Easy & Delicious Homemade Lasagna

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If you’re still making lasagna with jarred tomato sauce, you’re missing out on the nuances of flavor that you’ll only ever get from making your own sauce from scratch for this Delicious Homemade Lasagna.

homemade lasagna

I used to make lasagna with whatever jarred sauce I had on hand, but after I made homemade meat sauce for the first time, I realized what I was missing out on and I’ve never bought jarred sauce again.

It’s quite simple to make your own tomato sauce, so that’s what we do in this recipe. You won’t regret it! It adds so much more to the dish than store-bought sauce, and it only adds about 10-20 more minutes to the process.

On a side note, if you have an Instant Pot, you can actually make Instant Pot Lasagna in a spring form pan in an hour and it’s pretty amazing.

» You might like this Five-Cheese Penne al Forno and these 12 Comfort Food Recipes.

a slice of lasagna

What Ingredients You Need

Before you start out making this recipe, here’s the grocery list of items you’ll need:

  • Lasagna sheets – you can use fresh lasagna sheets, pre-boil dried lasagna sheets, use no-boil pasta, or even make your own (recipe and directions below).
  • Meat – I use a combination of ground beef and pork, which gives a little variance of flavor and really boosts the dish.
  • Canned tomatoes – A 28 oz can of chopped or crushed tomatoes works perfectly. Some people swear by San Marzano canned tomatoes. It’s best to use a good quality can of tomatoes, so don’t go for the cheapest one.
  • Tomato paste – You want to use the thick tomato paste, not tomato sauce or passata.
  • Cheese – You’ll use riccota and Mozzarella cheese in the layers
  • Herbs and seasonings – Oregano, Italian seasoning, salt and black pepper.
  • Onions and garlic – If you really like onion and garlic, you can add more than what the recipe calls for. I like to keep it mild.

Making Your Own Pasta

If you want to try your hand at making your own pasta, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s not difficult or scary to make your own pasta.

making pasta dough

Here is an incredibly easy homemade pasta recipe that only requires you to mix flour with eggs and knead the dough.

  • 2 large eggs
  • 200g of 00 flour, plus extra for dusting

Make a mound out of the flour (reserving about 20 grams to use only if necessary). Swirl a whole in the middle of the mound with your fingers. Crack the eggs into the center of the mound. 

Using a fork, beat the eggs gently, then start to incorporate the surrounding flour, slowly, until fully combined. Add the extra flour only if the dough is too sticky. Then knead the dough until it’s smooth and elastic.

Rolling the Pasta

Rolling a sheet of pasta through a pasta maker

There are two ways to roll your fresh pasta. You can knead it and roll it out with a rolling pin. This takes a bit of muscle and time, but it’s not difficult. Or you can use a pasta maker. There are three different types of pasta makers.

A manual pasta roller won’t make the pasta for you; it’ll just help with rolling out or cutting shapes. The second option is an attachment for the KitchenAid that rolls out the dough for you.

There is a third, even easier option. If you’ve ever wanted to make fresh pasta, but didn’t want to do the work, you need this.

How much homemade pasta per person?

I recommend a 2 ounce serving of fresh pasta per person. Once the pasta is cooked it equals around 1 cup of pasta, which is a decent serving. The recipe above makes 4 servings.

Want to Make Your Own Ricotta?

I sometimes like to make my own ricotta, though I only do it when I have enough time and patience for it. It’s very easy, but does take time. The best case for making your own ricotta is when you don’t have any on hand, but you do have milk! Bingo, just make the ricotta. Here’s a recipe to help you make your own if you want.

Homemade Lasagna

I like to add plain ricotta to my lasagne layers, but many lasagna recipes add egg and seasonings to the ricotta. This is a personal preference thing. I personally don’t think it’s necessary. If you want to add seasonings, some oregano and black pepper would give it some extra flavor.

How to Make Homemade Lasagna from Scratch

Homemade Lasagna

Step One: Make the Tomato Meat Sauce

You start this recipe by making the tomato meat sauce. I make the sauce in one large sauce pan. Start by browning the ground beef and pork with the onions in the pot over medium high heat. When fully cooked, add garlic and tomato paste. Stir and cook for 1 minute.

Add the tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt, oregano, black pepper and sugar. Allow the sauce to simmer for at least 30 minutes, or up to 4 hours. The longer it simmers, the more flavor will develop. If you simmer for longer than 30 minutes, put the lid on so it doesn’t evaporate too much.

I prefer to make my meat sauce on the stovetop, but you can also put all the sauce ingredients in the slow cooker and cook on low for up to 8 hours, while you’re at work. The Instant Pot is another great way to cook homemade tomato sauce.

Step Two: Layer the Lasagna

Homemade Lasagna

Once the sauce is ready, you just have to assemble the lasagna.

