Mamamia's Lasagna
Submitted by debbyfeeser
Classic Italian lasagna with homemade meat sauce from Italian sausage and ground beef, ricotta filling, mozzarella, and Parmesan. A from-scratch Sunday dinner.
YIELD
8 servingsPREP
120 minCOOK
50 minREADY
185 minThis lasagna is a full from-scratch build: a slow-simmered meat sauce with Italian sausage and ground beef, a ricotta-egg filling, layers of mozzarella, and a Parmesan crust on top. It takes time, but every component earns its spot.
The sauce simmers for about 1 ½ hours with basil, fennel seeds, and crushed tomatoes until it thickens into something rich and deeply concentrated. That fennel seed is doing more than you’d think. It echoes the anise notes in the Italian sausage and ties the whole sauce together.
Mashing the tomatoes with a wooden spoon as they cook breaks them down into the right texture, chunky enough to have body but smooth enough to spread between noodle layers without creating pockets. The sugar takes the raw edge off the tomato acidity without making the sauce sweet.
Pro Tips
- Dry the boiled lasagna noodles on paper towels before layering. Wet noodles dilute the sauce and make the finished dish watery.
- Let the lasagna cool a full 15 minutes before cutting. Slicing too early and the layers slide apart into a cheesy heap.
- Cover with foil for the first 25 minutes of baking to trap steam and cook evenly, then uncover to brown the cheese on top.
- Ricotta works best here, but cottage cheese is a fine substitute if that’s what you have.
Variations
- Add a layer of sautéed spinach or thinly sliced zucchini for extra vegetables between the noodle layers.
- Use hot Italian sausage instead of sweet for a spicier sauce.
- Swap ricotta for béchamel for a Northern Italian style lasagna.
Ingredients
Directions
Remove sausage meat from outer casings and chop up the sausage.
In a 5-quart Dutch Oven and over medium heat, sauté sausage, beef, onion, and garlic; stir frequently until both sausage and beef are well browned.
Add sugar, 1 tablespoon salt, basil, fennel, pepper, and half the parsley; mix well.
Add tomatoes, tomato paste, and ½ cup water; mashing tomatoes with a wooden spoon.
Bring to boiling; reduce heat; simmer, covered and stirring occasionally until it thickens. (Approx 1½ hours)
In a 8-quart kettle, bring 3 quarts water and 1 tablespoon salt to boiling.
Add lasagna and allow water to return to a boil; uncovered and continue stirring until they are tender.
Drain and rinse under cold water.
Dry lasagna on paper towels.
Preheat oven to 375℉ (190℃).
In medium sized bowl, combine ricotta or cottage cheese, egg, remaining parsley and salt; mix well.
Spoon 1½ cups sauce into a 9×13×2 inch baking dish .
Layer with ½ of the lasagna, lengthwise and overlapping, to cover.
Spread with half of the ricotta or cottage cheese mixture; top with one-third of mozzarella.
Spoon 1½ cups sauce over cheese; sprinkle with ¼ cup Parmesan.
Repeat layering, starting with the remaining half of the lasagna and ending with 1 ½ cups sauce sprinkled with Spread with remaining sauce; top with rest of Mozzarella and Parmesan. Cover with foil and tuck it around the edges of the baking dish. Bake 25 minutes; remove foil; bake uncovered another 25 minutes or until Mamamia’s Lasagna begins to bubble. Cool for 15 minutes prior to serving.
Comments
