Yes, it’s true. Italians eat lasagna for Christmas and Italian-Americans like my family have it for Thanksgiving too. This is the lasagna that is our family (and reader) favorite and has a couple unexpected ingredients that create amazing flavor layers.
No matter when you serve this Italian lasagna recipe, you’ll likely end up with an empty baking dish.
Lasagna noodles disclaimer
For this meat lasagna, you can use homemade lasagna sheets, boxed curly noodles that you have to boil, or no-bake lasagna noodles straight from the box. My preference is either homemade or the no-bake versions as neither requires the extra cooking step and makes for easier cleanup as well.
Save This Recipe!
Enter your email and we'll send it right to you!
Some families’ lasagna recipes are handed down from generation to generation (and tweaked along the way like mine); others come straight from the back of the box (lasagna noodle box, that is). The truth? The secret to the best lasagna is what’s in each layers not just how you put them together (although that matters too).
Readers say:
…This lasagna was a Christmas Eve hit with my family! My dad declared it a “blue ribbon”! Truly the best lasagna I’ve ever made!
This post contains links to affiliate websites including Amazon. I make a small commission for any purchases made using these links. Thank you!
Two surprising additions to the ricotta layer
This lasagna is more than just a rich meat sauce, delicate sheets of lasagna noodles, and layers of a whole milk ricotta cheese mixture, parm and mozzarella.
There is a fourth cheese that adds the perfect touch of tang to the ricotta mix.
It’s goat cheese. This is the first time you’re going to hear me say “trust the recipe.”
And here is the second time. There is also a tiny bit of lemon in the ricotta mixture that brings a needed acid and brightness that counterbalances all the meat and tomato.
My friend, trust the recipe.
My favorite lasagna pan
First, this lasagna isn’t going to fit in a traditional 9 x 13” baking pan. You NEED a really deep baking dish with straight sides.
My favorite lasagna pan is this rectangular, deep baking dish. It cleans unbelievably well and is deep enough for a four layer lasagna if that’s your preference. holds a lot of lasagna for a lot of people! And the edges are crispy and crusty in the best way possible thanks to the straight sides!
Meat and ricotta lasagna – step by step
I use no-bake noodles in the process below.
You’ll build this homemade lasagna recipe in the following order:
- A ladle of meat sauce. This prevents the noodles from sticking to your baking dish.
- Noodles. Lay the no-bake noodles side by side being careful not to have them on top of each other, giving the noodles room to expand as the lasagna bakes .
- Fresh mozzarella cheese layer. Cut or tear up fresh mozzarella over the pasta. This is where all that cheesy goodness happens.
- Ricotta. In a medium bowl, stir together the ricotta, eggs, goat cheese, some fresh parsley and that amazing lemon flavor. Use an inset spatula or regular spatula to spread on a thick layer of the ricotta cheese mixture.
- Repeat layers at least two more times.
- For the last layer, finish with some more mozzarella and freshly grated parmesan cheese as shown in the last image above.
- Tuck in some basil leaves either before or after cooking. Or both as I did here!
Top Tips for Getting a Golden Crispy Topping on Lasagna
- Pour off any excess water from the ricotta cheese when you open the container.
- If boiling lasagna noodles, make sure that they’re dry before layering them in the lasagna. You don’t want any extra water in the pan to make a mushy lasagna.
- Undercook the lasagna noodles by about 2/3 so they’ll finish cooking while baking.
- Bake until the center of the lasagna puffs up and the cheese is golden and the edges are dark in the best way. That’s the tomato sauce caramelizing. So so good!
- You can also cover the lasagna with aluminum foil while it bakes for the first 45 minutes and then remove the foil, add the cheese and crank up the heat for the last 10-15 minutes or so.
Made this recipe?
I’d love it if you’d share your review and leave a star rating and comment!
