This recipe came from the owner of a popular Italian restaurant in Tampa inmthe 1960s. Easy and excellent. It's really better if you assemble it the day before and bake it before serving. Increase the baking time refrigerated. Sliced Mozzarella wasn't easily found when the recipe was shared, Swiss works great.

1 lg onion

2 cloves garlic (minced)

2 lbs ground meat (chuck)

1 lg (12 oz) can tomato paste

1 T dried Rosemary crumbled

Lasagna noodles - prepared

1 pkg cottage cheese (16 oz, small curd)

2 eggs

Sliced Swiss or Mozarella cheese

parmesean cheese

In Olive oil brown onion, garlic and meat. Add tomato paste and 2 cans of water. add Rosemary, salt and pepper. Simmer 45 minutes.

In seperate bowl, beat eggs and add cottage cheese.

In large pan (spray with Pam)....

Layer:

Meat

Noodles

1/2 of swiss

All of cottage cheese mixture

Meat

Noodles

1/2 of Swiss (mozzarella)

Meat

Noodles

Meat

Sprinkle with parmesean.

Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. let sit 10 minutes before cutting.

I follow the package directions but I have some tips I learned over the years. Start with a good, rich, homemade sauce and make enough so you don't run short for the top layer. I only use sweet Italian sausage, no ground beef, and I only use a pound, just enough to flavor the sauce. Drain the ricotta in a mesh colander as sometimes it can make the lasagna watery. Use Parmigiano Reggiano or a good quality wedge of Parmesan and a ball of mozzarella, sliced. I like the no boil noodles because they are more tender than the regular, more like fresh pasta.

This one is a bit of work but truly excellent. It will not taste too "weird" to a picky eater, but has subtle details that a gourmet would also appreciate.

If you can, get fresh made ricotta and mozz.

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/9530-lasagna

I just throw mine together but I do like adding pesto to the ricotta. It seems to brighten the richness of all the ingredients.

Same as localeater, I don't use a recipe. I make and freeze pasta sauce each year from our tomatoes. So use a fresh sauce and I do like sausage mixed with the beef. Ricotta - no cottage cheese. I also like the no boil noodles.

I use ricotta and mozzarella only, no cottage cheese, no swiss. And I use dry noodles straight out of the box, just like my Italian grandparents from the old country and my dad always did.

I've never used no-boil noodles, and never boiled the dry noodles, either. I know everybody does, but I don't know why, or when Americans started boiling their noodles. I do still drain the ricotta, but nowadays nowhere near as much liquid drains as did when my dad was making the lasagne thirty years ago. His mother always made her own ricotta.

I make the old family recipe sauce and meatballs, grate my own Parmigiano romano, and mozzarella. It's a two day affair for me, but it sure is good. We have it a few times every year.

I love lasagna. I make a hybrid of all the above (def. sweet Italian sausage) and usually something green, e.g., spinach, in the ricotta mixture.

If you're jonesing for lasagna in under an hour and don't have the time to make it, Kirkland frozen ain't that bad.

I make it a little differently every time. Depends if I'm making it quick for just DH and I or for a big company meal. I mostly follow the package recipe but add my own additional spices. I sometimes use the no-boil noodles but often use some really high-quality pasta (slightly boiled but not until done). I use a mix of ground sirloin and Italian sausage and mix into my own tomato sauce. Layer with ricotta (mixed with egg and fresh grated parmesan like localeater does it) and mozzarella ending with a thin layer of sauce and then light sprinkle of mozzarella.

This is the recipe that I've made for years, since I very first started cooking in the 80's. I got the recipe off the box. It is a recipe where you DO NOT cook the noodles first. It is very good.

Virginia's easy lasagna recipe

I recently found this recipe that claims to be the world's best. I've made it several times and it is VERY good.

All recipes World's Best Lasagna

I use the Barilla recipe and tweak it by only using ground sausage and sauteed portobello mushrooms instead of ground beef. I have people rave about this recipe and it's fairly easy. Even my usually non carb eating husband loves this. https://www.barilla.com/en-us/recipes/blue-box/barilla-oven-ready-lasagna-with-barilla-traditional-sauce

I make awesome lasagna.. and I credit my old grad school advisor who hosted a dinner for his grad students and made the *best* lasagna I'd ever eaten (up until that point in time). He set the bar high and the only "special" thing he did was to use fresh pasta.

