How to Make an Easy, Basic Lasagna

Lasagna is an excellent dish for sharing with others. It makes a good impression, yet is also very easy to make, even for beginning cooks. This recipe makes use of jarred sauce for simplicity, but homemade tomato sauce will work just as well (probably better). Exact measurements of the vegetables are unnecessary - just put in as little or as much as you like.



You'll Need:
* lasagna noodles - double the number of pieces needed to cover the bottom of your pan (typically 4 to 8 total)
* mozzarella cheese - sliced or shredded
* ricotta or cottage cheese
* one big jar spaghetti sauce (I prefer Ragu)
* 1-2 lb ground meat (beef, turkey, pork, etc.)
* mushrooms, sliced (canned works fine)
* onions, chopped
* green peppers, chopped
* garlic, minced
* spinach (frozen works fine)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Start the lasagna noodles boiling. They do not need to be fully cooked - just enough to be floppy - so 5 minutes should be plenty of time.

While the noodles are boiling, crumble and brown the ground meat in a large saucepan. Add the onions, green peppers, and mushrooms. Cook until those are softened, then add the garlic. Stir everything together.

By now the lasagna noodles should be soft enough to stop boiling. Turn the heat off but leave them in the water until it's time to assemble everything. Otherwise they'll stick to each other.

Add spaghetti sauce to the meat mixture. You want a generous amount of sauce mixed in - the lasagna noodles will be using the liquid to finish cooking later - but not so much that the meat mixture is drowning in it. Stir as it warms so it heats evenly. When it starts to bubble, stir in the ricotta or cottage cheese, then the spinach. When the spinach has wilted, turn off the heat.

Drain the lasagna noodles in a colander. Line the bottom of your pan with two or three pieces (depending on the size of your pan). The noodles at the bottom of the pan will cook more than the ones in the middle, so if some of your noodles are less well-boiled than others, you want to put those in the bottom layer.

Spoon half of the meat sauce on top and spread it evenly over the noodles, until there's enough to cover them at least half an inch deep.

Cover the meat sauce with mozzarella. This layer of cheese will be what binds the whole lasagna together, so make sure there's a lot. I find that mozzarella slices work well to make sure the layer is thick and even - better than shredded. Since this is the middle layer, appearances aren't important. Just make sure the entire surface is covered with cheese, and you don't see any of the sauce underneath.

Add another layer of lasagna noodles above the mozzarella. Spoon the rest of the meat sauce on top of the second layer of noodles, spread evenly, then sprinkle more mozzarella on top of the sauce. If you care what the finished lasagna will look like, you'll want to use shredded here. Unless you're careful about making sure slices overlap, they will look very obviously like slices.

Put the lasagna in the oven for 20 minutes. This will melt the cheese and allow the noodles to finish cooking.

Let it sit for 10-15 minutes outside of the oven to cool. Otherwise it might explode when you cut into it.

Share and enjoy. :)