Hi everyone! As promised, here is another excellent comfort food dinner to add to your collection. This one of my husband’s favorite meals. Lasagna to him is like Chicken Pot Pie for me. He grew up eating this and it reminds him of home and family dinners. This particular recipe is in my personal opinion, The Perfect Classic Italian Lasagna.
I’ve combined both ground pork and ground beef in this recipe and added it to my Old School Italian Gravy recipe to make a rich, delicious meat sauce. Layered with a perfectly blended cheese mixture of ricotta and parmesan that’s filled with fresh herbs and then topped off with even more cheese. Mozzarella that is. Did I mention there is cheese in this?
If you want to talk about the ultimate Sunday family dinner, this is it. It’s hearty, warm and perfect to share with the ones you love. I personally like to make a double batch and throw one in the freezer for later too. That way, I can revisit this all over again during the week, when sometimes I don’t have time to put these lovely layers together! Bon Appetit!
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The Perfect Classic Italian Lasagna
Ingredients
Meat Sauce
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 lb ground pork
- 2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 cups marinara sauce
Ricotta Mixture
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 medium white onion, diced
- 1 Tablespoon chopped garlic
- 2 Tablespoons fresh italian parsley, chopped
- 2 Tablespoons fresh basil , chopped
- 32 oz whole milk ricotta cheese
- 3/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Lasagna Assembly
- 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 3/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- 9 oven ready lasagna noodles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Meat Sauce
- In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add beef and pork and saute until meat is cooked through and browned. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add in marinara sauce and stir to combine. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5-10 minutes while you finish the other prep.
Ricotta Mixture
- In a medium size pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add in onion and saute for 3 minutes until softened. Add garlic and fresh herbs and saute for 1 minute.
- Remove onion mixture from the heat and put into a medium-size bowl. Add ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese and eggs. Whisk or use a hand mixer to thoroughly combine all ingredients. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
Lasagna Assembly
- In a small bowl or container, mix parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese.
- In a 9x13 baking pan, place 1 cup of the meat sauce at the bottom and spread to cover to reach all sides.
- Place three lasagna noodles over the sauce and top with 1/3 of the ricotta mixture, spreading to make sure most of the noodles are covered. Top the ricotta mixture with 1/3 of the parmesan & mozzarella cheese mixture and then top that with 1/2 of the remaining marinara mixture.
- Repeat with 3 more noodles, the second third of the ricotta mixture, the second third of the shredded cheese blend and the remaining sauce. This will make the second layer. Top with the last three noodles, the final third of the ricotta and final third of the shredded cheese blend.
- Cover lasagna with foil and place in the oven on the middle rack to bake for 1 hour. Place a sheet pan on the rack below the lasagna to catch any drips. Remove foil for the last 10 minutes of cooking to brown cheese. You can also use the broiler in your oven if the cheese is not browned enough at the end.
- Remove lasagna from the oven and let rest for 10-15 minutes before slicing and serving.
2 comments
What is not to love about this recipe Amanda? Love it with the beef and pork and all that cheese. Beautiful.
Thanks Mireille!!!