The name for this recipe was an easy choice – this lasagna is the real deal. It’s made with love, a lot of hard work, and the best ingredients. Every inch of this lasagna is made from scratch (minus the noodles) and it shows. Isn’t that the way it should be? Who wants over-boiled lasagna noodles, jarred tomato sauce, or limp cheese? I’m not permanently forbidding any of those things, I’m just suggesting that once in a while you should set aside a few hours in the kitchen and make a lasagna like you mean it.
The actual recipe for this dish is an approximation. It will obviously vary depending on the dish you make it in, how many portions you want to make, and your own personal preferences for veggies, meat, sauce, etc. Basically, the point of my Real Deal Lasagna is to show you a method (an everything-is-homemade method) so you can adapt from there.
Domestocrat’s Real Deal Lasagna (recipe based on a 14x10x4 pan)
Half of one batch of my Best Bolognese sauce (about 8 cups)
Enough no-bake lasagna noodles to fill your pan (will vary, I used 6 full sheets)
1 tbsp. EVOO
2 bell peppers, chopped
8 oz. baby bella mushrooms, chopped
Cheese mixture:
2 eggs
1.5 cups shredded mozzarella
24 oz. whole milk ricotta
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1 tbsp. dried Italian herbs
Start by sautéing the peppers, mushrooms, and EVOO in a large pan over medium-high heat. It will take about 10 minutes to get a deep brown color around the edges. When the veggies have lightly browned, remove them from the heat and set aside to fully cool.
Next, make the cheese mixture. Combining all of these ingredients together creates cohesive, creamy layers inside the lasagna. Mix all of the ingredients together in a big bowl and set aside.
You can actually make this a few hours in advance if you want. Just cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until you’re ready to use it. Or just use it right away. Either/or.
When the sauce, veggies, and cheese filling are ready, lay out all of the ingredients in an assembly line like fashion. Make sure you have a deep baking dish to make the lasagna in and many utensils for dishing out each ingredient.
I start my lasagna with a thin layer of sauce on the bottom. This prevents any of the other layers from sticking to the bottom and potentially burning. My layers follow this order: sauce, noodles, cheese, veggies.
As you layer, make sure to spread each out so each component is evenly distributed. Keep repeating layers until you are out of ingredients. The recipe above in this pan yielded 4 layers.
On the top I like to finish the lasagna with a sauce layer covered in an extra tablespoon or two of whatever cheese may be left over. Here I had some parmesan and mozzarella leftover.
Bake the lasagna on 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes or until the top is bubbly, crunchy, and brown around the edges. As I said, the cooking time will vary but 30 minutes is a pretty safe bet at minimum.
This lasagna will last in the fridge for up to a week covered tightly with tinfoil. I made this pan and we portioned it out for a week’s worth of dinners. It stayed perfectly delicious all week and was easily microwavable. Enjoy!
Domestocrat 
Beautiful lasagna! When I have the energy to make it from scratch, I usually split it all out into little loaf pans and then freeze them for easy weeknight meals. It’s always such a wonderful way to end the day.
That’s a great idea, thanks!
Since, if I were to undertake making a lasagna, I’d get the fresh pasta sheet for it at Dave’s Fresh, how much would using those affect the cook time?
Well first of all you’d need to boil the fresh pasta sheets according to Dave’s instructions. That really does all the cooking you’ll need in terms of fresh vs. dry pasta. Once you have boiled pasta you can layer it in the same way you see here. As for cooking time I’d say still a minimum of 30 minutes is a good way to go. What you’re really looking for is that the cheese melts, the layers meld together, and the top gets crispy.