It requires some assembling, but it is well worth it. It just asks for a few ingredients, such as lamb and extra potatoes to replace the eggplant. The majority of the components are commonplace staples, and the results are delicious.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 5 hrs 40 mins |
| Total Time: | 6 hrs 10 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 1 9×13-inch lasagna |
Ingredients
- 9 thick slices bacon, diced
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 (28 ounce) cans tomato sauce
- 1 ½ teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon fennel seed
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 pounds Italian sausage links
- 2 pints part-skim ricotta cheese
- ⅓ cup milk
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 (16 ounce) package uncooked lasagna noodles
- 8 slices provolone cheese
- 6 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Make the sauce: Brown bacon and onion in a large pan over medium heat until bacon is crisp and onion is translucent, 7 to 9 minutes. Stir in tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, fennel seed, and oregano. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until thick, 4 to 6 hours.
- Cook the sausage: When the sauce is almost ready, brown sausage links in a large skillet. Drain on paper towels and cut into 1-inch pieces.
- Make the lasagna: Mix ricotta cheese, milk, eggs, parsley, and oregano together in a medium bowl.
- Spread 1 cup sauce over the bottom of a 9×13-inch pan. Layer with 1/3 of the lasagna noodles, 1/2 of the ricotta mixture, 1/2 of the sausage pieces, 2 cups mozzarella, 4 slices provolone, and 1/3 of the sauce. Repeat layers once more, then top with remaining noodles. Spread remaining sauce over noodles and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 1 1/2 hours.
Reviews
PHENOMENAL! We used a bigger pan 15X11 inches and it fit perfect! We also used used ground Italian sausage and the flavor it’s outstanding, we cooked it covered with Aluminum foil. A family of 4-6 will be very satisfied with this amount.
Would add some veggies but it was good!
Loved it. To piggy back on t bgg e comments earlier use ground sausage, get bigger pan or do less layers and make extra sauce. Over all great.
Came out of the oven great initially. The leftovers were a little dry when reheated in a microwave. I did not use the bacon.
Delicious! I used no bake noodles, ground mild Italian sausage, 2 cans of crushed tomatoes instead of sauce, and added small curd cottage cheese to the ricotta (Momma used to do this), and used a x-large foil pan. I also put foil tented over the pan to avoid burning. Removed the foil with 30 minutes left. My guests raved and took home leftovers.
I made the sauce in a slow cooker. All the other ingredients were decreased to 2/3. I would cover it in future so the top was not so brown
I loved this. But I thought it was just a little on the salty side. I think I will use 1lb hamburger and 1lb of sausage next time (I used bulk). But it is a keep of a recipe!
My husband and I really LOVE this recipe. I now use the sauce part (adding the sausage to it) for additional Italian recipes such as stuffed shells, manicotti, etc. People really love this sauce and ask me all the time about it! (Even people who aren’t “sauce fans”!) It is definitely a staple in my recipe box. Thank you!
This recipe makes ALOT! It was good, but I should have added more spices, it turned out a little bland.
great great great. YUMMY
Italian + Lasagna = 🙂
Patience and planning is a must for this one. Delicious mild flavor!!
This recipe is a good start, I mix some of the mozzarella in with the ricotta mixture. I leave out the fennel and the onion (my hubby is from the other side and says “NO ONIONS” in lasagna) then again, his momma made lasagna with sliced hard boiled eggs which I hate! So all in all a good basic lasagna recipe that you can modify for your family’s personal taste. Oh, and the sauce doesn’t need to cook for nearly that long unless you’re cooking your meat in it too, IMO an hour or 2 is sufficient to get a nice flavorful sauce.
Not your ordinary lasagna … lots of flavor. Next time I will use a larger pan than my regular sized 9 X 13, as the sauce was bubbling over.
I do not understand why anyone would want to change this recipe. I made it according to the directions and found it to be the best lasagna I had ever eaten. One thing: If you use a 9 1/2 x 13 casserole dish as the recipe states make sure it is at least 3″ deep.
Made it exactly as written. Delicious!
best Italian Lasagna I ever tried. Very tasty
Personally, I love this recipe. It was the best (and first) lasagna I ever made. I made it for my boyfriend because lasagna is his favorite dish and he said it is the best he has ever had. The only changes I made were I doubled the amount of sauce the recipe called for and I used my favorite pasta sauce instead of tomato sauce. I also partially cooked the noodles before baking. I took the advice of one of the other reviews and didn’t add the top layer of cheese until half way in to baking. I can’t imagine what the cheese would have looked like if I hadn’t. I would recommend waiting to add the cheese. I’m a beginning cook. Very new to this art and I managed to pull this off without any setbacks. Great recipe!
I was pleased with this recipe. I took the advise of other reviewers and added an extra can of tomato sauce. I also used some crushed garlic and increased the herbs in the sauce. The bacon is an absolute must! You don’t really taste the pieces in the finished product, but it makes the sauce so much better. I had 8 cups of mozzarella and ended up using all of it! This definitely makes way more than what can fit into a regular pan. Be prepared to use 2 or a huge roasting pan. The final result was pretty good after the modifications. I think it would have been way too dry with the original sauce proportions as I almost ran out even with the extra can. I do think that there was something missing that I just couldn’t put my finger on. Next time I will try parmesan instead of the provolone. Though it is a little time-consuming, I will definitely keep this recipe!
This was super good! I used 2 jars of sauce and i browned hamburger along with sausage. I would recommend using less bacon unless you really like the over powing taste of bacon! also, I didnt have enough of the ricatta mix so had to make a quick half batch. All in all this is a great meal that even my 2 year old gobbled up!
I wasn’t that impressed, especially for the time involved. The flavor was good but it was a little dry for my liking and putting the cheese on top to cook the entire time made the cheese too crisp, almost burned. The bacon in the gravy was a little unncecessary, you really couldn’t taste it. If I made it again, I would put the cheese on about half way through the cooking time and I would cut the cook time by about 20 minutes. My family thought it was okay but I was hoping it would have been over the top good, as other reviews stated.