Easy Homemade Lasagna Recipe – Lasagna Meal Within 40min
Overview
Homemade lasagna recipe that will be ready in 40 minutes. A mouth-watering yet easy and healthy lasagne recipe that I recommend everyone to try. Although traditionally I would use bolognese sauce in lasagna, with this recipe we can get the same result many times faster, but without losing the wonderful taste of the lasagna.
Lasagna is the perfect food to cook for dinner for friends and family, or to make a delicious meal prep for the following days. In this recipe, we also use minced meat and cheese with a lower fat content, which makes this lasagna a little healthier and a good choice for achieving your fitness goals.
Ingredients for the Best Homemade Lasagna
- Lasagna sheets / lasagna noodles: Homemade fresh lasagna sheets or noodles are good, but the store-bought dried version gets the job done much easier and more conveniently. These days there are also many different options of both regular and gluten-free lasagna sheets in stores, from which you can easily choose your favorite.
Tomato Sauce
- Ground meat: freely chosen mixture of ground beef and pork with a 5% fat content is ideal. If calories are not an issue, you can go with a higher fat minced meat option, but in my opinion a lower fat consistency ground keeps the lasagne less greasy and more delightful to eat. Alternatively, instead of a mixture of ground beef and pork, you can also just use ground beef, ground pork or other ground meat like chicken or turkey.
- Tomato sauce/puree: choose your favorite tomato sauce/puree of Italian origin. If there is something specific to recommend, Reggia and Mutti are one of my personal favorites.
- Tomato paste (concentrate): tomato paste is a rich concentrate of tomatoes, which helps the flavors of a quickly prepared sauce to emerge much faster.
- Onions: Both white and red onions can be used in the recipe.
- Garlic: fresh garlic, which we either press or crush into a paste so that the flavor of the garlic blends into the sauce faster.
- Dried oregano and basil: if possible, you can also use fresh basil and oregano, but since I’m trying to adapt this recipe to be as convenient and quick as possible, it makes more sense to use dried herbs, which can be easily and cheaply found in any grocery store.
Lasagna Bechamel Sauce
- Flour: any flour of your choice is suitable for the bechamel sauce.
- Milk: Any regular milk with ~2.5% fat content or a non-dairy substitute.
- Butter: any regular unflavored butter.
How to Make the Best Lasagna Meal?
- Chop the onion, press the garlic and caramelize them in a pan in olive oil on medium heat for a few minutes: peel and chop the onion and garlic cloves to a paste and caramelize them with a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan on medium heat for a few minutes.
- Add the minced meat to the pan and fry until the liquid from the minced meat has evaporated: add the minced meat to the pan, add a pinch of salt and mix with the onion and garlic. Break the minced meat into the smallest possible pieces with a spatula. Let the minced meat fry until all liquid from the meat has evaporated.
- Add the tomato paste, a pinch of salt and dried herbs to the pan, mix evenly with the minced meat and add the tomato sauce: after adding the tomato sauce, let the sauce simmer on low heat for 5-10 minutes while you work on the following steps of the recipe. Add salt to taste if necessary.
- Warm up the oven and start making the bechamel sauce: now is the right time to turn on the oven to warm up at 220 degrees (392°F). For the bechamel sauce, put a piece of butter in a separate pot over low heat and wait until it melts and starts to turn slightly brown in color. Then add the flour, and mix with a wooden spoon or a whisk until all the butter is evenly mixed with the flour and the mixture begins to bubble slightly. Then start adding cold or room temperature milk and stir constantly so that the sauce does not lump. When the sauce has reached a suitable thickness, add a pinch of freshly pressed black pepper, salt and half a pinch of ground nutmeg to taste. If the mixture becomes too thick, add a little milk, if the mixture seems too thick, let it simmer a little longer.
- Boil water in a large cooking pot, add salt and boil the lasagna sheets in it for 1-2 minutes: this step is a bit annoying and you can skip it, but personally I prefer to boil the lasagna sheets a little before adding them. This way, it is much easier to cut them to the right size, and they cook more evenly and faster in the oven. Make sure you have some kind of spatula etc to get the lasagna sheets out of the water and be sure not to let them boil for more than a few minutes to prevent the sheets texture from falling apart.
- Build the lasagna layer by layer: for the first layer, add the tomato-minced meat sauce evenly to the bottom of the baking dish, then drizzle the bechamel sauce on top with a spoon. Now sprinkle a thin layer of grated cheese on top and finally cover with an even layer of lasagna sheets. Repeat the process as many times as necessary until you run out of ingredients, but try to divide them so that there’s at least 3 layers of lasagna leaves for the lasagna. Consider that the last layer must be the tomato-minced meat sauce, on top of which you’ll add all the rest of the grated cheese and slices/pieces of evenly sliced or torn mozzarella cheese.
- Let the lasagna cook in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until the cheese has started to caramelize and become golden brown: the lasagna is usually ready in 20 minutes, but personally I let it be in the oven until the cheese on top of the lasagna has started to become nicely brown and crispy, which generally happens between 25-30 minutes in the oven.
- Take the lasagna out of the oven, let it cool for 10-15 minutes and serve.
