Cheesy Lasagna

Who forgot to line up a post for today?

Hint: It was me. 🙁

But! I have one. All about one of my favorite dishes. Lasagna.

It’s just a basic recipe that my mom used to make. And it’s loaded with cheese.

I love cheese. I’d put more cheese in it if I thought I could get away with it. Note: I only make this about once or twice a year. It’s easy to make, but it’s not that great for you. All the noodles and cheesy, gooey goodness. Yum. And with it just being Zach and me, it creates a lot of leftovers. (And aren’t Italian food leftovers just the best? Nothing else holds up quite as well.)

To the recipe! (So you know, you can most certainly sub in your favorite cheeses. I just like to stick to the basics with this one.)

What you’ll need:

• 2 lbs ground turkey
• 2 8 oz bags shredded mozzarella cheese
• 8-10 slices mozzarella cheese (for topping)
• 16 oz ricotta cheese
• 8 oz grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 box lasagna noodles
• 24 oz spaghetti sauce
• basil, onion powder, garlic powder–to taste

Step 01: Brown your ground turkey, seasoning it with the basil, onion powder, and garlic powder. Preheat your oven to 350°F as well. In a medium to large bowl, mix your meat, shredded cheese (yes, all of it), ricotta, and Parmesan. Stir until well-combined and cheese is fairly gooey. And then add your spaghetti sauce. Helpful tip: You can use the whole can. However, I like to leave just a little bit in the jar. I’ll explain why in a moment.

Step 02: In a greased 9×13 baking dish, layer your lasagna beginning with the meat mixture.

When you get to the top of the pan, I usually have a little meat sauce leftover…but not quite enough to cover the noodles. Which means a top layer of al dente noodles (or even completely hard) noodles. Which is where that sauce you saved comes in. Once you’ve spread your meat sauce out as much as you can (sometimes I’ll even pull some out from other layers), pour the rest of the spaghetti sauce over the exposed parts of the noodles. Usually, the edges. The middle tends to get cooked fairly well because of all the moisture from bottom layers and such. The edges, though, don’t. So try to focus on the edges.

Step 03: Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil, add your sliced mozzarella, and then put back in the oven uncovered and bake for another 15 minutes (or simply brown the cheese as desired). Cool and serve!

The awkward picture is due to Zach being unable to wait. Lasagna is delicious. Where the picture cuts off on the left side is a very large hole in the lasagna.

There’s nothing that sets this apart as being different or original. But sometimes, you just want something simple and traditional, you know? I love this lasagna.

[yumprint-recipe id=’99’]