Our favorite easy Lasagna Recipe – Beef, pork, three cheeses, and lots of seasonings make this recipe SO delicious and perfect for dinner any night!
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Did you know it’s National Lasagna Day on Sunday? If not, no worries, I’m sharing our family’s favorite easy lasagna recipe today!
My mom makes Lasagna for the family all the time. It’s one of those meals that the entire family loves. It can usually feed us all too, which is a bonus since the family is pretty large. Not sure how that will be in a few years when there are even more kids, but I’m sure we’ll have to start doubling the recipe soon. 😉
Over the years my mom has tried a TON of Lasagna recipes, but recently she has been using the same one because all of us kids loved it. It has become our favorite Lasagna, and my mom loves it just because it’s an easy Lasagna recipe.
The recipe comes from the awesome ladies at Favorite Family Recipes. My mom modified it a bit to our family’s liking and we will probably continue to make it again and again because it so easy and so good.
How to make Lasagna:
- 1 TB Vegetable Oil
- 3-4 tsp. minced garlic
- 2 TB basil
- 1½ tsp. kosher salt
- 6 cups tomato sauce
- 1 lb. beef
- 1 lb. pork
- 1 16 oz. container sour cream
- 2 cups cottage cheese
- 1 cup Parmesan Cheese
- 1 lb. mozzarella cheese sliced
- 1 pkg. lasagna noodles no boil
- Parmesan cheese to taste
- pepper to taste
- Preheat oven to 350.
- In a pan, saute garlic in Vegetable oil on medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Stir in basil, salt, a little pepper, and tomato sauce. Simmer for 10 minutes. Turn down to low and continue to simmer.
- In another pan, brown your beef and pork. Add browned meat to your sauce and continue to simmer.
- In a bowl, combine Parmesan cheese, cottage cheese and sour cream. Mix well. Set aside.
- In a 9x13 pan, spread 1 cup of your sauce on the bottom. Layer with lasagna noodles and spread another cup of sauce on top of the noodles.
- Add a layer of slices mozzarella cheese and then half the sour cream mixture.
- Then add another layer of noodles, followed by a cup of sauce, another layer of sliced mozzarella and the rest of the sour cream mixture.
- Then add one more layer of noodles and the last of the sauce.
- Add Parmesan cheese to the top and bake for 25-30 minutes. ENJOY!
We always make the same sides to go with this recipe – garlic bread, Fried Zucchini and Tortellini Salad. We may add a small fruit salad with it, but that would be if we were trying to eat healthy (which never seems to happen on Sunday Dinner!) LOL!
Here is the recipe for our favorite Fried Zucchini:
For even more sides to go with this lasagna:
For all Dinner ideas go HERE, and for all Side Dish recipes go HERE.
In fact, you can find more great ideas by following me on Facebook – Pinterest – Instagram – Twitter – YouTube.
ENJOY!
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LOVE lasagna! And I didn’t know there was a national day for my love 🙂 This looks great!
Julie @ Julie’s Eats & Treats recently posted..Sloppy Joe Under a Bun Casserole
So glad you posted this! Most lasagna recipes seem to have ricotta, and I much prefer cottage cheese in mine. Yum!!
Lasagna is such a perfect Sunday night dinner. Okay let’s be honest lasagna is amazing any night 😉
Elizabeth @ Confessions of a Baking Queen recently posted..Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
CANT WAIT TO TRYSOME OF THESE THINGS !! THANK YOU
The recipe didn’t say, but is it correct to assume that the cottage cheese gets mixed in with the parmesan and sour cream?
Whoops! Yes. Updated the recipe. Thanks for the heads up. 🙂
Sounds yummy!! Can’t wait to make it. I usually make something like this in two pans and give one to the Elder and Sister missionaries in our ward — they always love these dishes. So is it right then that you don’t cook the lasagna noodles?? Just want to be sure.
So I am assuming you don’t cook the lasagna before you put it in the dish since it said no boil?
I tried this for supper and it was soupy and not done by the time it said it was supposed to be!! Never making thisagain!
So sorry to hear that, Erin. We’ve made these countless times and have never had issues. Did you follow the recipe exactly?
Hello, I sometimes have soupy lasagne as well. One tip that has been very beneficial to me is to “dry out” the cottage cheese first. Place the cottage cheese between layers of paper towels and go over it with a rolling pin. Do this twice with fresh paper towels the second time. I hope this helps.
