It should be long established around here that I love pasta. It’s filling, comforting and best of all? Cheap! We eat pasta at least twice a week and while I know that isn’t exactly the healthiest? It’s a must have for us! Between my Copycat Olive Garden Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo, my homemade chicken noodle soup, my enchilada pasta recipe, and my other pasta recipes, we have a huge selection to choose from so that things never get boring. This easy lasagna recipe is one of our favorites! As far as casserole recipes goes, it’s super simple to do and the taste? Absolutely amazing!
When you make your own batch of my easy lasagna, you’ll have a few choices on your hands. You absolutely can use jarred sauce, but for taste, I recommend giving my homemade pasta sauce recipe a try. The same thing with the ricotta cheese. Again, you can absolutely buy it but if you try my homemade ricotta cheese recipe in it, I’m pretty certain that you’ll never go back to store bought. It’s too tasty!
Easy Lasagna Recipe – Casserole Recipes
The best part about this easy lasagna recipe is that you can make it two different ways. You can make it as a traditional lasagna or you can make lasagna roll ups like I’ll be showing you how to do. We like to do it both ways and just mix it up. It really depends on how many you’re feeding too. A traditional lasagna usually will feed less people since when you hand them a roll up with salad and a breadstick they will “fill up” quicker thinking that they are getting more food. No matter how you make it though, this recipe is extremely freezer friendly. You can put it together without baking if you want or bake it completely and freeze. It’s entirely up to you and how much you want to spend preparing it when it is time to eat it. To cook it after freezing simply pop it into the freezer frozen with the lid on at 425 degrees. It won’t hurt anything. You’ll want to freeze this in a foil baking pan. I always use the ones that come with lids and then reuse them a few times after to help cut the cost down. This is one of the recipes that I always cook double of when I’m working on filling my freezer without once a month cooking because it is so easy to make.
Ready to get started? I am!
You will need:
- 6 cooked lasagna noodles
- 1 lb ground beef
- 2 cups ricotta cheese (or you can make homemade ricotta cheese!)
- 1 cup shredded provolone cheese (use fresh and not that crappy grated stuff)
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 24 oz pasta sauce (or you can make homemade pasta sauce to use)
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- Oregano, to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
To start, preheat your oven to 400° and brown and crumble the ground beef along with the garlic and onion powders. Drain well using a colander and set aside. Once the beef is almost browned, set your lasagna noodles to cook. Add 1/2 tsp of extra virgin olive oil to the water if you would like to keep them from sticking together. If you would like, you can mix your sauce and beef together before you add it to each noodle. I didn’t for the purposes of this post so that I could show you better in photos but normally I do.
Next, combine the two cheeses into one bowl along with the italian seasoning and mix them well. Then, set aside 1/2 cup or so for later.
In a large mixing bowl, mix together your ricotta cheese and 1 1/2 cups of your mozzarella and parmesan cheese blend. Add salt and pepper lightly here if you wish and stir to mix well.
Lay your noodles flat and scoop out a few tablespoons of your cheese mixture onto each noodle. Then, add a bit of ground beef to each noodle as well. Top with a bit of sauce onto the beef.
Next, grab the lasagna noodle and roll up from one end to the next. Place them seam side down in your baking pan. Be careful that you don’t roll too quickly or you will loose the filling.
Once your baking pan is filled, pour the remaining sauce mixture over the top and spread evenly.
Top off with the remaining 1/2 cup of your mozzarella and parmesan cheese blend and sprinkle the oregano over the top. Bake 20-25 minutes or until the cheese is fully melted. If you would like to add more cheese, go for it! It’s your lasagna and you know how much you would like!
Easy Lasagna Recipe {Casserole Recipes}
Easy Lasagna Recipe- A family favorite
- 6 cooked lasagna noodles
- 1 lb cooked ground beef
- 2 cups ricotta cheese
- 2 cups shredded provolone and mozzarella cheese blend
- 24 oz pasta sauce
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 9 x5 baking pan
- Preheat you oven to 400° and pour enough pasta sauce in your pan to cover the bottom
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together your ricotta cheese and 1 1/2 cups of your mozzarella and parmesan cheese blend
- Now mix in your salt, pepper, and Italian seasonings
- Lay your noodles flat and scoop out a few tablespoons of your cheese mixture onto each noodle like pictured
- Add a few tablespoons of your ground beef on top of the cheese
- Now roll your noodles up starting at one end to the other
- Place your lasagna rolls onto your pasta sauce and cover with your remaining sauce
- Top off with the remaining 1/2 cup of your mozzarella and parmesan cheese blend
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until your cheese is golden brown