Can an authentic lasagna—even one with the historic white sauce—possibly be turned into a stove-top skillet lasagna that’s fast, easy to clean-up, and just as delicious as the original? Yes, yes, and yes! Follow my simple directions for a stress-free delicious skillet lasagna that substitutes a more kid-friendly creamy mozzarella for the ricotta cheese for the most melty, delicious, comforting lasagna you’ve ever tasted!
Ahhhh, lasagna. You love it. I love it. But I get a lot of questions about what to substitute for ricotta cheese. My kids are all like “Lasagna! Yay! And then, remembering the dish more clearly, they say—“please don’t put that cottage cheese on the bottom!!”
So, I came up with this recipe and talk about smiles all around!
You Ain’t Gotta Ricotta?
See, real, authentic lasagna doesn’t necessarily include ricotta cheese. Ricotta just breaks up and looks like floating bits of parmesan in white sauce, I suppose.
The recipe proper really calls for something much more time consuming—white sauce based cheese sauce made with milk, flour, butter, and parmesan. But parm melts slow—you know how hard that cheese is right? Imagine the patience it takes to melt that in a sauce you can barely simmer without scalding it!!
So, I put on my best thinking Skechers, and thought, hmmm. What cheese melts, tastes delicious, and would complement the red sauce and flavors of lasagna? Mozzarella! Everyone can get behind that! Plus, fresh mozzarella melts quite quickly and already sits in a cheese saving water that’s got a cheesy flavor all its own. I snip, snip, snip that ball of mozzarella into pieces right back into that water and then pop that container into the microwave for around 20 seconds or so to bring that water up to the temperature of the white sauce, so it won’t curdle.
When you add that melting mozzarella liquid to the white sauce, found that if you add that ball of mozzarella chopped into small pieces to your barely simmering white sauce, it melts into a stretchy cheese sauce that is so perfect for lasagna and tastes even better than the traditional parmesan sauce. And kids love it!!
How to Make Perfect Skillet Lasagna Noodles for Skillet Lasagna!
Everyone worries about lasagna noodles in skillet lasagna. I understand. It’s hard enough to get them right with lasagna baked in a casserole dish!
The secret is oven-ready lasagna sheets—like the ones Barilla makes, which is my personal favorite brand and one that is guaranteed to work. With these, there is no need to preboil them. They absorb the sauce and cook that way. That’s how you can always remember the noodles go atop the tomato layer—how else would they cook without that extra water the tomatoes give off!!
If you must use real lasagna sheets, cook them to very al dente first. Boil them until they just flop over a bit but still would not be quite edible. Then, you’ll be able to cook them in the skillet and get them the rest of the way done as long as you cook them a little low and give that bubbling sauce time to penetrate and relax them.
The Perfect Vessel for Skillet Lasagna?
I really should have called this “skillets” lasagna. Why? Because you do need to cook your white sauce in another skillet or cook it first and move it to a glass bowl for pouring atop the bottom tomato layer. The best pans for making white sauce, I think though, are glass double boilers—then you can’t scald!
For your stovetop lasagna? Pick your favorite 10- or 12-inch cast iron, glass, ceramic, or stainless-steel skillet—these are your safest vessels! Choose depending upon how many people you’re serving. If you have a lot of diners, go with the 12-inch skillet and you might need more lasagna noodles as well, so buy two packs or boxes of these. If you make a double portion of sauce and have excess, just freeze it! Use it whenever!
Ingredients
- 1 Pound ground Beef
- 2 Tbsp Olive oil
- 1 Onion diced
- 2 cloves Garlic crushed
- 2 sticks Celery chopped
- 2 Carrots peeled and diced
- 2 cups Marinara Sauce
- 1 tsp Italian Herbs
- ¼ cup Butter
- ¼ cup Flour
- 2 cups Whole Milk
- 5 oz Mozzarella ball
- ½ cup Parmesan finely shredded
- 8-10 no boil lasagna sheets
- Salt and Pepper
How to Make Stovetop Skillet Lasagna
Step 1: Heat a skillet over a medium heat and add in a drizzle of olive oil, then add the diced onion, garlic, celery, carrots and the ground beef. Stir it all together and cook until the beef has browned.
Step 2: Pour in the marinara sauce along with the Italian herbs and a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir it all together and let it simmer over a low heat for 30 minutes or until it is lovely and thick and saucy.
