Classic Lasagna
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This classic lasagna recipe layers a rich Italian sausage and tomato sauce with creamy ricotta, gooey mozzarella, and tender pasta for one seriously delicious lasagna.
I love this classic lasagna recipe because it has all the cozy, familiar flavors of the lasagna I grew up on, but it tastes like something you’d get at a nice Italian restaurant. The Italian sausage makes the sauce especially rich and flavorful, and a little cream cheese makes the ricotta filling extra smooth and creamy. I also use oven-ready noodles, which save the trouble of boiling a big pot of pasta and have a delicate texture that’s surprisingly close to fresh homemade pasta.
The lasagna takes some time from start to finish, but none of the steps are difficult, and you can assemble the whole thing ahead of time. It freezes beautifully, too.
“Best lasagna recipe—ever! Served with your fab Caesar salad. Conversation at the table was reduced to sighs of delight and an occasional OMG or YUM.”
What You’ll Need To Make Lasagna
- Onion, Garlic, Carrots & Celery: These aromatic vegetables form the base of the sauce, adding sweetness, savoriness, and depth of flavor.
- Italian Sausage: Adds richness and bold flavor. You can substitute ground beef—just amp up the garlic and Italian seasoning to compensate.
- Crushed Tomatoes, Red Wine & Heavy Cream: The tomatoes provide body and tang, the wine deepens the flavor, and the cream rounds it all out for a rich, well-balanced sauce.
- Ricotta, Cream Cheese, Egg & Parmigiano-Reggiano: These combine for a creamy, flavorful filling that bakes up smooth and rich (the cream cheese keeps the ricotta from getting grainy, and the egg helps it set).
- Oven-Ready (No-Boil) Lasagna Noodles: No need to pre-cook—these absorb the sauce as they bake. I like the Barilla brand best.
- Mozzarella: Melts into gooey, cheesy layers throughout the dish. Pre-shredded is fine—just go for whole milk for the best melt.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
How To Make Lasagna
Prep the vegetables: Add the onion, garlic, carrots, and celery to a food processor and pulse until very finely minced, but not puréed. Taking the vegetables down this small helps them practically melt into the sauce. If you don’t have a food processor, it’s fine to chop by hand.
Brown the sausage: Cook the sausage in olive oil, breaking it up as you go, until lightly browned but not cooked all the way through. Transfer it to a plate. Don’t worry about getting it fully cooked at this point—it will finish cooking in the sauce.
Cook the vegetables: Add the minced vegetables to the same pot and cook until very soft, stirring frequently. You’re looking for them to soften without taking on much color.
Add the wine: Pour in the wine and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Continue cooking until most of the wine has been absorbed by the vegetables.
Simmer the sauce: Add the tomatoes, cream, and seasonings and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the sauce thickens.
Add the sausage: Chop the browned sausage into smaller pieces—large chunks can make the lasagna harder to layer and slice neatly—and return to the pot. Continue simmering until it’s cooked through and the flavors come together. Remove the bay leaves before assembling the lasagna.
Make the ricotta filling: Process the ricotta, cream cheese, egg, garlic, Parmesan, salt, and pepper until smooth and evenly combined. Add the basil and pulse just until finely chopped. Processing the mixture gives the filling an especially smooth, creamy texture.
Assemble the lasagna: Spread a layer of sauce over the bottom of the baking dish, then add the noodles, leaving a little space between them—they’ll expand as they cook. Layer with the ricotta filling, mozzarella, and more sauce, repeating until everything is used up and finishing with sauce and cheese on top. Be sure the top noodles are covered with sauce so they have enough moisture to cook properly.
Bake: Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake until the lasagna is hot and bubbling. Remove the foil and continue baking at the higher temperature until the noodles are tender and the top and edges are golden and puffed. Give the lasagna about 15 minutes to rest before cutting into it. This gives the layers time to settle and makes it much easier to slice and serve.
Video Tutorial
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Classic Lasagna
Ingredients
For the Sauce
- 1 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
- 5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 2 medium carrots, roughly chopped
- 1 stalk celery, roughly chopped
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1½ pounds Italian sausage (bulk or removed from casing)
- ¾ cup dry red wine
- 1 (28-oz) can crushed tomatoes
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1½ teaspoons dried thyme
- 2 bay leaves
For the Ricotta Mixture
- 1 (15-oz) container whole milk ricotta (about 1¾ cups)
- 3 oz cream cheese
- 1 large egg
- 1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
- ¾ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ½ cup roughly chopped fresh basil
For Assembling
- 12 oven ready, no boil lasagna noodles (such as Barilla)
- 16 oz shredded whole milk mozzarella cheese
- ¼ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Instructions
For the Sauce
- Place the onions, garlic, carrot and celery in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade; pulse until finely minced but not puréed.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the sausage into the pan and cook, stirring occasionally and breaking the sausage into small pieces, until slightly browned but not cooked all the way through, about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the partially cooked sausage to a plate. Set aside.
- Add the remaining tablespoon olive oil to the pan, reduce the heat to medium, and add the minced vegetables. Cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are very soft, 6 to 8 minutes. Do not brown; reduce the heat if necessary.
- Add the wine; continue cooking, stirring to scrape any brown bits from the bottom of the pan, until the wine is mostly absorbed by the vegetables, a few minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, cream, salt, pepper, sugar, thyme and bay leaves and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the sauce is thickened, about 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, transfer the sausage to a cutting board and chop into smaller pieces (big chunks don’t work well in lasagna).
- Add the sausage back to the pan and continue simmering, covered, until the sausage is fully cooked and the flavors meld together, about 10 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Fish out the bay leaves and discard.