Authentic Italian Meat Lasagna with Ricotta Cheese
SAVE THIS RECIPE
Enter your email and we'll send it right to you!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 box of no bake lasagna noodles, I use Barilla
- 1 lb fresh mozzarella, sliced or torn
For the cheese filling:
- 15 oz container of whole milk ricotta
- 3-4 oz goat cheese
- 1 egg
- 1-2 T fresh parsley
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup parmesan cheese , divided
- half the zest of one lemon , about 1 teaspoon; *see note below
For the sauce:
- 28 oz. can of whole tomatoes or bottle of passata, pureed smooth if using can
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup water, can substitute ½ cup of passata for half of the water
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 lb Italian sausage, hot or medium
- 1 can of tomato paste, 6 oz
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
- 2-3 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 2 T fresh parsley
- can add basil too if desired
- 8 oz shredded part skim mozzarella or thinly sliced mozzarella
Instructions
- Blend the ricotta mixture ingredients together including ½ cup of parmesan, goat cheese, egg, parsley, seasoning and lemon. Set aside15 oz container of whole milk ricotta, 3-4 oz goat cheese, 1 egg, 1-2 T fresh parsley, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 1 cup parmesan cheese , half the zest of one lemon
- Place whole tomatoes in a blender, if using, along with their juices and pulse until desired consistency is reached.28 oz. can of whole tomatoes or bottle of passata
- Heat olive oil in a 4qt. saucepan (or larger if doubling) over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until translucent and rich in color, about 5 minutes. Briefly add garlic for 30 seconds until you smell it.1 Tablespoon olive oil, 1 cup chopped onion, 2 cloves garlic
- Add the beef and sausage and cook until browned about 8 minutes. Drain excess fat as needed.1 lb ground beef, 1 lb Italian sausage
- Reduce heat to medium-low and add tomato paste. Swirl around until softened and combined with meat and onions about 2 minutes. Add spices ending with sugar and quickly combine because you don’t want the sugar to burn but to caramelize just a bit.1 can of tomato paste, 1 Tablespoon sugar, 2-3 teaspoons kosher salt, 1 teaspoon oregano, 1 teaspoon pepper, 2 T fresh parsley
- Quickly add pureed tomatoes or passata and simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes. Check the seasoning after 20 minutes or so. Add the additional water/passata if the sauce seems too thick, starting with 1/2 cup and continue to cook. Add more salt/pepper or a little more sugar if the tomatoes are more on the acidic side.1 cup water
- In a deep lasagna pan, sparsely coat the bottom with a ladle or two full of sauce. This is so the noodles don't stick to the pan. Place the following layers over the sauce:Start with the noodles lined up next to each other. I usually get four to the pan. Don't crowd them so they have room to expand. Next tear half of the fresh mozzarella into pieces and place evenly over noodles. Spread on ½ of the ricotta filling evenly over the mozzarella and top with ⅓ of the sauce.1 box of no bake lasagna noodles, 1 lb fresh mozzarella
- Repeat then end with the last layer of sauce. Sprinkle over shredded mozzarella or thinly slice pieces of mozzarella and a sprinkling of parmesan
- Bake at 350° for 1 hour uncovered until golden brown on top. If the lasagna starts to brown too soon, cover loosely with aluminum foil so as not to disturb the cheese and then remove the foil for the last 15 minutes to brown.
- Rest on the stove for at least 15 minutes, uncovered. Slice into 12 pieces.
Notes
- Cut the recipe by ⅓ for a 9 x 13” pan. And a little less than that for a square pan. You might only get two layers in a square pan depending on how thick the pan is.
- 🍋 Note on the use of lemon in the ricotta filling. The bit of lemon is meant to enhance the ricotta and goat cheese. Lemons come in all sizes so I recommend starting with 1 teaspoon of zest. If the lemon feels to you like it doesn’t work or scares you, feel free to omit it!
- Make up the individual layers up to three days before you plan to serve the lasagna. Build the lasagna the day of and bake!
- Make the lasagna the day before you plan to serve it and refrigerate covered first with plastic wrap and then foil. Bake the next day.
- Freeze the entire unbaked lasagna making sure the meat sauce is cooled completely. Cover with foil and then a double layer of plastic wrap and freeze for up to three months.
I haven’t made this yet, I have all of my ingredients. But I plan to make my lasagna with homemade pasta, but I want to freeze it so I can make it ahead of time. If I freeze it immediately, do I need to parboil my lasagna pasta? Or can I just assemble it and put it in the freezer? Will thawing it for 24 hours cause the pasta to absorb the liquid? Thank you!
