Put It Together in 15 Minutes Lasagna

Submitted by Mamma Bug

"I got this recipe from Robin Miller on the Food Network. I did tweak it a bit to my taste. I love her show, hope you like this as much as we did!! By the way, I had never made lasagna before and it turned out GREAT!! I never knew you could make lasagna without boiling the noodles first! What a time saver."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 15mins
• Ingredients: 16
• Serves: 6-8

ingredients

• Meat Sauce

• 1⁄3 tablespoon olive oil
• 1⁄2 cup chopped onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1⁄2 lbs lean ground beef or 1 1/2 lbs ground turkey
• 1⁄2 tablespoon dried basil
• 1⁄2 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1⁄4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (more or less to your liking)
• 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 0.5 (14 ounce) can tomato sauce
• salt and black pepper

• Cheese Filling

• 3 cups ricotta cheese (regular or part-skim)
• 16 ounces grated mozzarella cheese, divided (regular or part-skim)
• 1 egg
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 12 uncooked lasagna noodles
• 1⁄4 cup grated parmesan cheese or 1/4 cup romano cheese

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F

2. Lasagna Sauce:

3. Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until soft.
4. Add beef, season with salt and pepper, then brown.
5. Stir in basil, oregano and red pepper flakes.
6. Add diced tomatoes and tomato sauce and bring to a simmer.
7. Reduce heat to low and simmer 10 to 15 minutes.
8. Remove from heat and set aside.

9. Cheese Filling:

10. In a separate bowl, combine ricotta, 2/3 of the mozzarella, egg, and black pepper.
11. Mix well.

12. Putting it together:

13. Pour 1 cup of the meat sauce in the bottom of a 13 by 9-inch lasagna pan.
14. Arrange 4 UNCOOKED lasagna noodles on top of sauce, overlapping noodles slightly to cover the bottom.
15. Spoon half of the cheese mixture over noodles.
16. Cover cheese mixture with 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce and 4 more noodles.
17. Top second layer of noodles with remaining cheese mixture, 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce and 4 more noodles.
18. Top noodles with 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce and remaining mozzarella cheese.
19. Top with Parmesan cheese.
20. Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes. Uncover and bake 15 more minutes, until top is golden and bubbly.
21. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing.

Reviews

[DuChick]

Mmmm wonderful! I'm from the old-school of boiling those noodles first, but had to give this a go. Besides a little overflow in the oven, this is perfection! I did take a few liberties and used whole wheat noodles, crushed tomatoes rather than diced and instead of ricotta I used fat free cottage cheese. We're just not ricotta fans here and cottage cheese has always served as a suitable substituion. I also used 2% mozzarella. Very gooey and cheesey, like a good lasagna should be! MERP'd for my adopted chef in Fall Pick a Chef 09.

 

[Roxygirl in Colorado]

I am always skeptical about not cooking the noodles first, but I use the "no-boil" often. The only slight change I did was to slightly puree the sauce after it cooked, only because my meat(meatloaf mix)didn't break down small enough, maybe because I started it defrosting in the microwave. I liked how the sauce got slightly creamy after the slight pureeing and it just chopped up the meat a bit. I assembled the layers and let sit for about four hours in fridge before baking. It did take longer to bake from its refrigerated state (about an hour and 15 min. covered the whole time). I then added my last bit of cheese and let melt. I am particular about my noodles being well-cooked and I kept it in the oven longer, since my top noodles looked slightly gummy. I let it stand (still covered with foil) and cut it after ten minutes. This lasagna was thick and held together beautifully. The noodles were cooked through, but with a tiny al dente bite that was pleasant. The whole family enjoyed. I do like this technique and will do it this way again. Roxygirl