Spread a little sauce on the bottom of the baking dish. Lay in pasta sheets, making sure not to overlap them, and top it with about 1/3 of the sauce, ricotta, and mozzarella cheese. Make 3 layers, but reserve enough sauce and mozzarella for the top.

On top of the last layer of pasta, spread on the remaining meat sauce and top with mozzarella. Cover the baking dish with tin foil.

Step Three: Bake the Lasagna

Bake the lasagna at 375°F( 190°C) for 50 minutes. You’ll want to remove the foil for the last 10 minutes so the cheese can get nice and bubbly and browned

I also recommend giving it 5-10 minutes to rest once you’ve removed it from the oven, because it will be piping hot.

You can easily freeze this lasagna before cooking to eat later. Here are some instructions on cooking a frozen lasagna.

Homemade Lasagna

Homemade Lasagna Tips & Secrets

  • If you don’t have time to make homemade pasta sheets, the next best thing is fresh lasagna sheets that you can often find in the fresh pasta section at the grocery store. I prefer fresh pasta sheets because they’re already partially cooked and have a great texture.
  • You can save time by using no-boil pasta sheets. You can easily find these lasagna sheets in the grocery. Just make sure it says No Boil or No Cook on the side of the box.
  • I always use a mixture of 1/2 ground beef and 1/2 ground pork in my tomato meat sauce, however you can stick with just ground beef, or you can even use seasoned pork. A sweet or spicy Italian ground sausage can be very tasty.

» Want to make a fun lasagna variations? You’ll love this taco lasagna recipe. For other great tomato and mozzarella recipes, try this Caprese Ravioli or our favorite Chicken Caprese pasta. Also try this Beef Ragu with Pappardelle recipe. It’s divine.

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A slice of lasagna on a plate.

Homemade Lasagna

This homemade lasagna recipe uses homemade sauce, ricotta, and loads of mozzarella for a soul satisfying dish.
4.91 from 11 votes
Print Pin Rate
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings: 6 servings
Calories: 623kcal
Author: Laura Lynch

Ingredients

For the sauce

  • 1/2 pound (227 g) ground beef
  • 1/2 pound (227 g) ground pork
  • 1/2 onion chopped
  • 4 ounces (113 ml) tomato puree
  • 1 clove garlic minced
  • 28 ounces (794 g) can chopped tomatoes
  • 1 teaspoon (2 g) Italian seasoning
  • 1 teaspoon (6 g) salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon (1 g) oregano
  • 1/4 teaspoon (0.5 g) ground black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon (1 g) white sugar

For the lasagna

  • 12 lasagna sheets homemade pasta sheets, fresh pasta sheets, no-boil sheets, or pre-boiled pasta sheets
  • 1 cup (248 g) ricotta cheese
  • 2 cups (224 g) mozzarella cheese grated

Instructions

  • Pre-heat oven to 375°F(190°C). Prepare a 13×9 baking dish by spraying it with cooking oil.

For the tomato meat sauce

  • Brown the ground beef, pork, and onions in a large sauce pan over medium high heat. When fully cooked, add garlic and tomato paste. Stir and cook for 1 minute.
  • Add the tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt, oregano, black pepper and sugar.
  • Allow the sauce to simmer for at least 30 minutes, up to 4 hours.

To assemble the lasagna

  • Spread a little sauce on the bottom of the baking dish. Lay in pasta sheets, making sure not to overlap, and top it with about 1/3 of the sauce, ricotta, and mozzarella cheese. Make 3 layers, reserving enough sauce and mozzarella for the top.
  • On top of the last layer of pasta, spread on the remaining meat sauce and top with mozzarella. Cover the baking dish with tin foil and bake for 50 minutes, removing the foil for the last 10 minutes.

Notes

  • Fresh homemade pasta sheets don’t need to be precooked. Neither do “no boil” lasagna sheets.
  • If you prefer, you can substitute the ricotta with cottage cheese or a bechamel sauce.

Nutrition

Calories: 623kcal | Carbohydrates: 52g | Protein: 35g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 14g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 11g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 104mg | Sodium: 901mg | Potassium: 761mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 698IU | Vitamin C: 15mg | Calcium: 353mg | Iron: 4mg

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6 thoughts on “Easy & Delicious Homemade Lasagna

  1. Laura D. says:

    5 stars
    Hey Laura it looks like you have this Lasagna nailed. I’ve been making Lasagna for over 55 years and I wanted to suggest a couple of more touches that “kicks it up a notch” and adds another depth of flavor. I add some Italian seasonings, either dried or fresh, to the ricotta cheese the day before I “build” the dish and I also add some fresh grated Parmesan atop the Mozzarella layers during the “build” with some extra on top. Give it a try, I think you’ll like it!

    • Angela Morris says:

      Hi Pam. You can find us on Facebook at A Food Lover’s Kitchen. Everything that we post there has a link that will get you through to the recipe. Enjoy!

4.91 from 11 votes (8 ratings without comment)

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