Hi everyone, its Natasha of NatashasKitchen.com and today we're making our favorite
three cheese lasagna.
This is so saucy, beefy and cheesy. Plus
it's easy and better than any restaurant
lasagna. We'll start with the pasta. Place
nine lasagna noodles into a pot of
salted water and cook until al dente
according to the package instructions.
Al dente means - firm to the bite and
don't overcook your noodles because they
will still soften up a bit when you bake
the lasagna. Drain the noodles, then add
cold water to stop the cooking process
and to keep them from sticking together.
Usually, while the noodles are cooking,
I'll make the meat sauce. In a deep pan,
over medium-high heat, add one tablespoon
of olive oil, then one pound of ground
beef and 1 small diced onion. Saute for 5
minutes or until the meat is no longer
pink. Add two large minced garlic cloves
and cook another minute or until
fragrant, then add 1/4 cup of good red
wine and saute until mostly evaporated.
And if you don't have red wine on hand,
you can substitute with beef broth. Now
add 24 ounces or 3 cups of your favorite
marinara sauce, either homemade or
store-bought. Season with half a
teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon of pepper,
1/4 teaspoon of dried thyme, half a
teaspoon of sugar and two tablespoons of
parsley, Bring that to a simmer, then
cover and cook on low heat for 5 minutes
while you make your cheese sauce. In a
large mixing bowl combine 16 ounces of
cottage cheese, 15 ounces of ricotta
cheese, 1 cup of shredded mozzarella, 1
large egg and 2 tablespoons of finely
chopped parsley. Mix until it's well
blended. Everything's ready and now we
can assemble the lasagna. In a deep 9 by
13 casserole dish spread half a cup of
the meat sauce evenly over the bottom
and cover that with three lasagna
noodles. Now add 1/3 of the remaining
meat sauce and sprinkle the top with one
cup of mozzarella cheese.
Next spoon on half of the cheese sauce
and spread evenly. Repeat the process
until you have three layers of noodles.
This is a good time to pre-heat your
oven to 375˚F.  Top the
last layer of noodles with the remaining
meat sauce and cover it with one cup of
shredded mozzarella cheese. Adding the
cheese on top forms a crust that makes
this lasagna supremely juicy. You'll need
to cover and bake this casserole so
prepare a large sheet of foil. Also very
important to keep the cheese from
sticking to the foil, poke eight to ten
toothpicks evenly over the top of the
lasagna, then loosely cover with the foil
and seal the edges. Bake at 375˚F for 45 minutes, then remove
the foil and set the oven to broil for
three to five minutes or until the
cheese is golden brown. Now for the
hardest part, you want to let the lasagne
cool for 30 minutes in the pan for it to
set and become much easier to slice and
it is hard to wait for lasagna... All right,
you're supposed to wait about thirty
minutes for this to rest so that you
don't eat it when it's blazing hot, but I
just can't wait anymore so I'm gonna get
this party started because I cannot
resist a cheesy juicy loaded lasagna and
of course take out the toothpicks. Do
your family a favor and don't leave the
toothpicks in. That would result in
unpleasant situations. Oh man!... A little
bit of meat sauce on that one.
Wow! Okay and you all know how I feel
about garnish so we're gonna add some
garnish to this. Just a little bit of
fresh parsley,
cuz there's fresh parsley inside, there
should be fresh parsley on top. You know
what I'm talking about,
especially if you're serving this for
the holidays. It's like the easiest thing
you can do to fancy up a dish. Okay now,
we've got it. Okay, I'm gonna cut into
this because I am so hungry for it so
here we go. And this is irresistible,
cheesy, which means my kids love it of
course. Okay, we're gonna get the biggest
piece because that is how we roll. Look
at that cheese pull! Oh,
hubba-hubba... hmm... Oh my goodness! Look at
those layers. This is a loaded lasagna.
Yum yum... Okay, here we go.
Enough chatter, less talk and more eating.
I'm not exaggerating when I say it,  but that
is the best lasagna that I have ever
tried it!
It beats restaurant versions all day
long because it is so juicy and moist
and the flavor - mmm... I mean, you just
cannot beat a homemade lasagna. This is
delicious and it refrigerates and freezes
as well so you can make it ahead, because
it makes a big old batch. This is
definitely a family favorite and a
keeper of a recipe. I make this over and
over and over, because everybody loves it.
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