Big Dish Lasagna Recipe

5 Dec, 2022

Big Dish Lasagna Recipe

Fully baked lasagna

I love making this lasagna! A labor of love, but when I slice into the steaming dish to see all the layers of cheesy goodness, I couldn’t be more content. Another great part of this recipe is that it feeds my husband and I for LITERALLY days. So no more cooking for the week!

This recipe takes about two hours, start-to-finish. A bit of a time commitment, but the methods are pretty simple! Cook up ground beef, sauté onion, garlic and tomato paste, then add canned tomatoes and let simmer for a while. Step two: mix up the ricotta mixture. Next, cook noodles and assemble. Then bake! So, overall, not a very demanding recipe- just a little bit of time.

What you should know before you cook this recipe:

I took a poll on my Instagram page, to see what kinds of dishes folks had. Overwhelmingly, it was determined that a lasagna should be made in a 9×13 inch sized baking dish. But if you don’t need an amount of lasagna that can feed a big village, you can reduce a few things in this recipe to make a smaller quantity. If you’re baking this in a smaller dish, I recommend using only 1 or 1.5 pounds of ground beef, only one-28 ounce can of tomatoes and omitting the 14-ounce can of tomato sauce.

Another note about this recipe, is that you can use regular lasagna noodles that you cook in boiling water, OR you can use oven-ready noodles, that don’t require pre-cooking. I have used both kinds, and the result is pretty similar. I will say, to make the oven-ready noodles fit into a single layer in your baking dish, its a bit tough to break them apart into the right sizes to fit in. But they save some time… so it’s up to you!

My baking dishes are from Made In, and I cannot recommend them enough! They are French porcelain, and they come in multiple different sizes! Porcelain is an excellent material to bake in, because it heats evenly, is naturally non-stick, and is extremely durable. Check out the bakeware line from Made In, and all their other products here. Made In is a brand of cookware I have used and enjoyed for years, and their products are of excellent quality. In addition to the bakeware, I have a carbon steel pan, sauce pots, and knives I’ve purchased from them.

I use these baking dishes in some of my other recipes:

Comforting Chicken Pot Pie with Herby Drop Biscuit Crust Recipe

Chicken Pot Pie

Monterey, Cheddar and Rye Breakfast Bake Recipe

Fully baked lasagna

Recipe Card

Big Dish Lasagna

This lasagna recipe is my favorite, and is pretty simple to make. It has all your favorite ingredients layered together: beef marinara sauce; ricotta, parsley, and Parmesan cheese spread; mozzarella cheese and noodles. I love the addition of parsley sprinkled on top, to give it a fresh, herby kick, too. 

Author: Claire Jaspers
Fully baked lasagna
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Prep Time 45 mins Cook Time 75 mins Total Time 2 hrs Servings: 6

Ingredients:

For the marinara sauce:

Ricotta and Parmesan cheese mixture

Other ingredients:

Instructions:

Make the marinara sauce:

  1. Add olive oil and heat in a heavy-bottom pot or large pan.

  2. Cook the ground beef and season with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning, and break up into small pieces. Then, remove from pan.

  3. If needed, add more olive oil. Add onion and garlic to pan, and cook over medium heat until onion is translucent- but don’t burn the garlic!

  4. Add tomato paste, and cook out until a shade or two darker.

    The paste may stick to the bottom of the pan, make sure it doesn't get too dark!

  5. Add the canned tomatoes and sauce, and 1 cup of water. Scrape up the fond, those browned bits, from the bottom of the pan.

  6. Add in ground beef to sauce along with sprigs of fresh herbs, and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes to an hour.

Make the ricotta and Parmesan cheese mixture:

  1. In a medium bowl, combine ricotta, egg, chopped parsley, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper until combined. Set aside. 

Assemble the lasagna:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grab a sheet pan and a 9×13 inch baking dish.

  2. Remove herb sprigs from marinara sauce. Taste and adjust for seasonings.

  3. Spread a cup of sauce onto the bottom of the baking dish. Add a layer of noodles, and top with ricotta and Parmesan cheese mixture. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese atop, and then layer on the marinara sauce. Layer until you run out of ingredients.

  4. Finish the top of the lasagna with a layer of mozzarella cheese, and cover with tin foil.

    At this point, you can freeze the lasagna to bake later!

  5. Set baking dish atop sheet pan, to catch any drips, and bake for 1 to 1 and a half hours. Halfway through, remove the tin foil to melt and brown the top layer of cheese.

  6. The lasagna is finished cooking when the top has browned, and the sauce is bubbling. Allow lasagna to cool slightly, and garnish with fresh parsley and more Parmesan cheese before serving.

Note

I have tested this recipe with both regular noodles and oven-ready noodles-either works great!

Keywords: lasagna, cheese, dinner

Claire Jaspers

5 Dec, 2022