Melt in your Mouth Skillet Lasagna
Today we have another one pot meal for you, cast iron skillet lasagna. Just like the Thai basil chicken this recipe is truly a one pot meal. No need to transfer anything out of the skillet, once it is in the skillet it stays in the skillets. At least until you are ready to gobble it up, and you are going to want to devour this lasagna.
Everything in this lasagna was made in a large cast iron skillet. I made the sauce first, then layered the noodles. I pushed the noodles under the sauce using a spoon, trying to get as much sauce on top as possible. The noodles will break a little as you push them under the sauce. A little breakage is ok. The lasagna holds its form well.
You could easily make it in any size oven safe skillet, just cut the ingredients in half accordingly. I’ve also made this lasagna on the stove. It was a little more difficult, and I had to keep an eye on it constantly. Since I am a fan of passive time when cooking, I started cooking it in the oven. It turned out better, and I could do other things while waiting for dinner to be done.
Since I just have to pop the lasagna in the oven, it really only took about 10 minutes of active time. This is fantastic because you now have time to help with homework, clean up, or just relax.
Another thing I love about this lasagna is the big dollops of ricotta cheese on top. The ricotta cheese makes a beautiful contrast in the red sauce. Plus, there is no need to use a ton of mozzarella and parmesan cheese to cover the top. I love cheese, but I am also a fan of making food healthier. So in this case, less is more. However, the sauce has such great flavor that you won’t even notice the missing cheese.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. ground beef
- 2 – 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
- 1 cup Italian blend cheese 1/2 cup parmesan and ½ cup mozzarella
- 1 medium onion
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
- 1 Tbsp. salt
- 3 cloves minced garlic
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 Tbsp. beef or chicken bouillon optional
- 1 package oven ready noodles
Instructions
- 1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- 2) Brown ground beef in a cast iron skillet or other oven save skillet.
- 3) Add chopped onion and garlic. Gently stir until onion and garlic are fragrant, about 2-3 minutes.
- 4) Pour crushed tomatoes into skillet. Mix and bring to a simmer.
- 5) Mix in Italian seasoning, sugar, salt, and bouillon.
- 6) Layer oven ready noodles over meat sauce. Break noodles as needed until top is covered. Use you spoon or spatula to push noodles down into the sauce. It is okay if they break a little. Repeat until you have 3 layers of noodles. Top layer will be lightly covered with sauce.
- 7) Dollop ricotta cheese on top of lasagna and spread out a little with the back of a spoon.
- 8) Sprinkle Italian blend cheese over lasagna.
- 9) Cover with aluminum foil. Place in oven and cook for 40 minutes. Remove foil for last 10 minutes of cooking to toast cheese.
- 10) Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
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Looks incredible. I am definitely going to make this.