Stove Top Lasagna

We all know it's not cool to play favorites when it comes to kids–but recipes are a different story! This Easy One Pot Lasagna Recipe makes homemade lasagna actually doable on any night of the week. That makes this one-pot meal a favorite at our house! And if you eat it right out of the skillet to skip on having to wash dishes, we really won’t judge.

It gets better. This stovetop one-pot lasagna recipe doesn’t call for any fancy ingredients usually called for in a traditional lasagna. Who’s had leftover ricotta cheese in the fridge or a few lasagna noodles in the pantry after making lasagna? Who’s figured out what to do with that cheese before it goes bad? And how many batches of lasagna do you have to make before you have enough leftover noodles to actually make a full batch of lasagna?

We eliminate that situation by using cottage cheese instead of ricotta. Cottage cheese is found in small containers and most of us can easily use up any leftovers. Instead of lasagna noodles, we use our favorite campanelle or trumpet pasta. It has all the same frilly edges that catch sauce like lasagna, but the leftovers make another easy meal with a simple topping of oil and sauteed greens.

Vegetarian Stove Top Lasagne: This recipe calls for Italian sausage, but it is easy to make this recipe vegetarian. Substituting the sausage for Impossible Meats savory sausage works quite well. We’ve also made this with 12 ounces of mushrooms and 1 sliced bell pepper instead of the sausage. Simply saute the vegetables as you would brown the meat. To replace the seasoning the sausage adds, use 2 teaspoons of Breakfast Sausage Seasoning to the crushed tomatoes in this recipe. Or instead of the sausage flavor, create a truffle lasagna by substituting a tablespoon of truffle oil for the olive oil called for in the recipe!

Gluten-Free Stove Top Lasagne: This recipe can be made with gluten-free pasta. Keep in mind that most gluten-free pasta needs a much shorter cooking time than the trumpets called for in this recipe. Therefore the added water can be reduced. We have tested this recipe with Chickpea Rotini pasta and a few adjustments need to be made:

• Cut back the added water to 2 cups of water.
• Use just 3 cups of crushed tomatoes
• Cook for just 5 minutes before adding the cottage cheese.

Ingredients

Italian Sausage. This recipe calls for 3 Italian sausage links with the casing removed. If using loose sausage, use between 8-10 ounces. We also love this recipe with loose breakfast sausage. As you brown the sausage, be sure to break it up into smaller pieces.

Crushed Tomatoes. We use crushed tomatoes instead of a prepared marinara or fresh tomato sauce. The clean flavor of crushed tomatoes allows us to flavor the dish as we wish. If you have your own sauce feel free to use it instead, adjusting the seasonings as you cook. If you have fresh tomatoes you’d like to crush yourself, that works well in this recipe. Be sure to taste for salt as the canned tomatoes are already salted.

Seasoning. This recipe calls for dried oregano and dried sweet basil along with minced garlic to season the sauce. Equal amounts of Italian Seasoning would work as well.

Italian Bread Dip adds just a bit of additional flavor to the cheese mixture. This dip mix is a super flavorful version of Italian Seasoning with a bit of salt.

Cheese. Cheese is an important part of any lasagna recipe and this one is no different!

As discussed above, cottage cheese plays the role ricotta often plays. We like the convenience of cottage cheese, but also love the creaminess it oozes into the overall dish.

Parmesan cheese adds a depth of nutty flavor that is hard to replicate! And mozzarella cheese just adds the melty goodness that’s needed in a hearty pasta dish!

Technique:

Cooking pasta in the sauce it is served in creates a wonderfully flavored pasta but does require a bit of extra care.

The recipe calls for thinning out the tomatoes with water, so the pasta has the proper amount of liquid to cook in. As it cooks, the pasta will soak up most of that extra liquid creating a thick sauce.

Add the water to the crushed tomatoes. Before adding the pasta, taste the tomato base. You may need to adjust for salt and other seasonings. As the sauce is diluted, the seasonings may need to be amped up.

Keep in mind the size of your skillet will determine how fast your dish cooks. We used a 14-inch skillet for this recipe. If using a smaller skillet, it may take a little longer for your pasta to cook.

When adding the cheese mixture, we like to portion it to the number of people our lasagna will be serving. That way each person is served their own portion of cheese.

Let’s Get to Cooking!