Hi Nancy! You don’t need to parboil the noodles. I don’t when I use my lasagna sheets and freeze the lasagna unbaked (and I currently have one in the freezer for Christmas too 😊).
Unless you’re using a pan that’s specifically designed for freezer-to-oven use (like cast iron or thermal-shock-resistant porcelain), I recommend thawing the lasagna before baking — the pasta sheets will be just fine.
A heavy-duty disposable pan works really well for baking straight from the freezer; just plan to add about 30-45 minutes to the baking time. Hope that helps and please let me know how it goes!
This is my absolute favorite lasagna recipe. It’s the first time I’ve made homemade sauce for my lasagna and it’s a game changer. It’s also surprisingly easy to make. I highly recommend!
Tawnya!! You made my day! I am so honored and happy that you love my lasagna as much as my family does. Thank you for trying it and if you want to try another one that is so good but in a different way, give the lasagna Bolognese a try when you have a cozy Sunday and you want to cook. It’s a little more time consuming but it is so worth it! Thanks again! ♥️
HE LOVED IT!!! TY…pinned it!!
Woohoo! So glad you all enjoyed it – thanks for trying my lasagna!
Happy Holidays, Lori! This lasagna was a Christmas Eve hit with my family! My dad declared it a “blue ribbon”! Truly the best lasagna I’ve ever made!
Hi Ingrid!! Happy holidays to you and thank you so much! I’m so so glad you all loved it (esp your dad)…and hope you have some leftovers because it’s even better the next day!😊 Thanks again!
This is now my go-to lasagna recipe. The cheese to meat ratio was perfect and the flavors were amazing. I loved the lemon and goat cheese additions. I made this for Christmas dinner and my family loved it. Said it was the best lasagna I’ve ever made. Thank you!
Marcia! Thank you so much…waking up to your message the day after Christmas is the best gift! Glad you all enjoyed it and merry Christmas!! 🎄
This is the BEST lasagna my family and I have ever enjoyed! We did leave out lemon zest, but only because we never have lemons on hand. How anyone can complain about this recipe baffles me…
Seeing this about my lasagna recipe brought a huge smile to my face the morning after Christmas. What a wonderful thing to wake up to!!😊 Thank you so much, Kim, for trying it and taking the time to let me know. A happy holiday to you and your family!
This was a total waste of time and money- a disappointment! Why on earth would you include lemon zest in Lasagna? It ruined the experience I wanted my family to have! It took away the authentic Italian flavour I was craving!
Hi Jan! The bit of lemon is meant to enhance the flavors from the ricotta and goat cheese and it’s something we really like. I’m sorry it didn’t work for you. Thank you for pointing out that it might not be for everybody and I plan to make a notation in the recipe why it’s there but that it could always be omitted.
Sorry..should have added this to my comment…
Re. your pasta recipe: (1) I can buy coarse or fine semolina – which would I use?; and (2) you mention rolling to about a 5 for spaghetti, fettuccine,etc…do I roll to a 6 for lasagna?
Hi again…my favorite semolina for pasta is Caputo Antimo Di Grano Duro Rimacinata Semolina Flour (you can find it on Amazon). Bob’s Red Mill also has a semolina flour that most grocery stores carry and might be easier to find. For lasagna, I’d roll it to about .5-1mm or about a setting of 4-5. Make sure when you hold up the dough that you can see your hand through it. Hope that helps! And please let me know how it works!!
Hi, Josie. Can this lasagna be prepared the day before I bake it, if I were to use your recipe for homemade pasta? Concerned about whether the delicate homemade noodles would stand up to such a long “hold” time.
Hi Janice! You totally could use homemade pasta for lasagna noodles and make it ahead. Just roll out the pasta, par-boil it for about 2 minutes (this avoids the fresh pasta soaking up all the sauce making too dry of a lasagna and then layer in the lasagna. Then bake it the next day. Hope that helps! 😊
Love it!,
Thanks Cyd! So glad you enjoyed it! 😊