Crowd Pleasing Homemade Lasagna

This is the most simple the most foolproof lasagna you can make. It is a please all recipe. You get to choose your favorite spaghetti sauce and showcase it in this dish. This recipe will be having your friends and family wanting to come over for Supper every night of the week.

Food Ingredients

1. 1 small onion
2. 2 cloves of garlic
3. 1 pound of ground beef
4. 1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce
5. 10 lasagna noodles
6. 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
7. 2 cups shredded parmesan cheese
8. 15 oz container of ricotta cheese (you will not need the entire container)
9. olive oil
10. cooking spray
11. salt
12. pepper

Cooking Equipment

1. 6 quart pot
2. 9inch x 13inch lasagna pan
3. 10-12 inch skillet
4. aluminum foil

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees farenheit

Cut up 1 small onion and set aside

cut up 2 cloves of garlic and set aside

fill a large pot (I use a 6 quart pot) and put over high heat to bring to a rolling boil

While you are waiting for that to boil grab your skillet (i used a 10-12 inch skillet) and add a tablespoon of olive to your skillet and place it over med-high heat.

Once your oil has heated about 1-2 minutes you can add your onion that you chopped up earlier to the skillet and fry those in the oil until softened about 3-5 minutes.

Once your onions have softened you can add the garlic that you set aside earlier and cook for 1 more minute.

Once that garlic and onion have cooked together for 1 minute now it is time to add your ground beef and cook until your beef is completely browned and there is no longer any pink to it. (This can take anywhere from about 5-10 minutes usually)

By now your 6 quart pot should be to a rolling boil, at this point you can go ahead and add your lasagna noodles and cook them for about 8 minutes. you do not want them to be fully cooked you want them to still be slightly stiff because they will cook more in the oven later.

Now its time to add your favorite spaghetti sauce to your meat mixture. and cook for another 3 minutes then remove from heat and set aside.

once those lasagna noodles have cooked for 8 minutes, drain the water and set aside.

Get your 9inchx13inch lasagna pan out and spray with cooking spray.

Start by spreading a layer of your meat mixture across the bottom of the pan; this helps so the noodles cook all the way through and won't get stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Your next step is to lay your noodles horizontally all along the bottom of the pan. you should have them slightly overlapping. once you have laid four noodles going horizontally you are going to have to lay one going vertically to cover that entire area of the pan. (You may have to tear a little piece off for it to lay flat)

Now that you've laid those noodles out you can go ahead and add a layer of your meat mixture. spread it out evenly so it covers the entire area of the noodles.

After you add that meat mixture you can go ahead and add your ricotta cheese. place about 6 dollops evenly across the pan and then spread them into the sauce with the back of a spoon.

Once that ricotta is spread out you can go ahead and mix your mozzarella and parmesan cheese together in a bowl. Once you have it mixed together you can go ahead and spread an even layer of that cheese mixture across the entire pan of lasagna.

repeat steps 14-17 for layer 2

Now that you have your layers completed you can go ahead and cover entire your lasagna with tinfoil.

You will cook your lasagna covered in your 400 degree oven for 30 minutes

After 30 minutes you can remove the tinfoil and cook for another 25 minutes to get your cheese nice and browned on top.

After its cooked uncovered for 25 minutes you can fo ahead and remove it from the oven and let it sit for 10 minutes before cutting into it.

after the excruciating 10 minutes of waiting are up you can cut into your glorious masterpiece and enjoy!