The ultimate meat lover’s lasagna! Made with sweet Italian sausage, ground beef, herby marinara sauce, fresh mozzarella and ricotta. Yes there is a LOT of cheese in this recipe, but you know what, that’s what makes it so delicious. Also, I recently discovered the magic of no-boil noodles. I always saw them at the store and thought they could never be as good as boiling your own noodles. One day, I accidentally bought them at the store and decided to make do, and boy and I glad I did. They take out one annoying step from the process (win) and they also hold up a little better / come out more al dente than boiled noodles in my opinion.
Pro tip for extra melty bubbly cheese: don’t use pre-shredded mozzarella. I’m all for doing whatever is going to save the most time but if you have a few extra minutes this really makes a difference. Pre-shredded cheese often contains preservatives like potato starch to stop it from melting and clumping together in the bag, which means it doesn’t melt as well. Grab a block of low moisture mozzarella, find that old cheese shredder, and put in some elbow grease. Trust me, this will be worth it.
Ingredients
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For the Meat Sauce
- For the Lasagna
Instructions
- In a large dutch oven, add 1 tsp olive oil and heat over medium high heat. Add ground beef and sausage, breaking up into little pieces while it browns. Try to get the crumbles to be as small as you can. Cook for 4 - 5 minutes until all the meat is mostly browned. Add jars of marinara sauce and stir to combine. Add all seasonings and turn heat to low. Simmer meat sauce for 40 minutes - 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Add the ricotta, egg, salt, and parsley to a medium bowl and mix to combine. The egg should be well incorporated into the ricotta. Shred 1 1/2 pound of mozzarella and set aside.
- Spoon 1/2 - 3/4 cup of meat sauce at the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Add 6 lasagna noodles. Add 1/2 of ricotta mixture and spread evenly over noodle mixture. Add 2 cups of meat sauce and spread over ricotta. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of mozzarella over meat sauce. Finally, add 1/3 of mozzarella and sprinkle over parmesan. Repeat layers another time. On top layer, add 1 cup of meat sauce, 1/3 of mozzarella, and 1/2 cup parmesan. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes.
- Remove foil from lasagna and turn oven to broil. Return lasagna back to oven and watch it carefully as it broils. You should pull it out once the cheese starts to bubble and gets a light golden brown, about 1 - 2 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes before cutting into lasagna.