This is the best simple lasagna recipe for those that like starting from scratch!

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Table of Contents

Basic Ingredients

I use home canned sauce, but you can use store bought sauce if you like.

I use the old fashioned lasagna that you boil, but there is an oven ready lasagna noodle available now.

The basic ingredients are hamburger if you want meat, bacon – or you can use a bit of bacon grease for flavor, lasagna noodles, tomato or spaghetti sauce and cheese.

I personally like Sargento Cheese because it tastes great, comes in a wide array of flavors and melts evenly.

If you like your food spicy, gather your favorite herbs or spices such as garlic, peppers, rosemary, basil, chilli powder and fresh ground pepper.

You can even make lasagna in a solar oven or cast iron dutch oven, but that is a post for another day!

The recipe below is made in a glass rectangle dish in the oven.

Best Simple Lasagna Recipe

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Author: Sheri Ann Richerson
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Category: Pasta
Method: Stovetop + Oven

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Brown the hamburger in your skillet. I like using a cast iron skillet.
When the hamburger is brown with no more pink showing, it is time to drain it.
Dump the hamburger into a strainer positioned in the kitchen sink. Using hot water, wash the hamburger to remove the excess grease. Rinse the skillet out. Be sure you use hot water to do this.
Return the meat to the pan, remove the strainer from that side of the sink, squirt a bit of dishwasher detergent into the sink, then use hot water to rinse the sink again and wash the detergent down the drain. This will help stop the grease from causing a clog in your drain.
Put the pan filled with meat back on the stove. Add bacon bits or bacon grease. Do not add more than a tablespoon of bacon grease, less is better. If you are using crumbled bacon or bacon bits, add a generous handful.
Have the sauce you are using and the spices assembled on the stove.
Put the fresh garlic scapes into a food grinder and grind them up, then add them to the meat. I preserved my fresh garlic scapes in sea salt, so there will not be a need to add additional salt to the sauce when I make it.
Add two whole garlic cloves, a tablespoon of basil, one small red chili pepper, a tablespoon of rosemary, a teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper and a teasopoon of chili powder. The homemade sauce I used was pre-seasoned with basil and Italian herbs.
Once all the seasonings have been added to the meat and stirred in, add the sauce. Mix well.
Lower the heat to a low or warm setting. Keep the sauce warm for about ten minutes and allow the flavors to mix.
Once the sauce is warm, add some fresh grated parmesan cheese to the sauce. Mix well. The amount of cheese you add will vary depending on how thin your sauce is. You want to add just enough to make the sauce thick. Generally I add about a cup of cheese.
Once the sauce is done, keep it warm while you boil the water for your lasagna.
Add a pinch of salt along with a drop of olive oil to the lasagna water. The olive oil will keep the pasta from sticking.
Once the water comes to a boil, lay the pasta in the pan. It will stick out of the pan at first. This is ok. Allow the pasta to sit like this for a minute or so, then gently push it down into the water.
Once the pasta is completely submerged in the water, cook it according to package directions. This generally takes somewhere between ten and twelve minutes, but can vary so do read the directions on your box of lasagna.
When the lasagna is fully cooked, drain it into a stainer positioned in the kitchen sink. If you have a sprayer, turn on the cold water and hose the pasta off, if not run cold water over it from the kitchen tap.
Dump the pasta back into the pan and fill with cold water. This will stop the pasta from continuing to cook.
Strain the pasta a second time but this time simply sit the strainer with the pasta back in the pan.
Take the pan back to the stove.
Lightly grease the bottom of the baking dish with olive oil.
Put one layer of pasta on the bottom of the baking dish.
Add a bit of sauce to the first layer of pasta. Be aware the sauce will thin during cooking, so do not fret that is does not evenly cover the pasta.
Add a layer of cheese on top of the pasta. I usually make the layer about 1/8 inch thick.
Continue layering the lasagna, the sauce and the cheese. If you are using a variety of cheese like I do, feel free to alternate them or mix them, whichever you prefer.
Put some sauce on the top layer, homemade goat cheese (if you have it) and a sprinkling of the other cheeses you chose.
Cover the pan with aluminum foil making sure it is sealed tight around the edges.
Put the pan in the oven and cook it at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes.

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Final Thoughts

The buzzer just went off in the kitchen.

I can smell the spicy mix of herbs, cheese and garlic flowing this way tempting my taste buds.

It’s time to get off here, make a nice slice of homemade herb bread and butter so I can eat.

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