I’m not an Italian, but still wanted to enjoy making a cheesy lasagna for the family. My mother taught me this recipe a while ago and I have eaten this Lasagna, since I could remember. The best part of a Lasagna was the corner and eating it next day again. I have found that if you let the lasagna rest for a whole day and heat it up again in the oven, that the flavors will develop more deeply.

Cheesy Lasagna Ingredients

Ground Beef: Use 80% lean and 20 % fat content for your meat, since fat is known to give your meals flavor.

Tomato Sauce: Use chunky tomato sauce or fine tomato sauce. I used both before and it doesn’t affect the taste of the sauce.

Mushrooms: I used white mushrooms for this sauce, but you don’t need to add mushrooms if you don’t like them. I’m just used to have them in there due to my mom adding them. Mushrooms add a nice umami flavor to the lasagna.

Yellow Onion: Cut your onions into fine cubes and good luck with no crying. 🙂

Garlic: I like using fresh garlic over powdered garlic. Use the garlic after you put in the tomato sauce. You can chose to cut them up or use a garlic press.

Print

Cheesy Lasagna

Cheesy Lasagna
Print Recipe

Layered cheesy Lasagna with homemade meat sauce and bechamel (white sauce).

  • Author: Jessica
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 45
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: 6 portions 1x
  • Category: Dinner
  • Method: Oven
  • Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients

Units Scale

Meat sauce

  • 1 kg minced beef
  • 700 ml tomato sauce
  • 700 ml water
  • 500 g mushrooms
  • 1 big yellow onion
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon pepper
  • 1 tablespoon oregano
  • 5 laurel leaves
  • 2 tablespoon vegetable oil (or olive oil)

Bechamel Sauce

  • 1 liter milk
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 4 tablespoons flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Layers

  • 500 g mozzarella cheese
  • 250 g Lasagna sheet

Instructions

Tomato Sauce

  1. Cut your onions into cubes and wash and cut your mushrooms into slices.
  2. Add them into a cooking put with 2 tablespoon of oil for 8-10 minutes. Remove your vegetables and set them aside.
  3. Add oil if needed to brown the meat. Once the meat is cooked add your vegetables back in.
  4. Season with salt, pepper and oregano and add your liquid to the mix.
  5. Add your crushed garlic to it and your bay leaves and cook on low for 20 minutes.
  6. Once you start layering don’t forget to remove your bay leaves. They are not a pleasant taste to bite into.

Bechamel

  1. Melt your butter and add your flour and salt to it. Cook of your roux for 2-3 min before adding warm milk to it.
  2. Stir frequently until it thickens. Do not leave it unattended or else the bottom will burn quickly.

The Layering

  1. In a 11×14 inch pan add a ladle of bechamel sauce and spread it out. Fill the first layer with Lasagna sheets. ( For me it was around 6 per layer)
  2. Put another ladle and spread around, which doesn’t have to be perfect, since you will add two ladles on top of it. Spread a generous amount of cheese on top and repeat the Process again = pasta sheets >bechamel>meat sauce>cheese.
  3. When you are near the end finish with your meat sauce and a lot of cheese.
  4. Bake at 200 C or 375 F for 40 minutes.

Notes

If you cheese starts to brown too quickly put some aluminum foil on top to prevent more browning.

Did you make this recipe?

Share a photo and tag us — we can’t wait to see what you’ve made!