Homemade Classic Lasagna Recipe
The best tasting, healthy and easy classic lasagna recipe that will take you straight to Italy! Lasagna is perfect for dinner with friends or family, meal prep for the following days or why not for a romantic dinner with your loved one!
Ingredients (4 servings)
- 600 g / 21 oz mixture ground beef and pork 5% fat content
- 200 g / 7 oz grated low-fat cheese
- 100 g / 3.5 oz mozzarella cheese
- 600 ml / 2.5 cups of tomato sauce
- 50 g / 1.8 oz tomato paste/concentrate
- 6-8 lasagna sheets
- 200 ml / 0.9 cups of milk with 2.5% fat content
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 20 g / 1.5 tbsp unflavored butter
- 1 medium onion
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
- 0.5 tbsp of dried basil
- 0.5 tbsp dried oregano
- Salt
- Pepper
- Ground nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
Nutritional value per recipe (1 serving)
721 calories / 63.8g proteins / 47.5g carbs / 34.25g fats / 6g dietary fiber / 15.5g sugar
Easy Homemade Lasagna Recipe
Ingredients
- 21 oz mixture ground beef and pork 5% fat content
- 7 oz grated low-fat cheese
- 3.5 oz mozzarella cheese
- 2.5 cups of tomato sauce
- 1.8 oz tomato paste/concentrate
- 6-8 lasagna sheets or lasagna noodles
- 0.9 cups of milk with 2.5% fat content
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1.5 tbsp unflavored butter
- 1 medium onion
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
- 0.5 tbsp of dried basil
- 0.5 tbsp dried oregano
- Salt
- Pepper
- Ground nutmeg
- 1 tbsp of olive oil
Instructions
Lasagna bolognese sauce:
- Peel and chop the onion, press the garlic cloves through a garlic press and caramelize them with a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan over medium heat for a few minutes.
- Add minced meat to the pan and fry until most of the liquid from the minced meat has evaporated and the minced meat is turning brown.
- Add tomato paste, a pinch of salt, dried oregano and basil to the pan and mix well. Then add all the tomato sauce to the pan, mix everything together and let it simmer on low heat for 5-10 minutes.
Bechamel sauce and lasagna sheets:
- Place a piece of butter in a cooking pot over low heat and wait until it melts and starts to turn slightly brown in color.
- Add the flour and mix with a wooden spoon or whisk until all the butter is evenly mixed with the flour and the mixture begins to bubble slightly.
- Then start adding room temperature milk to the mixture, stirring the sauce continuously so that the mixture does not lump up.
- When the sauce has reached a suitable thickness, add a pinch of freshly pressed black pepper, salt and half a pinch of ground nutmeg and mix evenly. If the mixture becomes too thick, add a little milk, but if the mixture seems too runny, let it simmer a little longer. Once ready, remove the sauce from the stove.
- Bring water to a boil in a large pot and cook the lasagna sheets in it for 1-2 minutes. (cooking the lasagna sheets is optional and can be skipped if desired)
Layering and baking the lasagna:
- For the first layer, add the tomato-minced meat sauce evenly to the bottom of the baking dish and drizzle the bechamel sauce on top with a spoon. Now sprinkle a thin layer of grated cheese on top and finally cover with an even layer of lasagna sheets. Repeat the process as many times as necessary until there’s enough ingredients left, but try to distribute them so that there are at least 3 layers of lasagna leaves for the lasagna. Consider that the last layer must be the tomato-minced meat sauce with adding all the rest of the grated cheese and sliced or torn mozzarella cheese on top.
- Let the lasagna cook in a preheated oven at 220 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until the cheese has started to become crispy and golden-brown.
- Take the lasagna out of the oven, let it cool for 10-15 minutes and serve.
Nutrition (per serving)
Can Lasagna Be Frozen?
Of course! Lasagna can be stored in the fridge for 3-4 days and frozen for up to 3 months when properly stored in an airtight container.
How Do You Layer a Lasagna?
Start layering the lasagna by adding first the lasagna sauce, then a thin layer of bechamel sauce, then a light sprinkle of grated cheese and finally the lasagna sheet or lasagna noodle. Repeat the process until you run out of ingredients and leave the top layer to be just the lasagna sauce with a heavy sprinkle of grated cheese and mozzarella on top.
How Many Calories Are in a Lasagna?
Calories in a lasagna vary a lot depending on the ingredients that you use. If you’re using low fat ground meat and low fat cheese as in our recipe, then 1 serving is around 700 calories with around 65 grams of protein.
How to Spell Lasagna / Lasagne?
Lasagna or Lasagne both are correct ways to spell this wonderful dish. The difference is just that it’s pronounced differently in different regions. Essentially in English you would usually call the dish Lasagna, but in Italy Lasagne. So don’t worry about pronouncing it wrong, except maybe when you’re in Italy. :)
Is Bolognese Sauce Used in Lasagna?
Yes, bolognese sauce is the sauce which is traditionally used when making a lasagna. So if you have some bolognese sauce left over in the fridge, you can certainly use it to make an amazing lasagna meal! In this recipe we focus on making a simpler and faster version of the bolognese sauce, but definitely you’re welcome to try out our traditional bolognese sauce recipe as well.
