Learn how to make The Best Lasagna complete with a homemade hearty beef and sausage sauce, ricotta, layered with lots of mozzarella and parmesan. With my step-by-step instructions you are guaranteed the perfect lasagna every time!

The Best Lasagna
I’ve been making lasagna for a long time. I think by this point I can call myself a master in the art of layering to create the perfect ratio of sauce to meat to noodles to cheesiness! Lasagna is the perfect baked pasta dish. Each bite is loaded with comforting warm flavors.
Another amazing part about this recipe is that it’s also great to prep, freeze, and pop in the oven for those busy weeknights. Spend a Sunday making a freezer full of lasagnas that will keep everyone happy for a month! Now it’s time for the most important decision: will you take an edge piece or a center piece?
Why Make This Lasagna
- Easy to prep in advance. You can make the meat sauce and even the cheese mixture in advance, then all you have to do is layer and bake when you’re ready to serve it.
- Enough to feed a crowd. If you don’t have a crowd to feed, this lasagna makes for the perfect leftovers to eat throughout the week for lunch or dinner.
- Crowd pleaser. Yep, I really don’t know anyone who doesn’t enjoy a good lasagna. It will definitely make your family happy.
Ingredients You’ll Need

- Italian sausage – Choose mild or hot, whichever you prefer.
- Ground beef – Use lean or extra lean so you don’t have to drain any fat.
- Onion and garlic – I like to use white onion for this recipe. Use as much or as little garlic as you like!
- Tomatoes – I use a can of each crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste.
- Water – Use as much or as little as you need to get your preferred consistency.
- Sugar – The sugar cuts through some of the acidity from all the tomatoes, so use as much, as little, or none at all if you prefer.
- Seasonings – Fresh basil and parsley, fennel seeds, and Italian seasoning.
- Salt and pepper – Season to taste.
- Ricotta – You can use fromage blanc, cottage cheese, or mascarpone instead.
- Egg – This is what will bind your cheese mixture together. I used a large egg.
- Lasagna noodles – Buy the noodles that say “oven ready” on the box, trust me, you’ll thank me. This way no boiling noodles is necessary. So much easier.
- Cheese – I used both Parmesan and mozzarella.
How To Make Lasagna

- Make the sauce: Brown the sausage, beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until the meats are fully cooked. Add the rest of the sauce ingredients and simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

- Prepare the cheese mixture: In a medium size bowl, mix the ricotta, egg, and parsley together.
- Assemble the lasagna: Preheat the oven to 375F. Spread about 1 1/2 cups of the meat sauce in the bottom of your lasagna dish. Arrange 4 noodles over the sauce, then spread 1/2 the ricotta mixture over the noodles. Layer 1/3 of the mozzarella, another 1 1/2 cups meat mixture, 1/4 cup Parmesan, then repeat the layers with the remaining ingredients finishing with mozzarella and parmesan.

- Bake the lasagna: Cover the lasagna with foil. Spray the side of the foil facing the lasagna with cooking spray to avoid sticking. Bake for 25 minutes, remove the foil, then bake for another 25 minutes. Let the lasagna rest for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.
Expert Tips
- Take the time to simmer the sauce for the full one hour and a half. The longer you simmer this sauce, the better it will taste. Trust me.
- Make sure you find some “oven-ready” noodles. They cook up perfectly with the sauce in the oven without getting over-done
- Do you have some fresh herbs that need to be used up? Feel free to add some to your homemade sauce as it simmers. Make sure you remove them before layering the lasagna if they aren’t chopped.
- You’ll want to end up with 3 layers of noodles for this recipe. Make sure the layers or sauce and ricotta aren’t too thick so that your slices will stand up instead of droop.
- Get yourself a good lasagna pan. These are designed to fit the noodles perfectly. No more snapping noodles to make them fit!

How to Store Leftover Lasagna
I like to store my leftovers directly in the pan. Wrap well with plastic or foil and store in the fridge for 3-5 days. You can, of course, transfer the leftovers to an airtight container to save space if you prefer.
Reheat either in the microwave or in the oven covered with foil at 350F for 15-20 minutes, or heated through.
How to Freeze
If you plan on freezing this, I suggest freezing it before baking. Layer the ingredients in the pan then wrap well with both plastic and foil. This will help avoid freezer burn as much as possible. Your lasagna will last 2-3 months frozen.
To reheat, make sure to remove the plastic, then bake at 375F covered with foil for 1 hours. Remove the foil and bake for another 30 minutes. To reheat from frozen that is already cooked, bake for 1 hour covered and 10 minutes uncovered.

