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Ricotta Lasagne

A layered pasta dish with sausage, beef, tomato sauce, ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan cheeses baked in a roasting pan.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Ricotta Lasagne

Serves 12
Oven275 °F (135 °C)

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Remove sausage casings, and break sausage into small bits.

  2. Sauté sausage and ground beef in 5-quart (4.7 L) saucepan or Dutch oven over medium heat with onion and garlic until the meat is browned.

  3. Add sugar, 1 tablespoon salt, basil, fennel, pepper, and half the parsley; mix well.

  4. Add tomatoes, tomato paste and water, mashing the tomatoes a bit. Bring the sauce to a boil then reduce heat and simmer, covered and stirring occasionally for 1½ hours.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat oven to 275 °F (135 °C).

  2. Cook and drain pasta.

  3. In a medium bowl mix ricotta, egg, ½ teaspoon salt and remaining parsley.

Assemble and bake

  1. Assemble your lasagna in a 13×9×2‑inch (33×23×5.1‑cm) roasting pan (listed bottom to top): Bottom layer of sauce (approx. 1½ cups / 375 g / 13.2 oz). Layer of pasta (overlapping slightly). Layer of ½ the ricotta mixture. Layer of ⅓ of the mozzarella. Sauce layer (again, about 1½ cups / 375 g / 13.2 oz). Layer of grated Parmesan sprinkled over sauce (not so much that the sauce layer is covered entirely). Layer of pasta. Layer of remaining ricotta. Layer of ⅓ of the mozzarella. Layer of remaining sauce. Layer of sprinkled Parmesan. Layer of remaining mozzarella.

  2. Cover the lasagna with foil and bake 30 minutes covered, then 25 minutes uncovered (or until bubbly and lightly browned). Cool for at least 20 minutes before serving.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1426Calories
106 gProtein
69 gFat
88 gCarbs

Counts 17 of 20 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 17 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Pork100g cooked242
Pasta1 cup cooked (140g)220
Ricotta Cheese1/2 cup (124g) part-skim174
Cheese1 oz (28g) cheddar113
Parmesan Cheese1 oz (28g)110
Mozzarella Cheese1 oz (28g)85
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Fennel1/2 bulb (87g)27
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Basil5 leaves fresh (2.5g)1
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Seednot in our table0
Waternot in our table0
Lasagnanot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Basil + fenneltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together192 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-anethole (anise).

  3. Garlic + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Basil + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Clove + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Canned whole tomatoes
Provide the main sauce body and bright acidity that balances the rich meat and cheese.
Tomato paste
Adds concentrated tomato flavor and helps thicken the sauce as it simmers.
Ricotta cheese
Creates a soft, creamy layer that stays moist and tender after baking.
Egg
Binds the ricotta mixture so it holds together between the layers.
Mozzarella cheese
Melts into stretchy layers and gives the top a golden, bubbly finish.
Lasagna pasta
Forms the structural sheets that hold the layers together when sliced.

The step that matters

Cool for at least 20 minutes before serving. As the lasagna cools, the starches, cheeses and sauce firm up and set. Cutting it hot lets the layers slide apart and the filling run out.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, clove, garlic, sugar, basil, fennel, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, clove, garlic, sugar, basil, fennel, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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