No Ricotta Lasagna
Dear Lovely,
As a mother of two teenagers, and as someone who has the desire to create a warm, welcoming home with delicious, hearty fragrances coming from our kitchen, I believe it is very important to have my own “Mom’s Famous Lasagna” recipe. Knowing that these teenage years can be stressful, I really want our family to be grounded in sitting down to dinner together—maybe we can’t every night, but at least once a week we have a family dinner.
The kitchen is the heart of our home. We eat, pray, talk, laugh, catch-up, unload dishes, fold laundry, do home work, and all the the other things in this one area of our house. We spend more time in here than anywhere else, so having a wonderful (and simple!) recipe in the oven while life is occuring makes me happy, and I feel really passionate about providing this life for my boys. I imagine if you asked any of their friends about me, they would say, “Bruh, Ms. Lauren is always in the kitchen. And as soon as we walk in the door she asks us if we’re hungry.” (Those of you who know me can probably imagine the teenage voice I’m using to immitate them right now.) 🤣
Anyway, lasagna.
Not only is lasagna tasty, but it’s an ultimate comfort food that leaves everyone with a nice food buzz. Yes, I am a fan of the food buzz. The problem is, I do not like ricotta cheese. I don’t like the texture. It has the consistency of something spreadable, or a dip, and I don’t really like the flavor either. And yes, I have heard about substituting cottage cheese for ricotta. No. Just no.
So how does one have a “Mom’s Famous Lasagna” recipe without including one of it’s key ingredients? Well, I’ll tell you how I get around this plight as well as some other hacks I use for this recipe.
Instead of a layer of ricotta, I add a layer of eggs scrambled with Parmesan cheese. (This is the same concoction I use in my Nonna’s Chicken Noodle Soup recipe to add additional protein.) As the egg cooks within the layers of the lasagna, it creates nice eggy structure with a salty bite of Parmesan.
I also like to add a layer of sliced zucchini to my lasagna for a little dose of veggies.
For our family of 4, I make a 9” square pan lasagna. Making a 9”x13” pyrex is just too much food for us. If you’re feeding a big group, just double this recipe and you should be good.
When it comes to the sauce, I use 2 packages of Bolognese sauce from Uncle’s Family Kitchen at the McKinney Farmer’s Market. For me, the point of this recipe is to be an easy, but delicious, go-to. Having the sauce already made helps with this. Just know you can use whatever sauce you prefer.
This recipe freezes beautififully and can be made ahead of time and frozen. If cooking from frozen, let thaw completely before baking.
Ingredients:
1 package oven ready lasagna noodles
1.5 cups of Bolognese sauce
6 eggs scrambled and mixed with 6 TBS Parmesan cheese, divided in half
5 cups mozzarella cheese, divided in half
2 zucchinis sliced, can be green or yellow or a mixture of the two, optional*
olive oil
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°.
Grease a 9”x9” pan with olive oil, bottom and sides
Line with lasagna noodles.
Top with egg mixture.
Top with zucchini slices.
Top with Bolognese
Top with mozarella
Repeat beginning with noodles, egg mixture, zucchini, Bolognese, and a final layer of Mozzarella cheese. *If I have any extra parmesan, I usually add that too for fun!
Bake for 20 minutes. Turn oven up to 425° and bake for 10 minutes more. ***Note, everyone’s oven is different! Please check your lasagna early at the 375° temperature AND at the 425° temperature so your cheese doesn’t burn.
Serve hot and enjoy!
Additional Thoughts: Looking at these pictures above makes me want to invest in a new square baking dish that has a lid. We always have leftover lasagna, so having a lid makes sense. I decided I’ll be investing in one of these: The San Francisco Square Casserole from Le Creuset. Le Creuset are investment pieces but over the years as I’ve been collecting, I’ve recognized why I believe they are worth the investment:
they are pretty to leave out on the stove
every piece is offered in a plethora of colors so you can customize your collection
food cooks really evenly
they are made in France and have been around for 100 years!
they are very high quality and last a long time
no matter how badly I burn things on the bottom, they are actually really easy to clean
there always seems to be sale happening!—the square casserole I mentioned above is marked down right now!
You can see some other pieces I’ve collected from Le Creuset over on my blog post called Kitchen Loves.
