Of all the foods I miss eating due to food intolerances, lasagna is in my top three. I love sticking a fork into a really cheesy lasagna. I even like lasagna that’s not that good–the kind that comes in the freezer section at the grocery store and gets all watery when you bake it. I really wanted to eat this dish.
This lasagna was so easy to assemble. I love that these authors finally got me to try baking a lasagna without cooking the noodles first (thanks, guys!). I had always bought those expensive “no boil” noodles. And I was skeptical since I wasn’t freezing the first lasagna prior to baking. I didn’t really expect it to work. Waddya know? These regular noodles cooked up just fine, and I’m never going back.
Classic Lasagna: Large Pan
I like to replace half of the beef with 2-4 cups of chopped veg. Spinach, broccoli, or carrots all work well.
Makes 2 entrees, 12 servings each.
Source: Fix, Freeze, Feast by Kati Neville and Lindsay Tkacsik
Course: Main (Beef)
Cuisine: Italian
Main Ingredient: Pasta
Serves:
Ingredients
- 1 48-ounce container cottage cheese (about 6 cups)
- 4 eggs lightly beaten
- 3 cups shredded Parmesan cheese divided into 2 cups and 1 cup
- 13 cups Basic Red Sauce page 178
- 18 lasagna noodles uncooked
- 2 pounds lean ground beef cooked and drained
- 8 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (about 2 pounds)
- Two 13x9x2 inch baking dishes (or deeper)
- Plastic wrap
- Aluminum foil
Preparation:
1. Combine cottage cheese, eggs, and 2 cups of the Parmesan in a large bowl.
2. Lay baking dishes before you and spread 1/2 cup red sauce in the bottom of each.
In retrospect, I wish I had used deeper pans. I managed to get everything into the ones I bought (which were 2″ deep), but the cheese stuck to the foil (in spite of oiling the foil) during baking. Next time, I’ll try to search out some deeper pans.
I like to have some veg in my lasagna, so I replaced half of the beef with about 4 cups of chopped veggies. I used what was in the produce drawer, which turned out to be some carrot pulp from the juicer, a few handfuls of broccoli, and half an eggplant. I don’t really recommend eggplant or zucchini for baking into lasagna because they tend to make the lasagna quite watery. But the poor eggplant had no other purpose and I didn’t want to throw it out, so in it went. If you want to make this into a veggie lasagna, you can leave out the beef altogether and just use veggies (there is also a recipe for veggie lasagna on page 160).
3. Assemble both lasagnas at once in layers in the following order:
LAYER 1
3 uncooked noodles
2 cups red sauce
1 cup cooked ground beef
1 1/2 cups cottage cheese mixture
1 cup mozzarella
LAYER 2
3 uncooked noodles
2 cups red sauce
1 cup cooked ground beef–or whatever remains
1 1/2 cups cottage cheese mixture–or whatever remains
1 cup mozzarella
LAYER 3
3 uncooked noodles
2 cups red sauce–or whatever remains
2 cups mozzarella
1/2 cup Parmesan
I stagger the noodles. And then on the next layer, I stagger them in the opposite direction. On the next layer, I align the outside noodles with the bottom of the pan, and the middle noodle with the top. This ensure that the end pieces of your lasagna are not lacking in noodle-structure.
I had some fresh breadcrumbs in the fridge from a previous dinner, and scattered them on the top. A handful of breadcrumbs is never wrong, in my opinion.
4. Wrap each dish entirely in plastic wrap. Top with foil, label, and freeze.
To Cook:
- Thaw one entree in the refrigerator or bake it straight from the freezer.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Remove plastic wrap and foil from baking dish and replace foil. Place dish on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 1 hour if thawed, 1 1/2 hours if frozen. Remove foil and continue baking until lasagna is bubbling and cheese is browned.
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