Best Lasagna Recipe

Hello Everyone! It is starting to feel more like Autumn here in New Jersey and as the temperatures drop, you don’t mind using your oven more often. Today’s recipe is a delicious lasagna that will warm you right up. To follow along as I cook this recipe, click on the video below! Chin chin and enjoy 😉

Ingredients for a 2 lbs. Lasagna:

• 1 lbs. lasagna pasta
• 4 cloves of garlic, thinly chopped
• 2 handfuls of shredded mozzarella
• handful of parsley, chopped
• 1/2 a medium onion, thinly diced
• 4 Eggs
• Parmesan Cheese
• White Wine
• 30 oz. ricotta cheese (whole milk)
• Ground Meat
• 4 – 32 oz. jars of tomato sauce (store bought or homemade)
• 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
• handful of flour
• 1 Tbsp. of pesto
• Olive Oil (I use extra virgin)
• black pepper for seasoning
• salt for seasoning

Begin by making the sauce for the lasagna. Start by applying a bit of olive oil to a cooking pot. Pour 4 jars of tomato sauce into the pot and bring to a boil over low heat. Next, 2 Tbsp. of olive oil, onion and garlic into a second pot and simmer over very low heat. Make sure to mix while cooking to keep from burning. While this is cooking, begin preparing the ricotta cheese by pouring into a mixing bowl and adding 4 whole eggs, about a half a tsp. of salt, pinch of black pepper, and the parsley, 3 handfuls of parmesan cheese, 2 handfuls of shredded mozzarella and mix until fully combined.

Once the garlic and onion have simmered for a few minutes, add the ground meat to the pot and mix together. Once the meat has almost fully cooked, mix in the tomato paste. Then add a handful of flour and stir to mix together. Follow this by adding 2 oz of white wine and let cook for about 5 minutes. Lastly, add the pesto, salt and black pepper to taste, and mix all together. Now pour the meat contents into the sauce pan to combine. Stir together and let cook for 30 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.

For the pasta, add water, a little bit of oil, and salt to taste into a pot and bring to a boil. The olive oil is added to keep the lasagna pasta from sticking together. Once the water begins boiling, add the lasagna pasta and let cook for the time recommended on the packaging. Once cooked, drain and then add cold water to quickly cool off the pasta to begin layering your lasagna.

Cover the bottom of your baking pan with a small layer of meat sauce and then begin layering the lasagna pasta, followed by a layer of meat sauce and then a sprinkle of shredded mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese and then a layer of the ricotta cheese mixture. Continue layering until you reach the top of the pan.

Place the baking pan into the oven and let cook for about 35 minutes. If you see that the top of the lasagna is browning before the 35 minutes is up, cover with aluminum foil. Remove from the oven and let sit for a few minutes before cutting into. Serve with a side of hot pepper (oh yeah baby) and a nice glass of vino!