti
sauce. Matt uses sliced cheese because it’s easier to
deal with than shredded cheese. We used to go for
the super lean beef (like 92% lean) but found a lot of
hard pieces in it, so we’ve backed off a bit and drain
off the fat.
- Boil the noodles in oiled salted water until they are al dente.
- Fry the meat and sausage (until dark), onion, garlic, and mushrooms in
large, deep frying pan.
- Add other meat sauce ingredients and let simmer.
- Mix the ricotta ingredients in a large bowl.
- Apply the following layers in a 9×13 glass baking dish:
- Olive oil
- Tiny bit of meat sauce
- ½ of noodles
- ½ of ricotta mix
- ½ of cheese
- ½ of meat sauce
- ½ of noodles
- ½ of ricotta mix
- ½ of cheese
- ½ of meat sauce
- Fresh-grated parmesan all over the top
- Bake at 375° for 35 minutes covered, 20 uncovered.
- Let stand for 15 minutes.
Putting oil in the water prevents the noodles from sticking together. Serves 6 to 8 people.

Saute the meat, sausage, onion, garlic, and mushrooms

Ricotta mix

Olive oil and a bit of the meat sauce

After a layer of noodles and ricotta mix

After the second cheese layer

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