Classic Lasagna
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Learn how to make a homemade lasagna that rivals the best Italian restaurants, with layers of savory meat sauce, creamy ricotta, and gooey mozzarella. It’s the kind of dish you’ll want to make again and again.
I love this classic lasagna because it has all the cozy, familiar flavors of the lasagna I grew up with, but it tastes like something you’d get at a fine Italian restaurant. It’s also easier than you’d think, thanks to oven-ready noodles that save time and effort and deliver that delicate texture you’d normally expect from homemade pasta.
The layers are packed with a flavorful meat sauce made with Italian sausage and vegetables, plus four types of cheese. Baked until bubbly and golden, it’s the perfect cozy dish for a crowd—and it reheats and freezes beautifully, too. This lasagna is a longtime family favorite, right alongside other crowd-pleasing dishes like baked ziti, stuffed shells, and manicotti. After all, everyone loves Italian!
“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
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1: Prep the vegetables. Place the onions, garlic, carrots, and celery in a food processor. Give them a rough chop first so they blend evenly, then pulse until minced but not puréed—they should melt into the sauce. (You can also chop by hand if you prefer.)
Step 2: Brown the sausage. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook, breaking it up into small pieces, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Pro tip: Browning the meat first builds deep flavor in the pan, which carries through to the rest of the sauce.
Step 3: Cook the vegetables. Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil to the pan, then add the minced vegetables. Cook until very soft, 6 to 8 minutes. They will blend into the sauce and thicken it naturally.
Step 4: Deglaze with wine. Pour in the wine and stir, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pot—they’re packed with flavor. Let it simmer for a few minutes until mostly absorbed.
Step 5: Simmer the sauce. Add the tomatoes, cream, salt, pepper, sugar, thyme, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, until thickened.
Step 6: Add the sausage. Stir in the sausage and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes so everything melds together. Adding the sausage at this stage keeps it tender and lets the flavors mingle without overcooking the meat.
Step 7: Make the ricotta filling. In a food processor, combine the ricotta, cream cheese, egg, garlic, Parmesan, salt, and pepper. Process until smooth, then add the basil and pulse until finely chopped.
Step 8: Assemble the lasagna. Spread about 1½ cups of sauce on the bottom of a baking dish. (Starting with a layer of sauce prevents the noodles from sticking to the bottom of the dish and helps everything cook evenly.) Lay down 3 noodles, then spread with one-third of the ricotta filling and sprinkle with ¾ cup mozzarella.
Step 9: Repeat. Repeat these layers two more times. Top with the final 3 noodles, the remaining sauce, mozzarella, and ¼ cup Parmigiano-Reggiano. Don’t worry if the layers look tall—lasagna settles a bit as it bakes and rests.
Pro tip: You store the assembled, unbaked lasagne in the fridge overnight or freeze it for up to 3 months.
Step 10: Bake and rest. Bake the lasagna until bubbling and golden, about 1 hour. Let it rest for 15 minutes before slicing so it sets up.
Video Tutorial
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Classic Lasagna Recipe
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 like the look of this recipe; it’s enough different from the way that I’ve always made it that I will give it a go. The only thing I will do is leave out the celery. I’ve never liked celery so that’s reason enough but I’ve never known any of my Italian relatives to use it in lasagne.
Hi Jenn,
Love your recipes! Just wondering if it would be ok to omit the whipping cream?
Hi Linda, I wouldn’t omit it. You could replace it with half and half or whole milk. And so glad you like the recipes! 🙂
Could you add spinach to the ricotta mixture?
Sure, Tanya – I think that would be a nice addition.
If I were to add fresh spinach to the ricotta mixture, how much?
I’d go with a 10 oz. package of frozen chopped spinach. Enjoy!
Can I use fresh lasagne sheets in this recipe?
Yep 👍
Made this for a family birthday and it was a huge success! I made it a week ago and did not cook it, put it in the freezer, and followed thawing and baking for frozen. You would never know. I’m making another two today to freeze and then cook for company. Thrilled I found this website!
Hi Jenn, I am making this right now -just tasted the sauce and it is delicious! The recipe says to simmer the sauce for 20 minutes covered and then 10 more, covered. Is it supposed to say uncovered? My sauce seems thin, so I’m simmering a bit more uncovered. Thanks!
Hi Cathy, Covered is correct, but it honestly doesn’t make much difference since it’s only 10 minutes. If your sauce seems thin, it’s perfectly fine to simmer uncovered. Please LMK how it turns out!
This turned out beautifully! I made one for my family and one for my sister (she’s been under the weather). We all agree that this is the best lasagna we’ve ever had 🙂 – truly a special treat. Thank you! (perhaps my issue was making a double batch of sauce at once – I may have overlooked something)
So happy it turned out well!
I plan on freezing the lasagna. How do I proceed when ready to bake?
Defrost on the counter for how long and then bake as usual?
Or differently?
Thank you so much…
Hi Ines, If freezing it prior to baking, when you’re ready to cook it, defrost in the refrigerator for 24 hours, then proceed with the baking instructions in the recipe. Enjoy!
I divided this into 2 meals – should I be adjusting the cook time?
Hi Erica, Are you dividing it into two 8-inch pans? If so, the baking time should be about the same. Hope you enjoy!
Three of us ate almost an entire pan in one sitting, and we are not generally over-indulgers. This is the only lasagna recipe you’ll ever need. I like to make mine with fresh homemade pasta sheets. I never bother making a salad or soup with this. You won’t regret trying this!
Corinne do you roll out of the pasta sheets and then use them right away as you’re layering it all in the dish? Or do you get them at an Italian market and use them straight from the fridge? Homemade noodles takes dishes like this to an almost ethereal level but I’m never sure at first whether to use it freshly rolled, dried or cooked. Thanks!
Just jumping in as I saw this question. In my experience, one always boils fresh pasta before using it to assemble a lasagna. Hope this helps. You don’t have to boil it to a mush. Leave it somewhat al dente as it will finish cooking in the lasagna. 🙂
Another winner Jenn but I have to tell you a funny story. I had lots of family for the weekend and while I going about assembling the lasagnas (I made two), I was listening to a couple of guests chatting amongst themselves in the background. I got so caught up in their conversation, after the first layer of noodles I forgot to add the next two layers of noodles – just kept layering sauce and cheeses! GAH! I only figured it out as I was finishing up and saw the still full boxes of noodles on the counter – LOL! I ended up just kind of shoving the noodles in approximate layers and crossed my fingers. Even w/that fiasco it was perfect and of course no one noticed a thing! 🙂
Ha — clearly it’s pretty forgiving — glad it came out well despite the mistake!!
This is so yummy! I make it atleast once a year, usually around Christmas time. It’s so decadent and such a treat!
As always, thanks for sharing! ❤️