For many years the recipe I used for my lasagna took hours to prepare--making the sauce from scratch, cooking the noodles, etc. I dirtied several pans and bowls--but it was so good. Well, I found a recipe that takes a fraction of the time, using no-cook, oven ready noodles, and Prego sauce--no need to simmer the sauce now for 2 hours. I was sceptical, but gave it a try. I think it rivals my all-day recipe, and the family loves it--Plus, it's quick and easy! If you have a favorite recipe that calls for cooked noodles and don't want to change it other than that, just add 1 Cup water to your sauce, and use the oven-ready lasagna noodles and it will turn out just fine. You also need to adjust the heat, cooking at a higher heat. The recipe calls for 2 containers ricotta cheese, but I think it's moister using 1 container each of ricotta and cottage cheese.
1 12-oz. pkg oven ready lasagna noodles
2 15-oz containers ricotta cheese (or 1 container ricotta and 1 15-oz tub cottage cheese)
2 Cups shredded mozzarella cheese (halved)
1/2 Cup grated Parmesan cheese (halved)
1 lb. lean ground beef, cooked and drained
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 26-oz. Prego garden vegetable spaghetti sauce
1 can tomato paste
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Cup water
Preheat oven to 425 degrees (unless baking at a later date). Combine ricotta, (and cottage cheese, if used), 1 Cup mozzarella cheese, 1/4 Cup Parmesan cheese, eggs and dried basil. Mix well. Brown ground beef, adding 1 Cup water and the tomato paste and sugar. Remove from heat. In another small bowl, combine 1 Cup mozzarella with 1/4 Cup grated Parmesan cheese. Get ready to assemble the lasagna. In a deep, 9x13 lasagna pan, spread 1/2 Cup of the meat sauce. Then place 1/3 lasagna oven ready noodle over the sauce. Spread 1/2 of the cheese mixture over the noodles, covering all of the noodles. Top with 1/3 of the meat mixture. Repeat layering once. Top with remaining lasagna noodles, then sauce. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese/Parmesan cheese. Wrap the lasagna pan tightly with a double layer of foil. Bake for 60 minutes or until the lasagna is fork-tender. Let stand for 10 minutes in the foil before cutting and serving. Makes 9-12 large servings.
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