This is a huge recipe which creates about 4 pans worth of Lasagna. Making it is a great way to spend a cold fall or winter weekend. You really need at least 2 people to create this masterpiece. The lasagna can be frozen in single serving portions for those days when you don't feel like cooking, and the "send same pizza" trick on the phone is not quite satisfying enough.
Ingredients (makes 4 large pans)
- 1 medium onion
- 2 heads of garlic (yes that's heads, not cloves!)
- 3 cans diced tomatoes (we use Muir Glen Organic brand 28 fl oz. or 796ml)
- 4 cans crushed tomatoes (we use Muir Glen Organic brand 28 fl oz. or 796ml)
- 2 cans tomato paste (we use Muir Glen Organic brand 6oz or 170g)
- 4 ricotta tubs (about 475g each)
- 1 large bunch fresh basil (about 1/2 cup when chopped)
- 3 mozzarella balls (about 340g each)
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (+ oil for cooking noodles + oil for lasagna pans + oil for bowl used to separate cooked noodles)
- 2 pounds extra lean ground beef
- 2 packages lasagne noodles (DeCecco brand fits well into pans) fresh ground pepper to taste
- 4 lasagna pans (9 x 12)
Instructions for Lasagna
Finely chop onion and 1 head of garlic. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until translucent in a very large pot.
Add all cans of tomato to onion and garlic. Add pepper to taste. Simmer on medium heat until thick, at least 1 hour. Make a mess everywhere. (OK, so the make a mess everywhere isn't an instruction... but it's gonna happen!)
Chop basil. In a medium bowl combine ricotta and basil. Put in fridge until needed.
Grate mozzarella. Put in fridge until needed.
Finely chop second head of garlic. Brown beef and garlic. Add pepper to taste. Drain meat and put in bowl. Set aside until needed.
After about 1 hours of simmering the tomato sauce, take off heat and set aside.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Boil water for the lasagna noodles. Don't forget to add olive oil to the water! Cook lasagna noodles according to instructions on package. Rinse cooked noodles with warm water to cool them down for handling.
Set up lasagna assembly line. Oil lasagna pans. Put bowl of meat beside it. Get ricotta and mozzarella out of fridge and set beside meat. Set tomato sauce by cheese. Separate lasagna noodles from each other in large oiled bowl.
Layer pasta, sauce, ricotta, beef, mozzarella. Repeat. Repeat a 3rd time for the top layer but put only sauce and mozzarella on the top layer.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 25 minutes. Bake 2 pans at a time. Let sit after removing from oven for about 10 minutes before consuming.
Keep in fridge over night and cut into freezable portions the next day.