Best Homemade Lasagna

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This is hands down The Best Lasagna Recipe Ever! Easy, cheesy, meaty and so so delicious! It’s the quintessential recipe for feeding a large family or bringing to a potluck. Layer up the hearty meat sauce, different cheeses, and lasagna pasta and then bake until hot and bubbly.

THE BEST Lasagna Recipe Ever!

So happy to be sharing this epic Lasagna Recipe with you today! My family will lick their plates clean when this is on the dinner menu. This recipe is not dry, not soupy, cuts perfectly, holds together, and tastes amazing! This is the lasagna recipe that you need in your recipe box. Make this once and never need another lasagna recipe again. It’s meaty, cheesy, decadent and the perfect Italian dinner.

How to Make Lasagna 

Lasagna is essentially a layered Italian casserole made up of three parts: meat sauce, cheese mixture, and pasta sheets. Here is the process of how to make and assemble your lasagna. For full recipe details and ingredient measurements, see the printable recipe card down below.

1. Make Lasagna Meat Sauce

Give yourself a good couple hours (or more!) to make the meat sauce because this is a big part of why this lasagna is so good!

1. In a large heavy-bottomed pot, heat olive oil over medium heat.
2. Add in onion and sautè.
3. Add in garlic and ground beef. Break meat apart as it browns.
4. Pour in diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, bay leaves, dried basil, sugar, Italian Seasoning and salt.
5. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to a gentle simmer.
6. Cook sauce 1-2 hours or until very thick. You may have to add more water as you go to ensure it doesn’t scorch which is totally normal.

2. Make Lasagna Cheese Filling

A classic Lasagna Recipe calls for ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan. While meat sauce cooks, stir cheeses together in a bowl with basil, parsley and salt & pepper. Set aside.

3. Cook Lasagna Pasta Sheets

Regardless of the brand of lasagna you’re using, be sure to check out the packaging and boil noodles for two-thirds of the recommended time. Since you will be baking the entire lasagna in the oven after you layer it, your pasta will continue cooking, so give it a place to go! Overcooked pasta does not make a good lasagna.

How To Layer Lasagna

Make your meal a full Italian feast with some of my most loved and favorite salad and side dish recipes!

Start with a bit of meat sauce in the bottom of a large casserole dish or a plain 9×13 and line the bottom with pasta. Top with the cheese mixture and meat sauce. Add another layer of noodles, cheese, and sauce and then top with more pasta, more sauce and a sprinkling of cheese. So, basically, here are your layers:

1. Meat Sauce (just a little so the noodles don’t stick to the bottom)
2. Noodles
3. Cheese Filling
4. Meat Sauce
5. Noodles
6. Cheese Filling
7. Meat Sauce
8. Noodles
9. Meat Sauce
10. Mozzarella Cheese

4. Bake Homemade Lasagna

Cover your layered lasagna with aluminum foil that has been lightly sprayed with nonstick cooking spray and bake, being sure to pull the foil off the last few minutes of cooking to brown the top.

What Temperature Should You Bake A Lasagna?

Lasagna should be baked at 375° F. Some recipes might call for 350, some might go as high as 425, but I think 375 is perfect.

How Do You bake Lasagna?

1 hour/60 minutes total: 45 minutes covered with foil and 15 minutes uncovered.

Recipe Tips for Success

The best lasagna you’ve ever eaten is only steps away. Here are my golden rules for creating the best-finished product.

