Recently, I saw a recipe for Baked Spaghetti on the New York Times Cooking site. What fascinated me was that it was like a lasagna, but with less fuss. Somewhere in the reviews, someone called it a Lazy Lasagna. What a perfect name for such an uncomplicated dish! My daughter-in-law is a first grade teacher and was having an extended meeting after school. I thought this would be a welcome addition to their home after such a long day! As a retired teacher myself, I defintely understand trying to transition back home after an exhasuting day with hungry kids on my heels asking me what’s for dinner. My oldest grandson told me it was blog-worthy, so here you go! I hope you get an opportunity to give it a try!
The Sauce:
Saute the onion in the olive oil on MED heat until translucent, about 5-7 minnutes. Add the minced garlic and Italian seasoning. Stir until fragrant, about a minute. I love my homemade Italian Seasoning blend! It’s a great way to use my dried herbs from this summer’s harvesting!
Add one pound of your ground meat of choice. Cook until no longer pink. In this version, I used lean ground turkey. Stir in 4 cups of your favorite marinara sauce or make some homemade marinara sauce ahead of time to use in this recipe. Remove skillet from the heat and stir in 1/2 cup of basil chiffonade. (Stack up basil leaves, roll them up like a cigar and cut into thin strips.)
Assembly:
Once you have pasta cooked and ricotta mixture blended smooth, lay ingredients out in order of the layering. Place 1/2 of pasta(eyeball it) on the bottom of the prepared dish. Follow up with 1/2 of the sauce. Spread it out evenly over the pasta.
Dollop 8 spoonfuls of the ricotta mixture over the sauce. Sprinkle 1 cup of the mozzarella over the ricotta mixture.
Spread the rest of the pasta out evenly and top it with remaining sauce. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.
Take pan out of the oven and top with the rest of the mozzarella and grated parmesan cheese. Bake for an additional 10 minutes without the foil.
Serving Time!
Oh, yum! Remove pan from the oven and wait about 10 mnutes before serving. Enjoy!
Lazy Lasagna
Ingredients
Pasta:
- 1 pound spaghetti or pasta of your choice
Sauce:
- 2 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 c yellow onion, diced
- 1 T Minced garlic
- 2 t Italian seasoning
- Kosher Salt
- Black peppr
- 1 pound ground beef, turkey or sausage
- 4 c Marinara sauce
- 1/2 c basil chiffonade
Ricotta Mix
- 1 cup ricotta
- 1/2 c grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese or parmesan
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 t salt
Other:
- 2 c mozzarella, divided
- 1/4 c grated parmigiano-reggiano or parmesan
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Oil/spray 13x9x2 pan.
- Heat skillet to MED heat with 2 T of extra virgin olive oil. Saute diced onions until translucent, about 6-7 minutes.
- Add garlic and Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Stir for about a minute or until fragrant.
- Add the ground meat of choice and cook until no longer pink,
- Stir in the marinara sauce until heated through and remove from the heat. Stir in the basil chiffonade.
- In a small bowl, blend together until smooth the ricotta, parmesan, egg and salt.
- Cook pasta of choice in salted water for about a minute less than stated for the al dente stage. Drain.
- Spread half of the pasta in the bottom in the prepared dish.
- Top with half of the sauce and spread evenly over the pasta.
- Dollop about 8 spoonfuls of the ricotta mixture, 2 rows of 4 equally spaced.
- Sprinkle 1 cup of mozzarella cheese over the dollops of ricotta.
- Place remainder of the pasta over the top followed by rest of the sauce. Smooth it over the pasta. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes.
- Take the pan out and remove the foil. Sprinkle the remainder of the mozzarella and the 1/4 cup of the parmesan over the top and return to the oven for about 10 more minutes.
- Allow it to cool 5-10 minutes before serving.
