Easy and Nourishing Lasagna with Meat Sauce
My family’s lasagna with meat sauce recipe. Make this ultimate comfort food meal for friends and family with ease. As always, this recipe is balanced with healthful ingredients and serious flavor.
Lasagna with Meat Sauce inspired by Family
Growing up when my mom served lasagna it always appeared to be the ultimate labor of love. The effort to create this layered pasta dish from scratch, instead of heating up the frozen equivalent, was keep for special family dinners. I remember my mom teaching me how to make marinara sauce from scratch and learning which seasonings to include in this familiar dish. Later, I was inspired by my mother-in-law who adds an additional layer of spinach to this dish for added nutrition. I have tweaked and simplified this recipe over several years and have made it for friends that recently had a baby or for a cozy dinner parties with friends. It always gets bellies full and hearts happy. Check out other nourishing dinner recipes here!
The Layers
- The sauce: Of course you could make your own marinara sauce, but I rarely find that practical unless I made it in advance. I found a compromise to make the sauce my own, but not entirely from scratch. I use ground turkey and my favorite store bought sauces. I look for brands that don’t have much added sugar, like Rao’s and Michael Angelo’s. I add additional seasonings to the meat and sauce – a dash of red chile pepper flakes always gives it the best kick of flavor.
- Ricotta cheese: It’s never just ricotta cheese, you have to add an egg and additional seasonings. The egg helps it hold together and the seasonings help unify the flavors throughout each layer.
- Cheese: I recommend mozzarella cheese and you could use shredded or fresh slices. And you must include parmesan cheese, get the big wedge from the grocery store and grate it fresh – you’ll never go back to the powder after that.
- Spinach: I love adding a thin layer of fresh baby spinach with each layer. You don’t really taste it or notice it’s there but this sneaky veggie adds extra nutrition to the meal.
- Noodles: Make sure you buy oven-ready lasagna noodles to save you time and an extra step. If you forget and buy the regular noodles, be sure to boil them before layering this dish – otherwise you will have crunchy lasagna. Speaking from experience, I’m embarrassed to admit.
Easy and Nourishing Lasagna with Meat Sauce
Don't be intimidated by lasagna – I've got a fool proof recipe that will feed the whole family with ease.
Print Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Lasagna pan Deep dish pan 13"x8"x3"
Ingredients
Meat sauce
- 1 tbsp avocado oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 ¼ pounds Ground turkey, 93% lean
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 oz tomato paste
- 48 oz favorite pasta sauce I normally do one jar of spicy marinara and another tomato basil
- ½ water
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- ⅛ tsp red chile pepper flakes
Ricotta Cheese layer
- 15 oz ricotta cheese
- ½ tsp italian seasoning
- 1 egg
- ⅛ tsp red chile pepper flakes
Other
- 16 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded
- ¾ cup grated parmesan cheese
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground pepper
- 2 cups fresh baby spinach
- 1 lb oven ready lasagna noodles Can use regular noodles, but must boil in advance
Instructions
Meat Sauce
- Heat a heavy bottom pot with avocado oil in the bottom of the pot on medium heat.
- Add diced onion to pot, stirring frequently and allow to soften.
- Add in ground turkey and break up to brown evenly.
- Add in salt, pepper and seasoning as it browns. Once browned, add in tomato paste and garlic cloves, stirring until fragrant.
- Pour in jars of sauce and allow to simmer until heated through. Can add up to ½ cup of water if it is too thick.
- Remove from heat and allow to slightly cool while preparing the other ingredients.
Ricotta Cheese layer
- In a medium size bowl, whisk together the ricotta cheese, egg, italian seasoning and red chile pepper flakes until well combined.
Assemble
- Preheat oven to 375 °F and grease your lasagna pan.
- Spread a spoonful of the meat sauce to cover the bottom of the lasagna pan. This prevents sticking.
- Place one layer of lasagna noodles to cover the bottom of the pan.
- Spread ⅓ of the ricotta cheese mixture over the top of the noddles.
- Sprinkle a layer of fresh spinach leaves.
- Sprinkle a thin layer of mozzarella (about ¼ cup) and 2 tbsp of shredded parmesan.
- Top with 1 -1 ½ cups of meat sauce and spread to an even layer.
- Repeat the noodle to meat sauce layers 2 more times.
- Place the 4th layer of noodles then top with remaining meat sauce. Sprinkle generously with remaining mozzarella and additional parmesan cheese.
- Cover pan with aluminum foil and then transfer to oven to bake for 45 minutes or until bubbling.
- Remove foil cover and allow cheese to finish melting and turn golden brown then remove from oven. Serve after allowing to cool for a 5-10 minutes for best results.
Servings: 8 people
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