• Cook your meat sauce for a long time. This not only concentrates the flavors for a more flavorful meat sauce, but it reduces the amount of liquid. If you want to cut perfect slices and not have a soupy mess on your hands, cooking your sauce for an hour or two until its very thick is a big step in the right direction. Bonus points for making the sauce 12-24 hours in advance. Red sauces of any kind always taste better the next day…in my opinion. Reheat the sauce before layering it up in the lasagna for quicker baking time.
• Boil lasagna noodles for two-thirds of the time, according to package directions. Most lasagna pasta will cook for 9-11 minutes. I pulled mine out at around 7 minutes. I don’t want to cook the pasta all the way through because once they hit the oven for baking, they can get mushier than al dente. So, draining them early means they will soak up any extra liquid in the sauce and after the hour in the oven, your pasta will be perfectly cooked, not mushy and help hold those beautiful layers together.
  Don’t use fresh mozzarella. While I big puffy heart eyes love fresh mozzarella, I feel the added moisture isn’t worth the taste. Instead, reach for a block of sturdier mozzarella cheese and grate it yourself. If you think this is sacrilegious and would prefer the fresh mozzarella, be sure to cut it into thin slices and press it in between paper towels to get out as much moisture as possible. And please please please don’t use the pre-grated mozzarella cheese.
• Let your Lasagna rest 15-20 minutes. Again, when trying to achieve those perfect slices, you have to let everything settle and rest before digging in. It will stay plenty hot, but the rest time really gives your lasagna those last few minutes to soak up that moisture and let the cheese firm up a touch. Garnish with dried or fresh basil.

What to serve with Homemade Lasagna

• Homemade Garlic Bread
• The Best Caprese Salad
• Hasselback Cheesy Garlic Bread
• Cheesy Garlic Pull Apart Rolls
• Caesar Salad Recipe without Anchovies
• See a full list of side dishes for lasagna

With all these helpful tips and the video below, you should be able to make the best lasagna ever! Printable recipe card is also below.

If you make this recipe, I would really appreciate it if you would give it a star rating and leave your review in the comments! If you have a picture of your finished dish, post it on Instagram using the hashtag #laurenslatest and tagging me @laurens_latest.

Ingredient Variations

While I love this homemade Lasagna Recipe as written, you may have other preferences! Here are some simple substitutions that you may want to try.

• Ground Beef vs Ground Sausage: You can absolutely substitute Sweet Italian Sausage or even Spicy Italian Sausage in place of the ground beef if that is your preference.
• Cottage Cheese vs Ricotta: Classic Italian Lasagnas are typically made with a blend of creamy Ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese and Mozzarella cheese. If you don’t like using ricotta cheese because of the taste or texture, you can definitely substitute cottage cheese in its place 1:1. Everything else in the recipe will stay the same.
• Regular Lasagna Pasta vs Oven Ready (no boil) Pasta: I don’t recommend the oven-ready noodles for this particular lasagna recipe. While they may seem like a simple sub, they are partially cooked and dehydrated for packaging. Oven ready pasta is thinner than regular lasagna pasta and I find those give you a more starchy lasagna that doesn’t taste very good (in my opinion). Also, they soak up a lot of moisture because they are essentially cooking and softening in the oven as the lasagna cooks. It’s easy to get a dry lasagna because of this.

Homemade Lasagna FAQ

How to store Homemade Lasagna

Half the fun of eating lasagna is being able to eat it AGAIN the next day. Store any extra lasagna in the fridge covered for up to 5 days. Whether that is in the same casserole dish or cut into individual slices in plastic containers, just ensure they are sealed airtight.

Individual slices can be reheated easily in the microwave. If you have more than a few slices in your casserole dish, cover with foil and bake at 350° F until heated completely through again.

Can I Freeze Lasagna?

Absolutely. Whether you are freezing lasagna before or after baking, the instructions mostly stay the same.

Unbaked Lasagna

Wrap casserole dish with assembled lasagna well with plastic wrap AND foil. Can stay frozen for up to two months. I like using a disposable 9×13 foil pan for freezing purposes.

Baking a Frozen Lasagna: unwrap lasagna completely. Cover with fresh foil and bake at 300° F for one hour and finish baking at 375° F for the last 30 minutes. Remove foil for the last few minutes of cooking to brown the cheese.

Baked Lasagna

Wrap casserole dish with assembled lasagna well with plastic wrap AND foil. Can stay frozen for up to two months.

Reheating Baked Lasagna: unwrap lasagna completely. Cover with fresh foil and bake at 350° F until thoroughly warm.

More Lasagna Recipes to Try

• Skillet Lasagna
• Cheesy Lasagna Dip
• White Spinach & Artichoke Lasagna
• Lasagna Cups
• Slow Cooker Lasagna
• Chicken Lasagna
• Lasagna Soup