Posted by We’ve had a long cold winter here in Utah so you can imagine my happiness when I spotted the most beautiful fresh basil plant at my local grocery store! I brought it home, sat it on the counter, watered it for a week and wondered what to do with it. Then one day, when I was extra tired and hungry, I looked over at that basil plant and it hit me: One Pot Lasagna with fresh basil! Making lasagna usually requires a pasta pot, sauce pot and baking dish to clean up, which is just too much work, especially when you’re as tired as I was! So I boiled the lasagna, drained the water, cooked the meat, added the sauce ingredients and then layered the lasagna right there in ONE POT!
And man oh man was this lasagna good! I used turkey instead of sausage or beef to reduce calories and fat. I used store-bought sauce (with clean ingredients) to save time and added plenty of my fresh basil. I didn’t have any ricotta on hand so I used cottage cheese instead. I also happened to have parmesan cheese already grated and some mozzarella in the freezer just waiting to be added to something delicious like One Pot Lasagna!
After a hard day of work around the house, Bill figured dinner was gonna be PBJ’s. So when that pot of lasagna came out of the oven, in all its bubbling glory, he did the happy dance right there in the kitchen!
You’ll love One Pot Lasagna, filled with a hearty savory sauce, fresh basil, plenty of cheese and a lot of love. Serve with my Roasted Vegetables and Caesar Salad with Homemade Croutons to make this meal even more heavenly!
One Pot Lasagna
- 12 lasagna noodles
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- salt
- 4-6 quarts water
- ½ large onion, peeled and chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
- 1 pound ground beef or turkey
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 1 jar marinara sauce
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- ½ cup water
- 2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped or 2 teaspoons dried basil
- 1 teaspoon each, garlic granules, onion powder and salt
- 2 teaspoons herbs de Provence or Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon fennel (optional)
- 2 tablespoon sugar (optional to cut acidity)
- 1 cup cottage cheese
- 1 egg
- Sprinkles of garlic granules, parsley, pepper and onion powder
- 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
Fill an oven-proof pot or dutch oven with 4-6 quarts of water; add a splash of olive oil and some salt. Bring to a boil and add pasta. Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water until they are cooled down. Lay noodles out on a baking sheet lightly covered with cooking spray or lined with parchment paper; set aside.
In the same pot on medium high heat, add 1 tablespoon olive oil, onion and garlic. Sauté for 2-3 minutes then add the ground beef or turkey; crumble with a spatula and cook until meat is no longer pink. Drain off excess fat. Add can of diced tomatoes (including liquid), marinara sauce, tomato paste, water and spices; stir to combine and simmer for 10 minutes.
While meat sauce is simmering, preheat oven to 350º. Put cottage cheese in a bowl, add egg; sprinkle in some garlic granules, parsley, pepper and onion powder; mix to combine and set aside.
Remove most of the sauce from pan, leaving enough to cover the bottom. Then add a layer of lasagna noodles and some spoonfuls of the cottage cheese mixture; sprinkle lightly with parmesan and mozzarella cheese. Add more sauce, then repeat with the other ingredients ending with sauce. Top with mozzarella and torn fresh basil leaves. Bake at 350º for 30 minutes until warmed through and bubbling. Serve with garlic bread and salad.
Root Notes
- For this recipe, I use a my “Lodge Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven” which I bought for only $79.90 on sale on Amazon. Here’s the link and they come in lots of different colors too. I love this dutch oven and use it for everything.
- If you don’t have an oven proof pot, just use a large pot to cook the pasta, a large frying pan to make the meat sauce and an oblong baking dish coated with non-stick spray for the lasagna (layering ingredients beginning and ending with the sauce.)
- I use 3 lasagna noodles per layer in a 9×13″ pan. It’s OK if they overlap slightly. This means there are 4 layers but remember to begin and end with sauce.
- I like using ground turkey in this recipe, which tastes just as good as ground beef, with fewer calories and fat.
- Fennel you ask? I love fennel in spaghetti sauce but not everyone is a fan…your sauce, your preference.
- I don’t use a lot of cheese in this recipe so feel free to add more if you like.
- Tomato paste hack: since I rarely use the entire can of tomato paste, I put the excess in small silicon ice-cube trays and freeze them. Then I just pop out one of the frozen squares of tomato paste and throw it into my recipe.
Family ~ Food ~ Roots 