Make Ahead

Meaty Four Cheese Lasagna

September 21, 2014
4
4 Ratings
  • Makes one 9x13 inch pan
Author Notes

My mom made a great lasagna! It was meaty, filled with spinach and cottage cheese and was wonderful cold the next day. I've made a couple of changes to her original recipe by subbing fresh mushrooms for her canned and using fresh spinach instead of frozen. She used three cheeses....I added one more... —inpatskitchen

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • For the meat sauce
  • 4 ounces mushroom caps, thinly sliced
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 2 pounds ground beef
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 2 heaping tablespoons tomato paste
  • 3 cups tomato sauce
  • 1/2 cup shredded parmesan
  • 1/2 cup shredded mozarrella
  • For the cheese filling and putting it all together
  • 1 1/2 cups large curd cottage cheese, drained in a colander a bit
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • 10 ounces fresh baby spinach, wilted, squeezed as dry as possible and finely chopped
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon olive oil
  • 8 ounces no boil lasagna noodles (you may not need the whole package)
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarrella cheese
  • 8 ounces sliced provolone
  • The previously made meat sauce
Directions
  1. For the meat sauce
  2. In a 5 to 6 quart large pot or Dutch oven heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Add the sliced mushrooms and sauté until browned. Remove from the pot and set aside.
  3. In the same pot, brown the ground beef well, drain in a colander and set aside. Add the remaining two tablespoons of oil to the pot and sauté the onions and garlic until softened and fragrant.
  4. Stir in the salt, oregano and tomato paste and sauté for a minute or so. Add the mushrooms, ground beef and tomato sauce and bring up to a simmer. Gently simmer for about 20 minutes.
  5. Cool the mixture to room temperature and stir in the parm and mozz. Set the pot aside.
  1. For the cheese filling and putting it all together
  2. In a mixing bowl, thoroughly combine the cottage cheese, egg, spinach, parmesan, salt and oil.
  3. Pre heat the oven to 350F. Spread a little less than a third of the meat sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan. Cover with a layer of the noodles, breaking one up to fill any gaps.
  4. Spread the cottage cheese filling over the top followed by another layer of noodles.
  5. Spread half of the remaining meat sauce over followed by a third layer of noodles and then the remaining sauce.
  6. Sprinkle the shredded mozz over and then cover with the sliced provolone. Cover the casserole with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the cover and bake another 15 minutes. Let rest for about 15 minutes before cutting. Enjoy leftovers the next day either cold or gently re heated.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • sexyLAMBCHOPx
    sexyLAMBCHOPx
  • inpatskitchen
    inpatskitchen
inpatskitchen

Recipe by: inpatskitchen

I think I get my love for food and cooking from my mom, who was an amazing cook. She would start baking and freezing a month before Christmas in order to host our huge open house on Christmas afternoon. I watched and I learned...to this day I try not to procrastinate when it comes to entertaining. My cooking style is pretty much all over the place, although I'm definitely partial to Greek and Italian cuisine. Oh yes, throw a little Cajun in there too!

2 Reviews

sexyLAMBCHOPx September 21, 2014
I love recipes that use cottage cheese.
 
inpatskitchen September 21, 2014
Me too chops! I keep wondering if my mom used cottage cheese as opposed to ricotta because of the unavailability of the ricotta in grocery stores back in the day.