Thank you for sharing that tip, Connie!! Hope that helps someone who has had that issue 🙂
I just opened the oven to check on it and it was soupy too. 🙁
Sounds awesome! I purchased the ingredients but want to make sure you do not boil the noodles? I’m making this tonight!
That’s correct! Did you make it? Curious what you thought…
I made this yesterday and it was very good. I let it set about 10 min. and it cut very nicely into squares.Thanks for the recipe,I will definitely make again
Love to hear that! It’s definitely one of our favorites. 🙂
Just finished making this and it’s so soupy and watery, I don’t know what I did wrong I followed the directions exactly. The only thing I can think of trying would be to add about half the sauce and cream cheese mixture and maybe that would help. I don’t think I’ll attempt to make this particular recipe again.
Sorry you had a hard time with this, Danielle. We’ve made this several times and have had no issues with it being too water-y. :/
Made this tonight and it did not get done in the time it said, had to cook way longer, I finally covered it with tinfoil and raised the temp to speed up the process, hope I don’t have too wait too long
So sorry you had issues, Angie. We’ve never run into problems before. I know ovens all work differently, but hopefully you didn’t have to cook it much longer.
I just put mine in the oven, I added a 12 oz can of tomato paste. Mainly because I like the taste of the tomato paste, but also because the recipe my mom used called for it. It helps thicken it up. I’ll let you know how it turns out. It is a very dense and deep recipe, I am not surprised it takes longer. But I think any lasagna I’ve ever made took longer than the recipe stated.
This looks delicious!!! As does the garlic bread! What is your recipe for the garlic bread?
We have yet to share a recipe on here for garlic bread, but we do use a few. I will be sure to get it on here soon. 😉
I was eerie to make this after I saw the comments of it being soupy, and cottage cheese also made me a little nervous because I usually use ricotta but it turned out absolutely delicious! If you let it sit and cool off it isn’t soupy and it was more than ready after 25-30 minutes so we didn’t have any issues there either like some people mentioned. Instead of pork I just used 2lbs of beef and only one pack of mozzarella and it was great still. My boyfriend who is extremely picky also loves this recipe so we will definitely be making it again sometime 🙂
So glad to hear that you liked it, Kelly. We’ve made this recipe several times and it hasn’t been soup-y so not sure went wrong with the others…. just glad it worked out for you!! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Can I prepare this ahead of time and store it in the fridge until I’m ready to cook it
Yes, but I would definitely do it the day of. We’ve never prepared it the day before or have freezed it. 🙂
I always make my lasagne the day before and never had a problem. In fact I choose to make it when I need to do something in advance. My daughter wants my recipe but I do not have one. I wing it using a store bought sauce. This recipe intrigued me with no cook noodles and sour cream. I must try.
Thank you for sharing that!! Let me know what you think of this recipe!!
If I wanted to make and freeze would you recommend cooking and then freezing? If so how long do you think it would take to heat through?
When I make lasagne I sometimes do a double batch and freeze one uncooked. I think if you cooked it first the cheese would not taste right, based on what my cooked cheesy soup does when frozen.
About how many servings does this recipe make?
About 8. 🙂
How many servings does this recipe make? Also, I’m not a cottage cheese fan…can I sub ricotta instead? Thanks!!
Ricotta cheese would totally work!! This dish serves about 8. 😉
Do you use plain ground beef and pork, or do you use snazzy italian/seasoned ground pork products?
We use the plain stuff since you add so many spices and such to the recipe. 😉
I ended up trying hot pork Italian sausage instead of the plain ground pork in my first attempt at making this lasagna. I also assembled the lasagna the night before I baked it, and kept it in the fridge over night. I let the lasagna sit at room temp about an hour before I baked it and then upped the cooking time by 15 minutes, including a few minutes under broil, to brown the cheese a bit. It was my opinion, and that of my whole family, that this was the best lasagna we’ve ever had. Thanks so much for such a great recipe!
Oh yeah, I also wanted to mention that my lasagna was a tad soupy, and I believe that it would have been worse had I not put it in the fridge overnight (where everyrhing had a chance to draw up some of the juices. I live at 6000 ft altitude, and believe that the problem is that I probably just needed a longer baking time than you would in lower altitudes. Either that, or I suspect that using 1 cup less tomato sauce would be fine, too.
