Classic Lasagna
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy.
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
You May Also Like
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.
Add a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Hi Jenn,
Do I have to use no boil noodles or can I use parboiled? Will it change taste/texture at all? Many thanks, I use one of your recipes at least once a week.
Kelley
Hi Kelley, If you’d prefer to use the parboiled, that should be fine with no adjustments. (And so glad you like the recipes – hope you like this one too!)
If I use skim milk ricotta, will it change the taste? It’s all I have and I want to use it up.
Thank you for all of your great recipes.
Carol
Hi Carol, it will work; it will just be less rich and creamy. Please let me know how it turns out!
Jen, does this recipe freeze well? I have frozen other lasagna recipes before and they were always soupy after I cooked it. Any tips on freezing?
Hi Donna, I think this freezes nicely. See the bottom of the recipe for freezer-friendly instructions. Hope you enjoy!
Hi Jenn! This looks amazing but I would need to substitute two ingredients, the sausage and the red wine. Can you give me recommendations on which spices to add to plain ground beef and what can I substitute red wine with? Thank you so much! Your recipes are always spot on! I’m making your homemade naan recipe right now!
Hi Aisha, If you want to use ground beef, just make sure it’s well seasoned. Some spices I would add — a bit of oregano, Italian seasoning, whole or ground fennel seeds, paprika, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. And it’s fine to just omit the wine – it will still taste great! 🙂
This recipe is fabulous! Beautiful complexity of flavors and the cream cheese adds a nice velvety texture. Love how it stays together when cut for nice squares. It will be my go to lasagna.
I made this lasagna and it was delicious! Loved it.
I did 4 noodles in each layer instead of 3. Some parts of the noodles ended up hard/chewy – especially around the ends. I followed everything else the same. Is this because I added too many noodles ?
Yes, I think the extra noodles were the problem. Glad you liked it despite the dry edges. 🙂
Can you make this a day ahead and keep in the refrigerator? I have never used “no boil” noodles so I’m not sure if that would mess anything up. Thanks
Definitely – Hope you enjoy!
Made recipe, upping ingredients slightly, to put in 2-8” foil pans and freeze for my 23-year-old son as he started a new life on his own. Have been cooking lasagne for him his whole life, seen him order it multiple times in restaurants, and he has been in Italy several times where he enjoyed it as well. He cooked up one of the pans last night and called to exclaim that it was the best lasagne he had ever had in his life! This will be my one and only lasagne recipe going forward! Thanks for all the great recipes, Jen. Have found them to be foolproof and always get rave reviews. Not afraid to try any of your dishes with company before testing them out as I know they will be a hit!
I am at a home that does not have a food processor. Should I pass on this recipe?
Hi Liz, No need to pass on it. Chopping the veggies will just be a bit more time-consuming/labor-intensive. Hope you enjoy if you make it!
Wonderful recipe! My husband said it was the best lasagna he ever had. I left out the meat and was a bit concerned it would not come together; but it was awesome! Will definitely add to our rotation. Thanks for another great recipe.
can you make this vegetarian without the sausage and still get great flavor?
Hi Linda, If you’d want a vegetarian version, I’d use this recipe. Hope you enjoy if you try it!
I noticed you use your yellow 13x9x2 bakeware for many of your dishes. Would you please share the name of the brand and if you highly recommend it? Do you have another recommendation if I cut the recipe in half or 2/3? thanks.
Hi Kim, that baking dish is by Emile Henry and I really like it because it’s functional but also nice to look at. If you want to cut the recipe in half, I’d recommend using an 8 x 8-inch dish using two noodles for each layer. Hope that helps!