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This Easy Lasagna Recipe is a best-loved classic. With no bake noodles and a delicious sauce you know it’s going to be a hit!
We’ve found this Easy Lasagna Recipe to be the perfect dinner whether you’re looking for a regular weeknight meal or entertaining dinner guests. It’s even better served with Garlic Bread and a Caesar Salad!
the only recipe we’ll use
This is our family’s favorite Easy Lasagna Recipe!
My mom makes Lasagna for the family all the time. We love all lasagna – like Chicken Lasagna and even Lasagna Soup. It’s one of those meals that the entire family loves, and one that feeds a crowd.
Over the years, my mom has tried a TON of Lasagna Recipes, but this is the one that has stuck because we love it that much!
This Lasagna Recipe is SO simple and SO delicious it is a best-loved recipe here on our site – you’re sure to love it!
How to make lasagna
PREP. Preheat oven to 350°F.
SAUCE. In a large pan over medium heat, sautee garlic in vegetable oil for 2-3 minutes. Stir in basil, salt, a dash of pepper, and tomato sauce. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
- In a large skillet over medium heat, brown beef and pork until no longer pink.
- Add meat to the tomato sauce and simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
CHEESE MIXTURE. In a bowl, combine Parmesan cheese, cottage cheese, and sour cream. Mix well and set aside.
Assembling Lasagna Ingredients
LAYER. In a 9×13 baking dish, spread 1 cup of the sauce on the bottom. Layer with lasagna noodles and spread another cup of sauce on top of the noodles.
- Add 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese and then half of the sour cream mixture.
- Add another layer of noodles, followed by a cup of sauce, another cup of shredded mozzarella, and then the rest of the sour cream mixture.
- Then, add one more layer of noodles and the last of the sauce.
BAKE. Add Parmesan cheese to the top and bake for 25-35 minutes depending on how crispy you like your edges. Let set up for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Recipe Tips
Lasagna layers. Lasagnas typically have 2-3 complete layers. This recipe has 2 complete layers of lasagna noodles.
Each of the two layers is topped with meat sauce, shredded cheese, and cheese sauce. These deliciously full layers are then topped with a final layer of noodles and sauce.
No boil noodles. No boil pasta noodles are the same as regular lasagna noodles, except they have been precooked and then dried. They also do not have the signature ribboned edges that regular noodles have.
Since no boil noodles have been precooked, simply layer them into the lasagna and the moisture from the sauces will soften the pasta as it bakes.
- Boil regular noodles to use in the lasagna if desired. Boil the noodles to al dente, drain, and then lay each noodle out on a cooling rack to dry out a bit while whipping up the sauces. Layer the lasagna as directed and bake.
Why is my lasagna soupy? It can sometimes be tricky to determine what makes someone else’s dish not turn out quite right. Some common factors may include:
- Not draining excess fat from the browned meat.
- Using non-fat sour cream and cottage cheese which tend to be more watery.
- Using regular noodles instead of the no boil kind.
- Higher altitude baking may require a longer baking time than listed in the recipe.
Variations
Meat. This recipe is one of our favorites because it uses ground beef and Italian sausage. If using fattier meat, drain excess oil before adding the browned meat to the red sauce.
- Italian sausage options: sweet and spicy, mild, or hot sausage.
- If you don’t like sausage, simply use all ground beef.
- Use ground turkey or chicken in place of beef and pork
- Omit the meat for vegetarian lasagna.
Vegetables. Adding vegetables is easy and can add delicious flavors and textures to the dish. A few common additions: mushrooms, diced bell peppers, chopped spinach, eggplant, zucchini, and onions.
Cheese. Using ricotta or cottage cheese is a matter of personal preference. Ricotta cheese is thicker and richer whereas cottage cheese is a bit lighter in taste and texture. This recipe calls for cottage cheese, but ricotta may be substituted.
Storing Info
Make ahead of time. Prepare this Best Lasagna Recipe ahead of time and store it before baking.
- To store in the fridge, cover the entire pan with plastic wrap and keep it in the refrigerator for 1-2 days.
- To store it in the freezer, wrap the dish with plastic and again with aluminum foil. It will keep in the freezer for up to 2 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight before baking.
STORE. Depending on how much you have, either divide the leftovers into individual servings or store larger portions together. In either case, store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
FREEZE leftover Easy Lasagna in the freezer for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before baking.
Reheat. Allow the lasagna to thaw, if applicable, and reheat it in the microwave or oven. If you have a jar of marinara sauce, add some sauce to the lasagna before reheating it to help keep it from drying out.
If reheating in the oven, cover the lasagna with foil and bake at 350°F until hot and bubbly.
For more lasagna:
- Cheesy Spinach Lasagna Rolls
- Lasagna Soup
- Skillet Lasagna
- Crockpot Lasagna
- Chicken Lasagna
- Mexican Lasagna
Easy Lasagna Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 3 – 4 teaspoons minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons fresh basil
- 6 cups tomato sauce
- 1 pound beef
- 1 pound pork
- 1 16 ounce container sour cream
- 2 cups cottage cheese, low fat
- 1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- 2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
- 1 package lasagna noodles no boil
- Parmesan cheese, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large pan over medium heat, sautee garlic in vegetable oil for 2-3 minutes. Stir in basil, salt, dash of pepper and tomato sauce. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
- In another pan over medium heat, brown beef and pork until no longer pink.
- Add meat to the tomato sauce and simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
- In a bowl, combine Parmesan cheese, cottage cheese and sour cream. Mix well and set aside.
- In a 9×13 pan, spread 1 cup of the sauce on the bottom. Layer with lasagna noodles and spread another cup of sauce on top of the noodles.
- Add a 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese and then half of the sour cream mixture.
- Add another layer of noodles, followed by a cup of sauce, another cup of shredded mozzarella and then 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. Let set up for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Adapted from Favorite Family Recipes.
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.
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. 😉
About how many servings does this recipe make?
About 8. 🙂
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.
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!!
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. 🙂
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. 😉
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.
I have always did half tomato sauce and half tomato purée and a small can of roasted tomato paste. This should take care of the soupy consistency. Also I used full fat sour cream and full fat cottage cheese.
Thanks for sharing!
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. :/