Homemade Lasagna
Follow our easy, complete step-by-step, instructions to learn how to make our homemade lasagna. Includes, cottage cheese, mozzarella, and grated Parmesan cheese with a homemade meat sauce.
It looks a little messy because I couldn’t wait for it to set up better. It was getting late in the evening and I had to try it. Would you prefer tasty or pretty? Smile.
While most of the recipes here on Taste of Southern are things that I grew up enjoying, this might not be one of them. To my knowledge, Mama never made Lasagna for us at home. I’m not even sure when or where I first tried it.
Mama made a simple Spaghetti that I always loved, along with a couple of other similar type dishes. But again, Lasagna wasn’t one of her dishes.
This is a simple and basic recipe that I hope you might try and enjoy. You can even make it a day or two ahead of time, and bake it when you need it. It also freezes very well, so you could make it weeks ahead of time if desired.
Being the only one here at home, I enjoyed a couple of meals off of this, then divided it up and placed the rest in my freezer so I can reheat it for later. It’s pretty versatile that way.
Lasagna makes a great family meal, but it would be great to carry to a potluck or family get together.
It was getting near 11:00pm when I pulled this one from the oven the night that I cooked it. I wanted to get the final photo and to give it a try, so it didn’t have much time to firm up before I sliced into it. I did enjoy it though. Smile.
I’d love to hear your Comments and memories about our recipe. If you try it, please be sure to share your results with us in the section at the end of the recipe. I always enjoy reading those.
Ready to give our recipe a try? Alright then, let’s head on out to the kitchen, and… Let’s Get Cooking!
Homemade Lasagna – You’ll need these ingredients.
Lets begin by grating our 8 ounce block of Mozzarella Cheese.
I always suggest that you grate your own cheese instead of buying the stuff already grated or shredded. Companies use some kind of cellulose substance to keep it from sticking together. You’ve seen it, that little white powdery stuff. It only takes a couple of minutes to grate cheese by hand and you will be much happier I think with the final results. Keep the cheese cold until you’re ready to grate it and it will be easier to grate. Take your time and your fingers should be safe. Smile.
You can even add more than 8 ounces if you like a lot of cheese. Just saying.
Dice the onion.
You can consider the onion as optional. Personally, I like to add it to mine. I had half of a Vidalia onion in the refrigerator so I tossed it in.
Measure out your spices. Here’s what you will need.
1 teaspoon Salt
2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning Spice
1 teaspoon Sugar
1 teaspoon Black Pepper
2 teaspoons Garlic Powder
Crumble 1 pound of ground beef in a large pot and let it brown, stirring often. I cooked this over Medium heat on the stove top.
Add the diced onions to the ground beef. Continue to stir and let this cook until the onions are translucent. Takes a couple of minutes.
Add the 28 ounce can of tomatoes.
The printable recipe calls for CRUSHED Tomatoes. I could only get whole tomatoes so that’s what you see here. I chopped them up as they cooked, so all was well.
ADD THE 8 OUNCE CAN OF TOMATO SAUCE
My apologies, but I totally missed getting that photo. Please forgive me.
Add the 12 ounce can of Tomato Paste.
Add in all of the spices. Stir everything together until fully combined.
Continue to cook the meat sauce mixture over Medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring often so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of your pan. You want a fairly thick sauce as you can see here.
Prepare the Lasagna Noodles according to the directions on the package. I had cooked mine before I started the sauce and just kept them in cold water until I was ready to use them. It’s hard to see, but the bowl is full of water.
Lightly grease your baking dish. Spoon a layer of the sauce on the bottom.
I’m using a sheet cake pan to bake my Lasagna in here. It’s 13in x 9in x 2in in size.
Place a layer of pasta noodles on top of the layer of sauce.
They sure do get slippery when wet. Smile. The strips were as long as my pan. I placed 6 strips in this layer, overlapping them a good bit as you can see.
I placed another thin layer of sauce on top of the noodles.
Then, spread the entire cup of Cottage Cheese over the top of the sauce.
Spread about half of the grated Mozzarella Cheese over the top of the Cottage Cheese.
Sprinkle on a nice layer of the Grated Parmesan Cheese next.
Add another layer of the pasta. I added another 6 sheets of the noodles to this layer, just like the first one. Again, be sure to overlap them.
Add the remaining sauce to the top of the noodles. Then, add the remaining grated Mozzarella on top of that.
For good measure, I sprinkled on another layer of the Grated Parmesan Cheese.
As you can see, I could have easily used some more Mozzarella on top. I might like cheese. Smile.
Place this, uncovered, in an oven that has been pre-heated to 350F degrees.
Let it bake for 30-40 minutes until the cheese on top is melted and starts to brown. Don’t let it burn.
Remove the Lasagna from the oven when the cheese has started to brown. Set it on a folded towel or wire rack on your countertop and let it rest for about 20 minutes before slicing and serving.
Enjoy!
Serve it up with some toasted Garlic bread, maybe a side salad, and you’ve got a complete meal.
As I mentioned earlier, it was about 11:00pm when I pulled this out of the oven. It just didn’t hold together all that well when I cut into it, but I wanted to get the final photo. Besides, I was having this for a late night supper. Smile.
Once it cooled down, I covered the pan with aluminum foil and placed it in the refrigerator. It sliced much better the next day while it was cold.
I cut it into large squares and placed most of it in containers to go into the freezer. It freezes very well.
