A Nice Cheese Lasagna
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy.
From cookbook author Julia Turshen, this cheese lasagna is light, simple, and elegant—a fresh take on a classic that’s as effortless as it is delicious!
This cheese lasagna recipe is adapted from Julia Turshen’s cookbook, Small Victories (2016), and it’s one of the simplest, lightest, and most elegant lasagna I’ve ever made. The recipe includes a few “small victories” that make it both easy and delicious: using no-boil noodles that are ready to use, replacing ricotta or béchamel with crème fraîche stirred directly into the tomato sauce for effortless creaminess (I love this cheat—the sauce is so good it’s hard to resist sneaking spoonfuls!), and a high sauce-to-pasta ratio that lets the noodles soak up the sauce’s flavor as they bake. It’s proof that lasagna doesn’t have to be complicated to be absolutely delicious.
“This is a lovely lasagna.”
What You’ll Need To Make Cheese Lasagna
Step-by-Step Instructions
In a large bowl, crush the tomatoes with your hands (this is a messy but fun job—it’s a very good one for children) until they are in bite-size pieces.
In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, cook the garlic until it begins to sizzle.
Add the tomatoes and 1 tsp salt and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and let the sauce simmer, stirring every so often, until it is slightly reduced, about 30 minutes.
Whisk the crème fraîche into the sauce and season to taste with salt. Set the sauce aside to cool to room temperature while you conquer the pasta.
Preheat your oven to 400°F and set an oven rack in the middle position. Ladle a thin layer of room-temperature sauce onto the bottom of a 9-by-13-in baking dish. Spread the sauce with a spoon to cover the surface of the dish. Add 3 sheets of pasta in a single layer over the sauce.
Spoon over just enough tomato sauce to cover the pasta and then scatter over some of the Parmesan, mozzarella, and basil.
Repeat the layering process until you’ve used up all of your components, ending with sauce and cheese (not naked pasta or basil, both of which would burn if exposed).
Bake the lasagna, uncovered, until it’s gorgeously browned and the edges are bubbling, 35 to 40 minutes. Let it rest at room temperature for 15 minutes before slicing and serving. This lets the pasta fully absorb all of the bubbling sauce, so you don’t end up with soupy slices.
You May Also Like
A Nice Cheese Lasagna
Ingredients
For the Sauce
- 2 (28-oz) cans whole peeled tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves thinly sliced
- Kosher salt
- 1 cup crème fraîche
For Assembling
- 12 no-boil lasagna noodles (I like Barilla)
- 1 cup finely grated Parmesan Cheese
- 1½ cups coarsely grated whole-milk mozzarella cheese
- 2 large handfuls fresh basil leaves torn into small pieces if large
Instructions
For the Sauce
- In a large bowl, crush the tomatoes with your hands (this is a messy but fun job—it’s a very good one for children) until they are in bite-size pieces.
- In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, warm the olive oil, add the garlic, and cook, stirring, until it begins to sizzle, about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and 1 tsp salt and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and let the sauce simmer, stirring every so often, until it is slightly reduced, about 30 minutes.
- Whisk the crème fraîche into the sauce and season to taste with salt. Set the sauce aside to cool to room temperature while you conquer the pasta.
For the Lasagna
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (205°C) and set an oven rack in the middle position.
- Ladle a thin layer of room-temperature sauce onto the bottom of a 9 x 13-in (23 x 33-cm) baking dish. Spread the sauce with a spoon to cover the surface of the dish. Add 3 sheets of pasta in a single layer over the sauce. Spoon over just enough tomato sauce to cover the pasta, and then scatter over some of the Parmesan, mozzarella, and basil. Repeat the layering process until you’ve used up all of your components, ending with sauce and cheese (not naked pasta or basil, both of which would burn if exposed).
- Bake the lasagna, uncovered, until it’s gorgeously browned and the edges are bubbling, 35 to 40 minutes. Let it rest at room temperature for 15 minutes before slicing and serving. This lets the pasta fully absorb all of the bubbling sauce, so you don’t end up with soupy slices.
