Name: Easy Lasagna Casserole Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 15 oz. whole milk ricotta*; 1 tsp. salt; 1 tsp. garlic powder; 1/8 tsp. black pepper; 1 large egg; 1 – 24 oz. jar marinara sauce; 1 and 1/2 cups water, divided; 12 oz. pre-cooked Italian-style sausage, roughly chopped**; 3 and 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella, divided; 12 oz. uncooked dry lasagna noodles

DESCRIPTION

This Lasagna Casserole tastes just like traditional cheesy, delicious lasagna but it only takes 10 minutes to get it prepped and ready for the oven! How is that possible, you don’t have to pre-cook the noodles, you’ll be using already-cooked sausage for the meat, and the noodles are broken up and mixed with it all instead of layered. Then you spoon on a well-seasoning ricotta mixture and cheese as a top coating to finish it all off.

Ingredients

Units Scale

15 oz. whole milk ricotta*
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1 large egg
1 – 24 oz. jar marinara sauce
1 and 1/2 cups water, divided
12 oz. pre-cooked Italian-style sausage, roughly chopped**
3 and 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella, divided
12 oz. uncooked dry lasagna noodles

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Instructions

Preheat oven to 375˚F. Spray an 9″x13″ cake pan with cooking spray. Spray one side of a piece of foil large enough to cover the pan with cooking spray, set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine ricotta, salt, garlic powder, and black pepper egg. Add the egg and stir until well-incorporated.
Pour the marinara into a large bowl. Add 1/2 cup of the water to the marinara can or jar and swirl it around to get all the tomato sauce mixed with the water. Pour the water into the bowl with the sauce. Add the remaining 1 cup of water to the bowl.
To the sauce and water in the bowl, add the sausage and 2 cups of the mozzarella. Stir.
Hold 2-3 lasagna noodles over the bowl and break them roughly into 2 inch pieces and shards. Repeat with remaining noodles. Stir well to coat all sides of all noodles in sauce. Transfer to the prepared cake pan and spread evenly.
Scoop 8 dollops of the ricotta mixture evenly spaced over the noodles. Then spread them out to form an even layer. Sprinkle evenly with remaining 1 and 1/2 cups of mozzarella.
Cover pan with the foil, sprayed side touching the cheese, and seal it well all around the pan.
Bake for 50 minutes. Remove the foil and bake until top is browning just a little, 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to rest uncovered for 15 minutes (don’t skip this step!).

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Notes

*I prefer the smooth ricotta where you don’t see the curds for this. But whatever ricotta you like in lasagna will work.

**Any fully-cooked meat will work here. Rotisserie chicken or leftover cooked chicken, cooked ground beef, diced ham, etc..

***You can use regular dry uncooked lasagna noodles, or those labelled no-boil or oven-ready. They all work in this recipe, as do thin pasta shapes like medium-sized shells.