The Best Classic Lasagna Recipe – Homemade lasagna full of pasta, ricotta, a homemade meat sauce, and tons of cheese. This is the world’s best lasagna recipe!
I’ve been working on this meat lasagna recipe for over a year.
I set out to make the best traditional lasagna recipe. Every time I made it, I’d make little tweaks here and there until I thought it was just right.
I think I finally nailed it!
How to make lasagna:
- Make the meat sauce
- Make a ricotta cheese mixture
- Boil the pasta
- Assemble the lasagna
- Bake
- Cool
- Enjoy
How to layer lasagna:
- Spread a thin layer of pasta sauce in the bottom of a baking dish
- Make a layer of cooked lasagna noodles
- Spread an even layer of the ricotta cheese mixture
- Spread an even layer of meat sauce
- Repeat those layers two times
- Top it with a final layer of noodles, sauce, mozzarella, and parmesan cheese
How to bake lasagna:
- Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes
- Remove the foil and bake for 15 more minutes
- Let the lasagna rest for at least 15 minutes before slicing
Wondering what to serve with this amazing lasagna recipe? Try these.
- Cream Cheese Italian Pinwheels from Amanda’s Easy Recipes
- Salad with Homemade Garlic & Herb Vinaigrette
- Zesty Tomato Broccoli Salad – From Inspire a Creation
- Homemade Garlic Bread – From Recipe Tin Eats
You may also like:
- The Best Classic Meatloaf Recipe
- The Best Classic Chili Recipe
- The Best Classic Buttermilk Banana Bread Recipe
Watch the step by step video for The Best Classic Lasagna recipe below.
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Best Classic Lasagna Recipe
The Best Classic Lasagna Recipe - Homemade lasagna full of pasta, ricotta, a homemade meat sauce, and tons of cheese. This is the world's best lasagna recipe!
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 50 minutes
Video
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1/2 lb. sweet Italian sausage
- 1 medium onion -chopped
- 2 garlic cloves -minced
- 1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce
- 1 (15 oz.) can crushed tomatoes
- 2 (6 oz.) cans tomato paste
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 3 teaspoons salt -divided
- 3 teaspoons Italian seasoning -divided
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves -divided
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley -divided
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese -divided
- 15 oz. (1 ¾ cups) whole milk Ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese -divided
- 1 large egg
- 12 lasagna noodles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Make the meat sauce. Add beef and sausage to a large skillet over medium-high heat, breaking it apart with a wooden spoon. Add the onion and garlic. Cook until meat is browned, about 6-8 minutes. Drain the fat from the meat. Return the meat to the skillet.
- Add the tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, water, sugar, 2 teaspoons salt, 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon basil, and the black pepper. Stir until well combined. Cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer the sauce for 30 minutes. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the minced parsley.
- As the sauce cooks, make the ricotta mixture. In a large bowl, add 1 cup mozzarella, the ricotta, ¼ cup parmesan, 2 tablespoons of the parsley, the egg, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, and ½ teaspoon basil. Stir until well incorporated.
- Cook the pasta al dente, according to it’s package directions.
- Assemble the lasagna. In a 13x9 inch baking dish, add a very thin layer of meat sauce (about ¼ cup). Layer 3 lasagna noodles, ⅓ of the ricotta mixture, and 1 ½ (level) cups of meat sauce. Repeat the layers twice.
- Add a final layer of the remaining noodles, meat sauce, 1 cup mozzarella, and ¼ cup parmesan.
- Cover with foil that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil. Bake 15 more minutes.
- Let the lasagna cool for 15-20 minutes before cutting.
Nutrition
Serving: 1/12th of the recipe | Calories: 463kcal | Carbohydrates: 36g | Protein: 25g | Fat: 24g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Cholesterol: 91mg | Sodium: 1420mg | Potassium: 812mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 1115IU | Vitamin C: 14.9mg | Calcium: 274mg | Iron: 3.7mg
Check out all of my great ground beef recipes.
I highly recommend this recipe. Besides being a family favorite, it is easy to make. This time, I used no-cook noodles, and it turned out great. The cook and rest times are perfect.
I have been using this recipe for years! Thank you!
This is the best lasagna recipe I have ever made.
The sausage adds a distinct taste.
This is the third time I made it and it comes out perfect every time.
My wife’s old recipe was too dry.
I froze some last time and a month later it tasted like it just came out of the oven.
Best lasagna ever. Even my picky husband likes it. Freezes well too
I’ve made this a couple of times now using Impossible Beef and Beyond Sweet Italian Sausage (both vegetarian) instead of the real beef and sausage and it was delicious to all including the meat eaters.
Made the spaghetti last week and loved it! We had so much leftover sauce, so we had a lasagna night. My husbands mom is a pretty good cook and her lasagna is fantastic. My husband is the person who can taste things and tell you the ingredients or what’s missing. He declared this the best lasagna he’s ever had!
Added spicy Italian sausage and followed the recipe. It made it absolutely fantastic. This my families new “go to” lasagna recipe. WOW,
Phew, that was a lot of work for an old Lady like me lol, but well worth the effort. We all loved this Lasagna. Thank you, I will .m;ake it again, added to my favorite recipes
It’s the sausage!!! It gives this simple recipe the extra punch and it’s a super big favorite in my house! The sauce alone has been used many times on pasta and rice for a super quick meal!! Thanks so much!!
5xstars the best
Finally an old school recipe. Awesome. Needed a little reminder of all the ingredients. I already know this is real lasagna.
Wonderful flavor for the sauce and simple for any level of cooking skills. It’s not often I want to lick the pan after making the sauce. I used ready to bake noodles to save some time.
This was a very delicious recipe. It’s a definite keeper! My husband asks for lasagna every year for his birthday and I decided to try something a little different. I used this as a base for my recipe and added some fresh veggies in with the sauce mix. My husband loved this recipe. Thank you for sharing!
This was really delicious. I used 2 jars of spaghetti sauce instead of making the sauce from scratch but followed the rest of the recipe.
I had to sub out many ingredients and it still came out outstanding. I used savory Impossible protein instead of beef. I used cottage cheese instead of ricotta just because that’s what I had on hand. I used a Mexican shredded cheese mix instead of mozzarella also because that is what I had at home. I had no parsley. I had no Italian spices. Like I said, it’s still came out delicious and I would totally make it again.
It is easy and has the right balance of meat, cheeses and seasonings. It also remains moist after reheating left overs. It’s perfect!
Amazing! To me, it’s all about the sauce and this one doesn’t disappoint!! I personally add 1/4 tsp of red chili flakes to the sauce mixture to add a little heat to the sweetness of it.
Family favorite!
This is now the family favorite recipe for lasagna. I always double it for plenty of tasty leftovers.
One of my favorite recipes, it’s easy and personally I think the ricota mix makes all the difference, it’s just perfect. The only think I don’t add is the sausage.
I used this as my baseline for making for my first lasagna. I had less noodles (used a smaller pan) also added spinach to the ricota level… and no in my sugar since I needed to add a large amount of store bought sauce too. But thank you…… it came out wonderful. I’ll be making Lasagna again.
stay adventuorus, Craig
This is my favorite lasagna recipe! Prep time was definitely longer than 20 minutes for me though.
Very good! I subbed a bit of the water for a few glugs of red wine, doubled the garlic, halved the sugar. Excellent recipie to alter to taste!
It’s excellent recipe 😋 i did it , and my family love it so much, but the problem…. they want to eat it every week 😅 . Thank you so much ❤️