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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Okay, I’ve been a Jenn Segal fan for several years and some of our very favorite recipes come from her site (and cookbooks), and I’m also a huge fan of lasagna and frequently order it at restaurants (in the Before Times) just to test out other approaches. This one is, hands down, the best I’ve ever had. Period. My husband and I spent several hours today preparing the lasagna for tonight and it was worth every bit of effort. I think I may throw out every other lasagna recipe I have, so I don’t get confused as to which is the best.
Despite being tentative about using oven ready lasagne and adding cream to the sauce, I have to say, this was delicious! It turned out beautiful and I was impressed. Guests enjoyed. Thank you for sharing, Jenn.
Best lasagna I’ve ever made.
Tried this recipe yesterday for dinner, had it prepped the day before, for the sauce to really soak in the lasagnas. It was delicious!! Couldn’t believe I made this myself (with your help of course). I got so much compliments and think I really impressed all the guests. Made the 8-servings recipe, we were 6 and they asked for more… Thank you so much for sharing this, it will certainly become one of my classic!
Wishing you a merry Christmas and a wonderful new year, all the way from Paris!
We tried this recipe out the other day. It was the second from Once Upon a Chef for me. First time issues: the cheese topping got a little overdone on the top. Other than that, totally delicious and step-by-step straightforward. I would suggest getting all the ingredients measured and prepped, but that is a great family activity!
Thanks for the recipe.
Absolutely delicious but so are other lasagna recipes that aren’t so labor intensive. Loved it, however won’t make it again…..
Wow! I made this for a pal as a Christmas gift so I haven’t actually tried it BUT the reviews were outstanding! He couldn’t stop raving about how light, well-seasoned & delicious it was. I stood there for a good ten minutes as he went on and on about how it was the best lasagna he’s ever had, better than any restaurant’s offering. I admit I was a little worried about using the no-bake noodles since I’ve never used them before but apparently all was good. I didn’t change a thing from your recipe.
I have a couple of questions on this very good looking Lasagne.
1) What size baking dish did you use? And who fabricates it? I need one like that. I guess would like one.
2)) The Lasagne noodles in picture look half size. Normally, aren’t they larger in length? Or are the no bake shorter?
3))I want to buy your cookbook. However, it sure would be a lot easier if it were not bound, but in spiral so the the pages lie flat when using.
Any chance this could happen?🤞🤞
Love your recipes.
Sunny D.☀️
Hi Sunny, I use a 13 x 9-inch baking dish and the one in the pics is by Emile Henry. I believe that no-boil and traditional lasagna noodles are the same size. And regarding my cookbook, I appreciate you inquiring! Unfortunately, I don’t think it will be coming out in a spiral version — sorry! Hope you enjoy the lasagna if you make it. 🙂
Hello Jenn,
I am hoping to substitute cottage cheese for the ricotta cheese, which I’ve done with another lasagna recipe (my husband dislikes ricotta cheese).
Will you please let me know if this is an acceptable substitution? If not, what do you recommend in lieu of the ricotta cheese?
Thank you, Jenn.
Dianne
Hi Dianne, I haven’t made this with cottage cheese but I think it should work. Please LMK how it turns out!
Hi Jenn,
I made this recipe tonight substituting the cottage cheese (16 oz) for the both ricotta cheese and cream cheese. It was delicious. The only other change I made to make it “heart-healthy” was to use 1 lb of ground beef and 1/2 lb (2 and 1/2 links) of hot Italian sausage. I cooked the ground beef first, drained the fat and set aside before partially cooking the sausage, leaving the fat to saute the vegetables after removing the sausage. The lasagna had a hint of spice and the partial substitution of the ground beef did not sacrifice the flavor. My husband and two teen boys loved it; I did too! Thank you so much for all your consistently excellent recipes. I have repeatedly shared your recipes with family and friends. You are my “Go-To” chef! I wish you all the best in your cooking endeavors.
– Dianne
I agree with Kenneth, it is lasagne with an ‘e’ and it should be pasta sheets, noodles are shaped like spaghetti and used in Chinese dishes. And as it’s Italian the base is called a soffrito, mirepoix is French.
I am looking forward to trying this different version.
This is almost exactly like our old family recipe. The mirepoix adds so much depth to the flavor, you’d really miss it if it wasn’t there. We also add a couple of Tbs of sugar to the sauce, which seems to cut the acid of the tomatoes a bit. The Barilla no bake noodles are the best on the market, even their gluten free version tastes like fresh made pasta. One thing I do cheat with is the spreading of the ricotta. I usually make a mess of spreading the ricotta, pushing the noodles and sauce around. Now I simply put the mixture in a 1 gallon zip bag and cut 1/2″ off of a corner – turning it into a very neat frosting bag. We always make extra smaller aluminum trays to give to our elderly relatives who wouldn’t normally make lasagna for themselves. It freezes well and tastes even better the next day. It is a very tasty, very easy recipe.