This recipe for the World’s Best Lasagna is so easy to make, but so flavorful! The pan is bursting with layers of delicious meat sauce, tender pasta, and ricotta and mozzarella cheese. The surface of the dish has those perfectly crisp, cheesy pasta edges too. This recipe is super quick, oven-ready in just 20 minutes. Perfect for an easy meal to impress dinner guests with minimal fuss!
The advent of oven-ready lasagna noodles has been a total game changer for me. Now that I’ve found them, I’ll never go back! Years ago, I never used to like making lasagna because the traditional method of boiling the pasta was so stressful. The noodles always wanted to stick together and never cooked evenly. But all that has changed now with the oven-ready option.
The Meat Sauce
To get your World’s Best Lasagna started, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Dice a medium yellow onion, and mince 3 cloves of garlic. Add 2 teaspoons of Olive Oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Saute the garlic and onion for about 3 minutes.
Add the ground beef and Italian sausage to the pan. Crumble the meat and cook until just browned through. Drain the fat and return the meat to the pan. Season the meat with kosher salt and black pepper. Then, pour in 2 jars of your favorite brand of red sauce, stirring to combine. Add the Pizza, Pasta Magic Seasoning and reduce heat to low-medium and simmer.
The Ricotta Cheese Filling
While the sauce is simmering, add the ricotta cheese, half the dried parsley, 1 egg, and the shredded Parmesan and Mozzarella cheeses.
Stir until all the ingredients are incorporated.
Assembling the World’s Best Lasagna
Spread about 1/4 – 1/2 cup of the warm meat sauce to the bottom of a 9×13 pan.
Divide the box of oven-ready lasagna noodles into 3 even piles. This will help ensure you end up with 3 even layers and don’t run short when finishing the top!
Layer 4-5 pieces so they are just overlapping.
Top the lasagna noodles generously with meat sauce. This recipe has a lot of sauce, so the pasta gets cooked perfectly without having to boil noodles ahead of time!
Spread 2/3 of the ricotta cheese mixture on top of the sauce. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just make it pretty even.
Layer more lasagna noodles again, just so they overlap.
Top again with more meat sauce.
Spread the remaining ricotta mixture on top of the sauce. Sprinkle 1/2 cup more shredded mozzarella on top. I like having the slight difference between the 2 cheese layers, it worked the first time I made it, and every time since – so I’m not going to mess with a good thing!
Place the remaining lasagna noodles in one final even layer. I had a few broken pieces but you couldn’t tell after baking!
Pour all of the remaining meat sauce over the last layer of pasta.
Sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella and 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan. I missed my photo-op with the shredded cheese before baking, but don’t forget to put it on!
Cover with baking dish with aluminum foil, and bake for 40 minutes.
Remove the foil, and bake for 10 more minutes, then broil if desired for 2-3 minutes until cheese is browned and bubbly. Let the lasagna rest for 5-10 minutes before serving!
Look at those glorious crispy edges! Perfectly baked – every time!
This lasagna is enough to feed a crowd, or a group of hungry dinner party guests. It looks fancy, but really comes together in a hurry!
World’s Best Lasagna
Ingredients
- 1 12oz Box Oven Ready Lasagna Noodles dry
- 1 lb 80/20 Ground Beef
- 1/2 lb Ground Italian Sausage
- 2 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 medium Onion diced
- 3 cloves Garlic minced
- 48 oz Italian Red Sauce , 2 standard jars such as Prego, Ragu or Rau's
- 2 tsp Kosher Salt divided
- 1 tsp Ground Black Pepper divided
- 1 1/2 cup Shredded Mozzarella Cheese (divided)
- 1/2 cup Shredded Parmesan Cheese (divided)
- 1 15oz Container Ricotta Cheese
- 1 large Egg
- 1 tsp Pizza, Pasta Magic Seasoning (or pinch of dried basil, dried oregano, and crushed red pepper)
- 2 tsp Dried Parsley , divided
Instructions
- Dice onion and mince garlic. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Add EVOO, minced garlic and diced onion to a large sauce pan over medium heat. Crumble and brown ground beef and ground italian sausage, until just cooked through. Drain the fat from the meat mixture, then return it to the pan.
- Season with meat with half of the kosher salt and black pepper. Add 2 jars (64oz) Italian red sauce to the meat and stir to combnie. Next, mix the Pizza, Pasta Magic Seasoning into the sauce. Reduce heat to low-medium and simmer.
- Stir together the ricotta cheese, 1/4 cup shredded parmesan and 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella, 1 egg, half of the dried parsley, and the remaining kosher salt and black pepper.
- Spread 1/4-1/2 cup of the meat sauce on the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish. Next, place 4-5 pieces of dry oven-ready lasagna noodles in a single layer, so they are just overlapping (see process images).
- Next, spread the meat sauce evenly over the top of the pasta layer until well coated. Spoon about 2/3 of the ricotta cheese mixture evenly over the sauce layer.
- Continue layering – arranging more dry lasagna noodles, then more sauce, and then the remaining ricotta cheese mixture. Add about 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella to this cheese layer.
- Then, layer the rest of the dry lasagna noodles, and pour the reamining meat sauce on top. Top with remaining 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella, and 1/4 cup shredded parmesan. Cover with Aluminum Foil.
- Bake for 40 minutes, then remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes. Broil for 2-3 minutes until browned and bubbly! Remove from the oven and let it rest for 5-10 minutes prior to serving. Garnish with remaining dried parsley.
Like this recipe? Try my Perfect Tomato Cream Sauce Next!