For the Ricotta Mixture
- Combine the ricotta, cream cheese, egg, garlic, Parmigiano-Reggiano, salt and pepper in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Process until evenly combined. Add the basil and pulse until finely chopped.
For Assembly
- Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
- Spread about 1½ cups of sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 13-in (23 x 33-cm) baking dish. Arrange 3 noodles over the sauce (there will be a bit of space between the noodles; they expand as they cook). Dollop a third of the ricotta filling over the noodles, then spread evenly to cover. Sprinkle with ¾ cup (90 g) of the mozzarella cheese. Repeat the layering of sauce, noodles, ricotta filling and mozzarella 2 more times. Top with the remaining 3 noodles. Spoon the remaining sauce over the noodles, then sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella and Parmigiano-Reggiano.
- Spray a large piece of foil with nonstick cooking spray. Cover the lasagna tightly with the foil, sprayed side down. Bake for 40 minutes. Carefully uncover and increase the oven temperature to 400°F (205°C). Bake, uncovered, until the noodles are tender, the sauce is bubbling, and the edges are golden and puffed, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let stand for about 15 minutes before serving.
Notes
Pair with
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.
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I look forward to making this recipe; however, I’ll need to use gluten free noodles. Will I still be able to make it according to your directions or should I boil the noodles?
Hi Kathy, I think it really depends upon the brand you buy (I’d check the box) as I believe that some gluten-free lasagna noodles are no-boil. One reader mentioned that she used Catelli gluten-free no-boil lasagna noodles if you can find those. Hope that helps!
This was by far the best lasagna I’ve ever made. However, it’s a little misleading to be labeled under “quick and easy.” It definitely wasn’t quick. It took me a good hour to prep, there are just a lot of steps and moving parts. Was worth it though!
Hi Jacque, Glad you enjoyed this! And I completely agree that it should not be in the quick and easy category – – just updated it. Thanks!
I made this tonight for the first time and it was incredible! I used ground beef instead of sausage based on the family request and I used pecorino romano cheese and a mix of mozzarella and a five cheese Italian blend since that’s what I had in the fridge. I used a red wine blend for the sauce since I had a bottle open on the counter. The smell of the sauce simmering on the stove was enough to make me want to hide in the closet and eat the whole lasagna myself! The finished dish was everything that I’ve come to expect from Jenn’s recipes… exceptional! It’s perfect the way it is, but it’s also so easy to tweak each time based on what you have on hand. This is now my go to lasagna recipe. Thanks so much for sharing it with us!
P.s. I’m hoping that you have plans for a second cookbook.. Im hoping all the recipes I’ve come to love on your blog will make their way to paper!
Hello. I just came across your website and your recipes look fabulous. I am planning on trying this recipe this weekend and was wondering if cherry tomatoes would work as the “crushed tomatoes” component or is the canned variety better? I have a ton of cherry tomatoes from the garden but if that would be too sweet, I’ll just pick up a can at the market. Thanks in advance!
Hi Dinah, I think canned will work best here. Hope you enjoy it!
Hi Jenn! Can I use zucchini instead of noodles? Thank you!
Hi, I haven’t tried this with zucchini in place of the pasta, so I can’t say for sure, but I think it would work. I’d love to hear how it turns out if you try it!
Wonderful! Made this and a butternut squash for my son’s wedding rehearsal dinner and it was loved by all. My old recipe was not done with a bolognese, so this will be my go to recipe from now on. So much more flavor with the carrots and celery.
As with all of your recipes, this did not disappoint! Made this and a butternut squash for my son’s wedding rehearsal dinner and it was loved by all. My old recipe was not done with a bolognese, so this will be my go to recipe from now on. So much more flavor with the carrots and celery.
I had given up on finding a lasagna recipe that was delicious and didn’t take all day to make. This is now my go-to lasagna recipe. It still takes a little time, but is so worth it. Everybody loves lasagna and this recipe makes a lot (think leftovers and even a couple of portions in the freezer). Add a simple salad of mixed greens and it’s a complete meal.
This is the best lasagna I have ever tasted. I have prepared it three times with some minor variations from the original recipe because of what is available in the pantry or refrigerator. If you follow the recipe exactly as written, you will not be dissapointed. I am sure many of us, don’t always have everything on hand so here are some of my variations.
For the meat sauce:
I don’t usually have celery so I left it out twice.
The way sausage is packaged, and what I had available, I have been using one package (little over a pound) sweet and the balance spicy. Our family likes spicy, so I will continue making it this way but I would be reluctant to use too much spicy.
I have been using half and half.
I have been using more noodles than the recipe because of the way my pan is shaped. The first time, the lasagna was a tad dry. The next time I added some good quality premade sauce to supplement the recipe and it was perfect.
I use the food processor with short pulses to break the cooked sausage up into smaller pieces.
The bolognese sauce is really good. (I would never omit the wine) I have been making the sauce the day before I assemble and bake. This helps me with time management and I think gives the sauce some extra time to develop especially if I have added some jar sauce.
For the ricotta mixture:
I have been making this exactly as written. I think the fresh basil is really important. I love my food processor, I splurged on a Breville with all the attachments.
For the assembly:
Three noodles don’t fit the bottom of my pan perfectly so I have been arranging the noodles long ways for one layer, cross ways for another layer (as the pan widens) breaking some noodles to make them fit. (they are difficult to break without shattering) I have also been using most of the 9 oz box of noodles. The no boil noodles, I have been using the Barilla, are excellent. Making lasagna takes some time so not having to boil the noodles saves a step and another pot to wash.
Freezer-Friendly Instructions:
I have not tried freezing before baking, but always freeze individual cooked pieces according to the the instructions. So good.
This is the best lasagna recipe ever. My whole entire large family agreed on this. Thank you so much!