I have always made my lasagne without cooking the noodles first. **I do not buy the no-cook noodles, I use the regular ones and it always turns out great!*** The important thing is to make sure all the noodles are covered with sauce. You can actually add quite a bit of water to the sauce to make sure everything is covered & it still turns out great. I have sometimes just added water to the baking pan after layering to ensure everything is covered - have never been disappointed with the results. - ALSO - this is not something you can make ahead & bake later as the noodles will turn to mush if they sit in the liquid too long before cooking.
Great recipe! Awesome flavor and super easy. One suggestion though. When you mix the cheeses together you can't taste the different flavors of them! I like to mix eggs and cottage cheese, then when doing the layers, I put cottage cheese first then chunks of Ricotta topped with the mozzarella. Then when it calls to add the last of the mozzarella for the last 15 min., I mix the Parmesan with it. It makes the top a little crustier but it also helps to seal in the juices so they don't spill over the side! My husband and daughter love it!!
Good taste, and definitely easy, but there was too much of the cheese mixture for the meat sauce. I had to use half of a second 28-ounce jar of spaghetti sauce to put on top of the second cheese layer. Also, the mozarella cheese layer inside the lasagna is completely unnecessary. It's fine on top, but it adds too many calories for too little flavor, making it simply not worth it as a layer inside the lasagna. You'd be much better off with a layer of parmesan reggiano, romano, or feta cheese - these pack in tons of flavor! I also added garlic powder and Italian seasoning blend to my meat sauce - every pasta dish I make needs garlic! Finally, the top layer of noodles didn't cook too well - they came out rather hard.
I found this recipe to be simple and delicious. I made a few modifications though: I used italian seasoned lean ground turkey instead of the beef lowfat ricotta instead of part-skim and fat-free cottage cheese instead of regular. I accidentally forgot the eggs and omitted the mushrooms (still haven't learned to like them) but I did add a layer of spinach after the cheese mix layer which really added a nice flavor. I did run out of meat sauce before getting to cover the top layer of noodles so I just put the cheese mix on and a layer of plain pasta sauce. I will definitely make this easy and yummy recipe again!
Wonderful and easy! Just make sure you end with meat sauce and not pasta otherwise the top pasta will not cook fully.
This recipe was really good. I did make a few changes though- I used half hamburger and half italian sausage. I used fresh mushrooms and 3 cloves of garlic when I was sauteeing the onion. And I added 1 tsp of italian seasoning and 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes to the cheese mixture. I also used an extra cup of spaghetti sauce. It turned out really well.
This recipe did not turn out very well for me. The portions were very off: not enough sauce and way too much of the cheese mixture. I will have to adjust next time. Plus the noodles were a bit tough. I suggest using the no-boil noodles instead of regular lasagna noodles.
I made this but changed it a little. I made it with 1 pound of gr beef and 1/2 pound of Italian sausage and added 2 T of garlic along with the onion. I also used two jars of sauce and simmered it all with some crushed red pepper flakes. I added a square of frozen chopped spinach to the cheese mixture, and I used a bag (2 cups) of mozz cheese. Oh, and I also used the oven ready lasagna noodles. I have to say, it was pretty awesome. I have never followed directions of any kind in my life...why start now, LOL.
good recipe...however....i wouldn't use sooo much of the cottage cheese and ricotta cheese....seems like a lot of cheese. Also..i omitted the mozzarella layer in the middle. Cheezy cheezy!! good stuff though!
