Four Cheese and Vegetable Lasagna

pan of cheesy lasagna with slice taken out

5 from 1 vote

Four Cheese and Vegetable Lasagna

The BEST lasagna recipe you'll ever make! Delicious four cheeses + a few sneak vegetables come together for this classic comfort food.

Prep Time15

Cook Time45

Total Time1

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian American

Servings: servings

Calories: 364kcal

Author: Kadee & Desarae

Ingredients

Meat Sauce

1 lb ground beef or turkey
½ med onion
2 cloves garlic
24 ounces marinara sauce

Lasagna layers

12 Lasagna Noodles
1 zucchini chopped small
2-3 cup mozzarella cheese set aside 1 cup mozzarella
½ cup sharp cheddar cheese set aside

Ricotta Mixture

15 ounces ricotta cheese
1 cup chopped fresh spinach
10-15 basil leaves chopped
½ cup parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon salt
pepper a few shakes
1 egg lightly beaten

Instructions

Bring water to boil and add 1 TBS salt. Boil noodles according to package directions. Rinse with cold water for 5 seconds to help prevent sticking.

Meat Sauce

In a pan, saute garlic, onion and ground meat until cooked. Add sauce and let simmer for 15 minutes.

Ricotta mixture

In separate bowl mix ricotta, basil, and Parmesan cheese, salt and lightly beaten egg.

How to layer lasagna

In a 9x13 pan start by adding ¼ cup sauce to the bottom of the pan. Spread out evenly so noodles don't stick.
Layer ingredients as follows- Noodles, ricotta, spinach, zucchini,¼ cup sauce. ½ cup mozzarella, repeat until you have 3-4 noodles left and ingredients are all gone. Add noodles, top with remaining sauce- spreading over entirety of noodles surface. Top with mozzarella and cheddar cheese that were set aside.
Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes at 350. Take off foil and bake another 15 minutes. Lasagna is done with middle has reached 165 degrees.

Notes

Noodle Pro Tips:

Salt the water before adding pasta! This will enhance you pasta's flavor.
Rinse with cold water, or add a little oil to the water to keep from sticking. Normally I don't do this with my pasta- becuase the starches on pasta after cooking help the sauce to adhere to the noodles, HOWEVER with lasagna noodles you will be handling them and letting them cool while layering and they become so stick they often tear.

LAYERING PRO TIP: Count your noodles and decide how many layers you will be doing. I did 4 layers of noodles so I divided my ingredients into thirds so it would all be even. (top layer noodles don't count.)

PROTIP: If you don't want your cheese to over-cook cover your lasagna with foil until about 15 minutes before removing from oven. If you are worried about foil touching the cheese- add some toothpick, leaving about ½ inch sticking out and the foil will rest not he top of the toothpicks.

CAN LASAGNA BE MADE AHEAD OR FROZEN?

YES!! That is the beautiful thing about lasagna! If you are not eating the lasagna within a couple of hours of preparing chill in fridge or freeze.

If Refrigerating: if you are refrigerating more than three days you will need to freeze it.

If freezing: be sure to cover it air tight so it will not frost bite. Also, be cautious what you freeze it in, glass dishes can break if they are thawed too quickly.

HOW TO REHEAT LASAGNA FROM FREEZER

If you have made your lasagna a head of time, and it is cold. Cover your lasagna with foil and cook until it is about 160 degrees F. Remove the foil and continue cooking for another 10-15 minutes to let the top layer of cheese fully melt and the internal temp of the lasagna reaches 165 degrees.

PRESSURE COOKER: Pre-cook noodles, or use no-boil kind. In inner pot, begin to layer 1 c sauce and ½ c water, then continue to layer as directed in recipe. Lock lid, set to soup/stew setting, time adjust for 20 minutes. Slow or natural release when done.

Nutrition