Homemade Lasagna

Homemade Lasagna with homemade meat sauce. Homemade lasagna may take a bit more time, but it’s easier to make than you may think. Plus, nothing beats the taste of homemade lasagna. Six layers of freshly made lasagna sheets are cooked with a homemade meat sauce and layered with mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

Classic dishes, like a good homemade lasagna recipe, are classic for a reason. They’re GOOD and never disappoint. Lasagna is one of my favorite meals, but to be honest I rarely make it because it always seems to take forever to make. To be honest, I think that making my own fresh lasagna sheets seems easier than boiling and draining the noodles. Okay, maybe I’m weird, but making your own pasta is just easier to me. Making your own fresh pasta is actually easier than you may think. You don’t need fancy pasta rolling equipment. All you need is a rolling pin.

It’s also a really, really fun activity to do with family, friends, for a date night activity, or honestly just to challenge yourself. There’s no better feeling than eating a meal that you made completely from scratch. My kids are at the ages where they love helping me do everything, especially cooking, because they see me do it often. The pasta was certainly a great activity for them to help with. Alright, let’s get into the details of making this Homemade Lasagna recipe.

Here’s what you need to know…

Making your own pasta

Making your own pasta is easier than you may think. Certainly feel free to use store bought lasagna noodles if you prefer! You don’t need any fancy pasta rolling equipment, just a rolling pin. Homemade pasta uses pantry staple ingredients – flour, a pinch of salt, olive oil and eggs. You can mix the pasta dough in a bowl or on a clean counter surface. I mixed mine on the counter, but if you want less mess, it may be best to mix in a bowl.

To begin making the pasta, add the flour and salt on a clean surface or in a bowl. Make a well in the center. Add the eggs and olive oil. Break the egg yolks with a fork, then use a fork to mix the egg and oil. Working from the outside in, using a bench knife and your hand, scoop the flour into the center of the well. It’s okay if some of the liquid leaks out from the side. Just scrape it back towards the center and continue cutting the flour into the wet mixture.

Mix until the dough forms. Knead for 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 10 minutes at room temperature.

Making the sauce

While the pasta rests, I like to make the homemade meat sauce. In this recipe, I browned the hamburger first. Why? This allows the onions to cook in the hamburger grease, which gives it an extra depth of flavor. Onions take longer to cook than hamburger, so onions and hamburger cannot be cooked at the same time.

Once the hamburger was browned, I removed from the skillet onto a plate, then added in the onion. Certainly, if you don’t want to make an extra dish dirty, you can cook the onion first. However, as mentioned above, cooking the hamburger first allows for the onions to cook in some of the grease from the hamburger, adding extra flavor to the dish.

The onions are cooked for roughly 5 minutes to soften them, then garlic is added. Garlic cooks quickly. The reason garlic is sautéed is to take the edge off of the raw garlic flavor. It actually mellows the flavor of the garlic in a good way and allows for the garlic flavor to blend well in the dish.

The browned hamburger is added back to the skillet along with the remaining sauce ingredients. The mixture is brought to a simmer, covered and the heat is reduced to medium-low. The sauce cooks for 20 minutes. Cooking the sauce for 20 minutes thickens the sauce and makes the sauce more flavorful.

Rolling out the lasagna sheets

Now that the sauce is made, it’s time to roll out the lasagna sheets. If you have a pasta machine, by all means use it! I don’t so I used the old fashioned, rolling pin method. The lasagna is layered in an 8×8 baking dish, so you’ll want your lasagna sheets to measure close to an 8 inch by 8 inch square. It’s okay if they are not perfectly square, or slightly under 8 inches by 8 inches. Remember, this is a homemade lasagna, and it doesn’t have to be picture perfect! My lasagna sheets certainly weren’t and once the sauce and cheese was added, you couldn’t even tell!

Place your pasta dough on a floured surface. Divide the dough into 6 roughly equal pieces. Taking one piece at a time, roll into an 8 inch by 8 inch square (or as close as you can get to that). The pasta sheets will be fairly thin.

Assembling and baking

To assemble this homemade lasagna recipe, you’ll begin by spreading sauce on the bottom of an 8×8 baking dish. Add a lasagna sheet. Spread sauce on top of the lasagna sheet. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese. Repeat this layering process – lasagna sheet, sauce, cheese, until all pasta is used. Spread sauce on the top pasta sheet, followed by parmesan and mozzarella cheese. I added some fresh basil on top of mine as well. Cover with aluminum foil

Bake in a preheated oven for 30 minutes, then remove the aluminum foil. Bake an additional 10 minutes, or until the cheese is golden brown. If the cheese doesn’t get as golden brown as you’d like, you can switch the oven to the broil setting and broil for a minute or two. Watch carefully as it can brown quickly when the oven is set to broil. Allow to cool for a few minutes before serving.

If you make this homemade lasagna recipe, let me know what you thought in the comments and ratings below. I’d love to hear your feedback! Also, make sure you find me on youtube and instagram for the full cooking video as well as some fun behind the scenes.

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