Lasagna was one of the first dishes I learned to make. I ate a lot of lasagna when I was in college and working late in restaurants. I found it very helpful to make a big lasagna and then refrigerate or freeze it in portions that I could heat up whenever I was hungry and had no time to cook. Lasagna is a great one dish meal and pairs perfectly with a simple salad.
When I got married and had children I continued to make lasagna on a regular basis. I typically make lasagna on Sundays when I never quite know if my kids will have a friend stay for dinner or my Dad may call and want to have dinner. If you make one big lasagna in the afternoon you will have enough for 6 hungry people. If you have fewer people just save it for another night. Lasagna reheats perfectly.
So let’s not overcomplicate this recipe but I insist that you make the lasagna with béchamel and not ricotta cheese. It makes the dish so creamy and delicious. When I was in Italy years ago I had the best lasagna and the owner of the restaurant told me to always make béchamel for your lasagna so since then I do. Try it and you will see why. You can also add pesto or ground beef to this recipe so consider this Lasagna recipe a base for whatever else you would like to add. If you would like to add ground beef and make it lasagna bolognese all you have to do is brown the ground beef, drain the oil and add the tomato sauce to the beef before layering the lasagna. When adding pesto you should mix it with the béchamel or the tomato sauce. You only need a tablespoon or so. I hope you enjoy. Share your comments!
Lasagna
Ingredients
- 4 cups simple tomato sauce
- 3 cups shredded Mozzarella
- 1 cup grated fresh parmesan cheese
- 1 box lasagna noodles (no boil is fine)
Bechamel Sauce
- 2½ tbsp butter
- 2½ tbsp flour
- 2½ cups milk
- ½ tsp pepper
- ½ tsp salt
Instructions
Make The Bechamel
- melt butter in saucepan
- add flour and make a paste
- whisk in milk, salt and pepper
- whisk until thickened
- remove from heat
Make the Lasagna
- preheat oven to 375
- put some tomato sauce on bottom of baking dish
- lay lasagna noodles over sauce
- spoon more tomato sauce to cover the noodles
- spoon in some of the bechamel
- sprinkle some mozzarella and parmesan
- keep repeating layers so you have 4 or 5 layers
- Top Lasagna with tomato sauce and mozzarella (no parmesan or bechamel)
- cover with foil and bake for 50 min
- remove from oven and let stand covered for 10 min then serve