I found this on pinterest because the picture intrigued me! Every other lasagna i’ve made was too dry, or the noodles took too long..etc. This was quick, easy, and delicious! Though I used butter to sautee the garlic and added diced onions. Not soupy here! Try using butter instead of Veg oil- only thing I can think of that would make it soupy. Thanks for the recipe!
So glad it worked out for you. IT’s our FAV lasagna recipe. 🙂
Making this for my Sunday supper it’s canadian football division finals. So I’m hoping it’s great an I have tried other recipes on here n they haven’t failed me.
This lasagna is delicious and easy… hope it doesn’t fail you. 😉
It was awesomeness in every bite made 2 pans an got 1 for the Grey cup this weekend
I have made this recipe for company and potlucks and it is an absolute favourite. People love it! I have made it a day or two ahead and kept it refrigerated or freeze it and pull out when needed with no need to bake first. It works to thaw it out and then bake but you can also bake from a frozen state. The bake time does increase when you bake from frozen. I use only ground beef and depending if I have parmesan cheese on hand, I may or may not use it. Sometimes i’ll add a bit of grated parmesan cheese instead. Most of the time I will divide the recipe into two pans depending on how many people I plan to serve at one time, which can give you two separate meals then. Thanks for the recipe!
Super easy and delicious! The grocery store had packaging in the exact amounts that the recipie called for, which was convenient. I had a little extra cheese mix and sauce left over, probably because the noodles I used didn’t quite fill the pan, so I added an extra layer, and used ricotta instead of cottage cheese. Had to cook a tad longer, probably because the extra layer, but wasn’t an issue for us! Glad I chose this recipe.
Yay, I’m so glad it turned out and you liked it! Isn’t it great when everything is packaged just right at the store?! I bet the ricotta was yummy in there! Thank you for letting me know and trying the recipe!:)
Are you able to prepare this ahead of time and refrigerate you think? I’ve made this several times and it’s always a big hit! Making it for my son’s birthday dinner with family tonight and was thinking about preparing it ahead of time to make life easier on myself 😉 Thanks in advance!
Of course! I’m all about prepping ahead of time! Just cover it well and you’re set! Thanks so much for sharing!!
HI there, I did not buy NO Boil noodles So Should I just cook them first? Or add extra water for the regular noodles to cook during oven time?
HI there, I did not buy NO boil Noodles so Should I just boil the noodles first? Or Go ahead and Bake without boiling? Thanks in Advance
Hi this recipe sound delicious. i was just wandering why you use cottage cheese instead of ricotta? whats the differance between them?
I’m sure you could use either. I’m posting a link that talks about the difference…https://www.reference.com/food/differences-between-ricotta-cheese-cottage-cheese-cb0c507177b79351. Hope that helps!!
Will this recipe work with reg lasagna as long as they are boiled first?
It should 🙂 Thanks so much for stopping by!!
This REALLY is THE BEST lasagna. I had never thought of putting sour cream on it but boy does it do the trick! I didn’t have cottage cheese so I used queso fresco I had left, and it still turned out amazing. I also used ground turkey instead of beef and pork and still turned out o be the best lasagna. Lets just say we licked the 9×13 pan clean!
Thanks so much!! Those sound like great changes..thank you for sharing!!
Many people are saying it’s soupy or watery. I wonder if it depends on the percentage of the cottage cheese and sour cream. The light and no fat tend to be more watery in general. I plan on making this soon!! It looks great!
Good point. I wish I knew for sure why some are soupy. I mean there is a little liquid when cutting into it, but it shouldn’t be too watery.
I made it the other night and it turned out great!! I typically by low fat sour cream and 1% cottage cheese but I did get the regular sour cream and 2% cottage cheese for this and it wasn’t soupy at all!! It was delicious! I have never thought to add sour cream before!
Yay!! So glad it turned out! Thanks for letting me know 🙂
I am making this tonight, I noticed the tomato and meat mixture was a little lose so I just added 2TBS water and 1TBS cornstarch to a cup and mixed it. Added about half that mix to the pot and it thickened right up! Definitely excited to see how it turns out!! Also will be trying those fried zucchini tonight!!
Those go great together!!! Let me know what you think. I hope you like it 🙂 Thanks so much!