I don't really use bells and whistles-- unless you consider spinach a bell (or whistle). I apologize for not having a recipe-- but to echo a few others here, more important than the recipe IMHO are the ingredients.

• I have never cared for the no boil noodles. I found the texture odd. To me, there's nothing like fresh noodles-- I don't make my own pasta anymore but as Mtn pointed out, there are *many* places where you can get fresh pasta. It's not a deal breaker but boy does it make a difference!
• If I add meat, I am also in the sausage camp. I always mix spinach in with the ricotta but sometimes (if I have company) I also use a mixture of sweet and hot Italian sausage on the "meat" layer. I like mine cut up into coins rather than a heavy layer of meat so the flavor doesn't overwhelm.
• I have never used cottage cheese-- only whole milk ricotta. Ricottas are not all the same. Some are very grainy and have a distasteful texture. I'd look for what brands you can get in your area and check reviews. If you are lucky enough to have someplace local that sells fresh, wahoo for you!
• I don't add pesto to the ricotta, but I do add a LOT of basil. I use Lite House freeze dried basil for my lasagna and stuffed shells and my friends and family always comment on the amazing basil flavor. It's better in the cheese than in the sauce IMO.
• I also mix mozzarella into the ricotta it makes it more melty good.

Have a great evening-- and don't work too hard! A kitchen floor can be hard on your body!

Thank you to everyone! I knew I came to the right place!

I have so many good ideas now, I may be making a few different lasagnas this winter. My family thanks you all. :-)

Last time I used pasta without cooking it before (the kind you're not meant to cook before) it dried out my sauce. I was so bummed.

What do those of you who don't precook the pasta do to keep that from happening?

1929, there needs to be enough liquid in the sauce/ingredients for the pasta to soften and reconstitute, without any watery parts or drying out the rest of the dish. Most recipes that use that kind of pasta have made adjustments.

Here's another delicious lasagna for the vegetarians from Ina Garten.

Portobello Mushroom Lasagna

Thought I'd come back to this thread to see some of the other ideas people have posted; i have been tweaking my lasagna over the last year.

I love the ease of no-boil lasagna, like Barilla, but IMO its texture ruins the lasagna. I have like DeCecco curly lasagna, par-boiled (4 minutes).

The concept of cottage cheese in lasagna is foreign to me.

I rarely make meat lasagna. I grow eggplant in my garden in the summer; it gets sliced and baked with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper and basil and then frozen. My lasagna is layered with these eggplant slices, wilted spinach and, if I have any in the house, cooked, sliced mushrooms.

1929Spanish, dried sauce/lasagne has never been a problem for me. I do use a lot of sauce in my lasagne layers, beginning with sauce on the bottom of the dry pan, and always serve more sauce at the table. My lasagne is sturdy, never watery, the noodles al dente.

Thanks. Is your sauce "liquid-y" typically? I tend to make a heavy sauce.aube that was part of it.

No, my sauce is very thick, not thin. It simmers for hours while I make and fry meatballs, then simmers longer with the meatballs and pork chops in it.

ETA sausage also spends a long time in the sauce.

Localeater, I want to come eat at *your* house!

This is going to sound weird but it's a big crowd pleaser. Make your lasagna your favorite classic layered way but on the middle layer instead of ricotta use cheese slicer depth slices of velvetta (not too thick or thin). Don't use the "lite" or the pre-sliced velvetta packets. Use the original style block that melts down throughout the sauce and noodles (yum). The lite doesn't melt right. I use sauce recipes similar to some of the above but add a rounded teaspoon of fennel seeds and simmer for several hours to allow the seeds to become soft and unnoticeable This is more of a International Lasagna.

If you have several men you might want to make a BIG lasagna because they go back for 2nds and 3rds.

Not much to add other than using lasagne sheets, the best fresh mozzarella you can find ( two balls) good, non-grainy ricotta, freshly grated Parmesan. Good tomato sauce. And, sorry everyone, no sausage. Just ground beef.

I make mine with our family sauce, fresh ricotta, fresh mozzarella and noodles you must precook. But I have recently found Costco has a fresh ravioli lasagna that is a very close second to my Grandmothers. And THAT is saying a lot-she was renowned for her authentic sauce.