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.
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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