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
See more recipes:
Add a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
I have to say this was lovely. I followed the recipe exactly using the no boil noodles and it was fantastic! We didn’t miss the meat at all. I have company coming next weekend who don’t eat meat and wanted something nice to serve them. This is a definite winner! Thanks for sharing this recipe. It was easy probably the easiest lasagna I’ve ever made and also one of the tastiest.
Hi, Jenn,
Thanks so much for another delicious recipe! My family enjoyed it, and even the ones who groaned at the mention of lasagna cleaned their plates!
My husband did say that for him, lasagna’s not quite the same without ricotta. If I wanted to try this recipe with ricotta, do you have any suggestions on how I should incorporate it?
Thanks for all you do to bring us all such scrumptious recipes!
Hi Hilary, glad you enjoyed this! If you’d like to incorporate ricotta, I’d refer to the ricotta mixture I use in my sausage lasagna – you could swap out some or all of the cheese layers that this has with the ricotta mixture in that recipe. Hope that helps!
Hi Jen
Regarding the freezing issue you mentioned the high dairy content
How would this differ from my usual lasagna made with a rich bechamel. That has even more dairy and it freezes well. Why would this be any different
Thank you for your time and amazing recipes
Hi Carol, I prefer to freeze lasagna unbaked — it holds up better — but it’s fine to freeze a baked lasagna, too. Glad you like the recipes! 🙂
My husband and I loved this, even though I used nine noodles instead of twelve by mistake. I look forward to making it again using twelve noodles, and I’ll try the boil style. We have a lot left over. Can I freeze it?
I love your recipes!
Glad you enjoyed this, Julie! While I typically would avoid freezing this because of all the dairy has, if you have some leftover and don’t want it to go to waste, I think you can get away with freezing it.
Easy, light, yummy!
This is such a great recipe. I’ve always stuck my nose up at meatless lasagna, but when I saw the sauce has Creme Fraiche, I was knew this was gonna be yummy. I completely under estimated how yummy it was. I did use the generic store bought, boil ahead, noodles, and it was fantastic. My husband has been raving about it and couldn’t wait to decimate the leftovers. Seriously the best lasagna I’ve ever had!!! Including at restaurants.
Hi Jen,
First, I can’t thank you enough for making me a better cook! You’re recipes I cook with confidence knowing they will be incredibly delicious….always! I have your cookbook too😊. I wanted to make 2 pans of lasagna but wasn’t quite sure on the cooking time. Would it increase? How should I place the pans in the oven? Thank you!! Vicky
Hi Vicky, So glad you enjoy the recipes! 🙂 Yes, you can double this and cook it in the same oven but, yes, it will take a bit longer. Hard to say how much longer, but I’d start checking them at 45 to 50 minutes. And I would suggest rotating the baking dishes halfway through baking time to ensure even cooking. Hope you enjoy!
Second time I’ve made this now and it’s such a hit! I broke my rule of never trying a recipe for the first time when hosting a dinner party, but it seemed fool proof and it was. Definitely a keeper!
Thank you for such a delicious lasagna recipe! My family loved it! I used regular boiled lasagna noodles and everything else as written. We almost ate the whole dish in one sitting! As a vegetarian momma, it can be hard to find recipes that please my meat eating family and this one surely did. Thank you!!!
I wouldn’t change a thing about this recipe. My children loved it, my husband and I loved it. My son even said he preferred it to the standard meat lasagna. I will make it again for sure.
This was my second time making this recipe. A few comments : I would suggest using fresh or regular noodles rather than no boil. No boil noodles never have the same consistency, they have a toughness that I don’t care for ; both times I have made this, the casserole was over cooked and too brown . I had used no boil noodles, so, I felt that it had to bake the full time to cook the noodles properly. I suggest a baking temp of 375 degrees and using store-bought fresh noodles – same convenience, better texture. I used approximately 3-4 c. Mozzarella, it needed more than what the recipe called for. I also added mushrooms to the sauce which worked well. The sauce with creme fraiche is wonderful.