Lasagna With Cottage Cheese
This lasagna recipe uses creamy cottage cheese in place of ricotta to make a delicious baked Italian casserole layered with flavor.
Servings: 6 people
Calories: 604kcal
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 pound 90% lean ground beef (or lean dark meat ground turkey)
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped into a small dice
- 24 ounces homemade or good-quality jarred marinara (see notes, below)
- 1 15- to 16-ounce container cottage cheese, preferably full fat
- 2 cups shredded low-moisture mozzarella cheese, divided
- 1/4 cup pecorino-Romano or Parmesan cheese, or a mix, plus more to serve
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh Italian parsley, plus more to garnish
- 1 large egg, whisked
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 15 no-bake lasagna noodles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F and lightly grease a 9" x 13" x 2" (or so) casserole pan.
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the ground beef and diced onions. Cook, stirring often to break up the ground beef into small pieces, until fully cooked. Add the marinara sauce and stir to combine into a simple meat sauce. Remove the meat sauce from heat.PRO TIP: Break up the ground beef a lot while cooking. You want fairly small pieces of meat so the lasagna noodles can lie relatively flat when you layer the lasagna.
- While the beef mixture is cooking: In a mixing bowl, stir together the cottage cheese, 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese, the grated Parmesan and/or Romano cheese, parsley, and egg. Taste for seasoning and adjust salt and pepper as needed. PRO TIP: Cottage cheese is typically fairly well salted, so you may find that you do not need to add any additional salt, especially if the tomato sauce is also well seasoned. Ricotta, however, is often less salty than ricotta, so you may need to adjust the salt if you're swapping in one for the other.
- Spoon enough tomato sauce into the bottom of the baking dish to lightly coat (about 1 1/2 cups). Lay three no-bake lasagna noodles evenly over the tomato sauce. Spoon and spread a heaping tablespoon of the cottage cheese mixture onto each lasagna noodle. Spoon some tomato sauce onto each cheesed-up noodle. Repeat twice: noodles, cheese, tomato sauce, noodles, cheese tomato sauce. You now have three full layers and should have used up all the cheese mixture.
- Top with three final noodles and any remaining tomato sauce. Give the lasagna layers a light press with your hands, and sprinkle the top all over with the remaining 1 cup of mozzarella. Cover the casserole tightly with aluminum foil. Make sure the foil is tight; you'll need the moisture to stay in the help cook the lasagna noodles.PRO TIP: I like to spoon a tablespoon or two of water directly into the bottom of the casserole to help create a steam effect to help cook the no-bake lasagna noodles without drying out the finished dish. PRO TIP: Grease the aluminum foil on one side and place it greased side down over the lasagna. This will prevent any cheese from sticking to the foil while baking.
- Bake the cottage cheese lasagna, covered tightly in aluminum foil, for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 20 minutes, until the lasagna is bubbly and the cheese is fully melted.
- Remove the lasagna from of the oven. Loosely tent with the reserved aluminum foil and let the lasagna rest on a cooling rack for 5 minutes before sprinkling with some grated pecorino-Romano or Parmesan cheese and parsley. Slice the lasagna into generous squares and serve hot, on its own or perhaps with a nice green salad or cooked Italian vegetable like broccoli rabe.
Notes
This easy lasagna recipe with cottage cheese can be prepared up to a day in advance, and will keep for about 2 days once baked, covered, in the refrigerator.
I love to wrap and store cooled, individual squares of baked lasagna in the freezer. Reheat frozen lasagna in the oven, covered, at 325 degrees F until warmed through.
My preferred brands of jarred tomato sauce are Rao's and Carbone's.
Nutrition
Calories: 604kcal | Carbohydrates: 45g | Protein: 41g | Fat: 29g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 12g | Trans Fat: 0.5g | Cholesterol: 142mg | Sodium: 1138mg | Potassium: 843mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 1034IU | Vitamin C: 11mg | Calcium: 336mg | Iron: 3mg
Disclaimer: Nutrition information is provided for courtesy purposes only, and is an estimate not verified by medical or nutrition experts. Read the full nutrition disclaimer.
