Italian lasagna is always a great choice if you need a dish to prepare for dinner that will serve several people or can be eaten as leftovers. This lasagna is layered with a meat sauce, mozzarella cheese and a ricotta cheese mixture. The sauce is an Italian Bolognese that gets a lot of flavor from celery, onion, carrots, and garlic. A little bit of red wine is added into the sauce for amazing flavor. The sauce uses two meats—ground beef and pork. The ricotta layer gets a lot of flavor from fresh basil and parmesan cheese. Preparing lasagna does require a good amount of work but it is well worth it. You can serve this recipe with garlic bread on the side. Enjoy.
Italian Lasagna Recipe
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 8 Servings 1x
Ingredients
Scale
- 1lb cooked lasagna noodles
- Mozzarella cheese (to taste)
- Parmesan cheese (to taste)
- Sauce-
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 small onion (minced)
- ½ cup carrot (minced)
- ½ cup celery (minced)
- 1lb ground beef
- 1lb ground pork
- ½ cup tomato paste
- Salt (to taste)
- Pepper (to taste)
- 1 cup red wine
- 1 (28 ounces) can crushed tomatoes
- 2 garlic cloves (minced)
- Ricotta mixture-
- 15 ounces ricotta cheese
- ½ cup fresh basil (chopped)
- 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- ½ cup fresh parsley (chopped)
- 1 egg
- Salt (to taste)
- Pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Heat oil and butter in a large deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add carrot, onion, celery, and garlic. Cook stirring occasionally until golden brown, about 10 minutes.
- Add in ground beef, pork, salt, pepper, and tomato paste. Stir to combine, breaking up the meat until chunks with a spatula as it cooks, about 15-20 minutes.
- Add the red wine and scrape the bottom of the pan to release the brown bits. Simmer for 2 minutes. Add in crushed tomatoes and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer. Cover and cook for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
- In a large bowl combine ricotta cheese, basil, parmesan cheese, parsley, egg, salt, and pepper. Mix well and set aside.
- Grease a 9×13 inch baking dish. Add a layer of the sauce on the bottom. Top with noodles and then spread a layer of the ricotta over the noodles. Repeat with another layer of sauce, noodles, ricotta, noodles, sauce, extra mozzarella, and parmesan cheese.
- Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to bake for an additional 15 minutes until the cheese on top has browned and the sauce is bubbling.
- Slice and serve.