Did You Love This Recipe? Try These Pasta Recipes:
- Hamburger Helper Lasagna
- Penne Arrabbiata
- Skillet Lasagna
- Buffalo Chicken Lasagna
- Lasagna Roll Ups
- Tomato Shrimp Pasta
- Zucchini Lasagna
Craving More? Follow Along:

The Best Lasagna
Equipment
Ingredients
Sauce
- 1 pound Italian sausage mild or spicy, casings removed
- ¾ pound ground beef extra lean
- 1 small onion chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 28 ounce crushed tomatoes 1 can
- 6 ounce tomato paste 1 can
- 8 ounce tomato sauce
- ½ cup water if needed
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 4 leaves basil chopped
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ½ teaspoon black pepper or to taste
- ¼ cup fresh parsley chopped
Cheese Mixture
- 16 ounce ricotta cheese
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoon fresh parsley chopped
Lasagna
- 12 lasagna noodles oven ready
- 1 pound mozzarella cheese fresh, grated
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese freshly grated
Instructions
- Make the sauce: Brown the sausage, beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until the meats are fully cooked. Add the rest of the sauce ingredients and simmer, covered, for 1½ hours, stirring occasionally.
- Prepare the cheese mixture: In a medium size bowl, mix the ricotta, egg, and parsley together.
- Assemble the lasagna: Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spread about 1½ cups of the meat sauce in the bottom of your lasagna dish. Arrange 4 noodles over the sauce, then spread ½ the ricotta mixture over the noodles. Layer ⅓ of the mozzarella, another 1½ cups meat mixture, ¼ cup Parmesan, then repeat the layers with the remaining ingredients finishing with mozzarella and parmesan.
- Bake the lasagna: Cover the lasagna with foil. Spray the side of the foil facing the lasagna with cooking spray to avoid sticking. Bake for 25 minutes, remove the foil, then bake for another 25 minutes. Let the lasagna rest for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.
Video
Tips & Notes:
- Take the time to simmer the sauce for the full one hour and a half. The longer you simmer this sauce, the better it will taste. Trust me.
- Make sure you find some “oven-ready” noodles. They cook up perfectly with the sauce in the oven without getting over-done
- Do you have some fresh herbs that need to be used up? Feel free to add some to your homemade sauce as it simmers. Make sure you remove them before layering the lasagna if they aren’t chopped.
- You’ll want to end up with 3 layers of noodles for this recipe. Make sure the layers or sauce and ricotta aren’t too thick so that your slices will stand up instead of droop.
- Get yourself a good lasagna pan. These are designed to fit the noodles perfectly. No more snapping noodles to make them fit!
- I like to store my leftovers directly in the lasagna pan. Wrap well with plastic or foil and store in the fridge for 3-5 days. You can, of course, transfer the leftovers to an airtight container to save space if you prefer.
- Reheat either in the microwave or in the oven covered with foil at 350F for 15-20 minutes, or heated through.
This was a very delicious recipe cannot wait to make it again and again. Thank you
My pleasure, so glad you liked it!
Love this!
If I freeze it and I let it thaw overnight, how long would I put it in the oven then the next day for dinner?
There are freezing instructions in the post: https://cravinghomecooked.com/the-best-lasagna/#How_to_Freeze
Do you have to use sugar? If so, why?
The sugar is there to balance out the acidity from the tomatoes, so if you can’t have sugar, then by all means omit it.
This was outstanding and the family loved it. It came together so easily and had the house smell8ng amazing for two days, as I made the sauce ahead of time. The oven ready noodles came out perfect. Family feedback requested a bit more sauce and they loved the cottage cheese layer enough to ask it be a little more too. I blended the cottage cheese and egg with a hand mixer. That made it super spreadable. I used half spicy, half mild sausage, extra of each so it would be extra meaty and whole milk mozzarella, which always makes things yummiest. This has been voted a definite make again.
So happy to hear you and your family enjoyed the recipe. 🙂
It was good. Added some additional spices but it was good. First time using ricotta, and I like it.
This recipe was amazing. Thank you for sharing!!!
My pleasure, glad you liked it!
This recipe was delicious! I subbed for gluten free lasagna noodles and it was so good! Everyone in my house loved it!
I need a conversion…900 grams is 1 pound?
That’s about 2 pounds.
Have you tried this with oven ready noodle sheets?
Yes, if you read under the ingredient descriptions, those are the recommended ones.
Thank you. I was thinking the oven ready noodles were just like the regular noodles is size and shape. These oven ready sheets are new to me. I’ll have to try. I did make this with regular noodles and it was so yummy. I will definitely make again.
Thank you for this recipe! It is the best lasagna recipe ever!!
Yes! I love hearing this. 🙂
The literal best lasagna I’ve ever had! I will forever keep this recipe!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Hey Jo,
Outstanding recipe so far. Is the ricotta only meant to be on the first two (bottom) layers since we’re using half of the mixture per layer?
Glad you like the recipe! Yep, or you can simply layer the lasagna as you like.
Can I prepare this ahead of time and then cook before serving?
Absolutely, you can even freeze it and just bake it when ready to serve, there are instructions for this under the freezing section.
If frozen, should I put it in the fridge the night before to defrost? Or just straight to the oven with tin foil for an hour and then 30 minutes without the foil?
You don’t have to thaw it in the fridge overnight, you can place it straight from the freezer in the oven, bake it covered for 1 hour and uncovered for another 30 minutes.
Do you remove the sausage casing before putting into pan?
Yes! Sometimes you can find them without the casings.
Hi I was wondering if you could use regular boil lasagna noodles?
Absolutely!