Step 3: While the meat sauce cooks, make your white sauce by melting the butter into a small saucepan. Use a whisk to add the flour in to the butter and whisk to make a smooth roux.
Step 4: Slowly pour the whole milk into the saucepan and then keep whisking over a low heat until it thickens. Be sure to keep a close eye on it, otherwise it will become lumpy.
Step 5: To assemble the lasagna in the skillet scoop out half the meat sauce. Then add a single layer of lasagna sheets. You can break them to fit into the skillet. Then add a layer of the white sauce and smooth out. Repeat this for another layer.
Step 6: Once you have your layers add the mozzarella and Parmesan to the top. Then cook on low for 25 – 30 minutes with the lid on or until the lasagna sheets are soft. Be sure cook the lasagna on as low as possible otherwise it will burn.
FAQs & Tips
You can store leftovers in the refrigerator three days as there’s a lot of dairy in here—or freeze it for a great meal to thaw out one day for lunch or dinner. To make it ahead of time, simply chop and do all prep into small storage containers in categories, aromatics, precooked pasta, a pound of thawed beef or sausage (or ground turkey, seasoned with sage, perhaps?) and leave the tomatoes till last. Chopped tomatoes lose flavor when refrigerated.
Do you have wine or vodka around the house? Stir some red wine or vodka into your pasta sauce to make it like the best Italian chefs, too. The alcohol cooks off, leaving only the acidity and alcohol sugars, which bring out all the wonderful tomato, Italian spice, and cheese flavors here. I mean, chefs just pour like half a bottle of red wine in their sauces!
Use only San Marzano tomatoes in all tomato sauces. You cannot get a good tomato sauce out of tomatoes that don’t taste ripe, sweet, and delicious. Your dish is only as good as the ingredients that you put in it, period. This makes all the difference in the world. Or make your own with real, vine ripened-organic or home-grown tomatoes.
Sure, nobody can afford pounds of organic, locally sourced cheeses or higher quality Parmesan and whole Mozzarella. So don’t buy pounds. Have the deli slice you only what you need and save money major.
The rule on spices is add dried at the end, fresh at the beginning of a sauce. Why? Dried spices have already been baked and dried and will take longer to release flavor. So, here’s how you can save money. Go to the fresh spice aisle and gather sprigs of Italian seasonings—basil, thyme, oregano, and your salt and garlic! Voila!
Serving Suggestions
I would serve this with a good, cab sauv or cold, chilled Riesling (for the adults of course) and some garlicky pull apart rolls and a salad. Try this with my pull-apart Baked Garlic Rolls, a crisp Arugula Caprese Salad with Lemon Basil Dressing, and my Strawberries with Custard Cream for lighter but heavenly end to a grand meal.
Stovetop Skillet Lasagna
Ingredients
- 1 Pound ground Beef
- 2 Tbsp Olive oil
- 1 Onion diced
- 2 cloves Garlic crushed
- 2 sticks Celery chopped
- 2 Carrots peeled and diced
- 2 cups Marinara Sauce
- 1 tsp Italian Herbs
- ¼ cup Butter
- ¼ cup Flour
- 2 cups Whole Milk
- 5 oz Mozzarella ball
- ½ cup Parmesan finely shredded
- 8-10 lasagna sheets no boil
- Salt and Pepper
Instructions
- Heat a skillet over a medium heat and add in a drizzle of olive oil, then add the diced onion, garlic, celery, carrots and the ground beef. Stir it all together and cook until the beef has browned.
- Pour in the marinara sauce along with the Italian herbs and a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir it all together and let it simmer over a low heat for 30 minutes or until it is lovely and thick and saucy.
- While the meat sauce cooks, make your white sauce by melting the butter into a small saucepan. Use a whisk to add the flour in to the butter and whisk to make a smooth roux.
- Slowly pour the whole milk into the saucepan and then keep whisking over a low heat until it thickens. Be sure to keep a close eye on it, otherwise it will become lumpy.
- To assemble the lasagna in the skillet scoop out half the meat sauce. Then add a single layer of lasagna sheets. You can break them to fit into the skillet. Then add a layer of the white sauce and smooth out. Repeat this for another layer.
- Once you have your layers add the mozzarella and Parmesan to the top. Then cook on low for 25 – 30 minutes with the lid on or until the lasagna sheets are soft. Be sure cook the lasagna on as low as possible otherwise it will burn.
Nutrition
