Lasagna is my ultimate comfort food. I would always ask for it for my birthday dinner. Unless we were going out to eat, of course. I loved it when my mom made it because that meant I got a delicious meal without doing any work.
Now that I’m on my own raising my own family I only make this lasagna 3-4 times a year. Just because I like to keep it special… I will usually put it on my menu calendar far in advance so that I can look forward to it. Anybody else do that?
Maybe not, I like to look forward to things! It makes me happy 🙂
This is my mom’s recipe, with a tiny bit of tweaking, because I just can’t help but tweak recipes. It is a meal that takes a little longer to prepare. But it really is worth every minute. If you do it right, it takes about 30 minutes to prep and another 30 minutes to bake.
After baking, you definitely want to let the lasagna set up a little. That is if you can handle waiting… After it sets up, the cheese is nice and gooey and a little crispy in some places. I love that!
Classic Lasagna
Ingredients
1/2 lb ground turkey
1/2 chopped onion
1 quart tomato sauce
1 12 oz can tomato paste
1 tsp garlic
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
8 oz lasagna noodles
1 Tbsp cooking oil
2 eggs
2 1/2 cup ricotta or cottage cheese
3/4 cups grated parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp dried parsley flakes
shredded mozzarella or cheddar cheese
Instructions
1. Cook the noodles with a little salt and oil in a big pot of water. At the same time, cook the ground turkey, onion and garlic until meat is browned. Stir in the tomato sauce, paste, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
2. Drain and rinse the noodles. Lay them out so they don’t stick to each other.
3. Beat eggs; add the ricotta and 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, parsley, and a dash of salt and pepper.
4. Layer 1/3 of the noodles in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Spread half of the cheese filling and about half of the meat sauce. Repeat layers, but save a little sauce for the top. Then do 1 last layer of noodles and spread the remaining sauce on top. Sprinkle with cheese.
5. Bake @ 375 for 30 minutes. Pull it out and let stand 10 minutes.
Waiting is the hardest part… It smells so good and you worked so hard to get to this point. But I promise its better if you wait to let the layers set up!
Want some other great dinner ideas?
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This looks DELICIOUS! I saw the picture and knew I needed to get the recipe. I love lasagna, so I can’t wait to try yours! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Chelsea! I’ve tried a ton of lasagna recipes and this one is my favorite! Hope you like it.
Trying it tonight!!! 🙂
Ooooh! So jealous! Hope it turns out amazing! Don’t forget to let it set up for 10 minutes. I find that step extremely important.