You know how you remem­ber cer­tain things that peo­ple say? Espe­cial­ly children?

Our grand­daugh­ter, Han­nah, was born a ray of pure sunshine…always hap­py! And from the time she was a tod­dler, she LOVED pasta!

At a fam­i­ly gath­er­ing when she was about four, she over­heard me talk­ing about what we were going to have for dinner…which includ­ed pasta.

She spun around on the bar stool she was sit­ting on and very mat­ter of fac­tu­al­ly said “PASTA? Did some­body say PASTA?

I could­n’t resist turn­ing it into a blog post title! Be sure to read the notes at the end of the recipe on how to make this lasagna GLUTEN FREE!

In the video above, I show how I por­tion the lasagna into per­fect por­tions to serve right away or to freeze for anoth­er meal and in the video below I show you how I “con­struct” it…I’m mak­ing a grilled chick­en lasagna in this one…both recipes are deli­cious and I hope you give them a try!

https://​youtu​.be/​Y​L​K​Q​W​f​w​t​3J4

Print

“Classic” Lasagna

A clas­sic lasagna with all of the fla­vor and none of the guilt!

Course Main Course

Cui­sine Ital­ian

Serv­ings 8

Author Liz Geeslin

Ingredients

Cheese Mixture

• 16 oz cot­tage cheese, lowfat
• 4 oz cream cheese, 1/​3 less fat
• 1 large egg
• 1 tbs Ital­ian sea­son­ing any com­bo of basil, oregano, thyme, etc.
• 1/​2 tsp cayenne pep­per more if you like extra heat!
• 1 cup Moz­zarel­la cheese, part skim, shred­ded **you will need an addi­ton­al cup of this cheese for the top after assembling.**
• blender or immer­sion blender

Meat Mixture

• 1 1/​2 lbs ground turkey, 93% lean
• 1/​3 cup dried onion flakes
• 1 tbs gar­lic powder
• 2 tbs Ital­ian seasoning
• 15 oz toma­to sauce

Layering Ingredients

• 8 sheets Bar­il­la No Boil Lasagna “Noo­dles”
• 1 26 oz Bar­il­la Toma­to Basil Pas­ta Sauce you can make your own pas­ta sauce, or use anoth­er brand you pre­fer. I have used this brand for years and love it.
• 1 cup Moz­zarel­la cheese, part skim, shred­ded for top layer
• square deep dish foil bak­ing pan 10″ x 10″ x 2.5″ poul­try pan at Kroger
• reg­u­lar and non stick foil

Instructions

Cheese Mixture

• Com­bine all of the cheese mix­ture ingre­di­ents EXCEPT the Moz­zarel­la cheese into a blender or 4 cup Pyrex mea­sur­ing cup if using an immer­sion blender.
• Blend until smooth, then stir in the shred­ded Moz­zarel­la cheese and set aside

Meat Mixture

• Place a large non stick skil­let over medi­um heat and add the turkey.
• Add the dried onions and cook the turkey until browned and cooked through.
• Add the sea­son­ings and toma­to sauce and sim­mer over low heat until sauce has thick­ened and has reduced in mois­ture, about 20 minutes
• Taste for sea­son­ings and salt.

Putting It Together

• Line the foil pan one way first with reg­u­lar foil, then across the oth­er direc­tion with the non stick foil.
• Add about 1/​2 cup of the pas­ta sauce to the bot­tom of the pan.
• Add two pas­ta sheets, spread 1/​3 of the cheese mix­ture over the top, going to the edges of the pan.
• Add 1/​3 of the meat mix­ture and spread over the top of the cheese.
• Add 1/​2 cup of the pas­ta sauce and spread over the top of the meat.
• Repeat the lay­ers twice, alter­nat­ing the direc­tion of the noo­dles and end­ing with a noo­dle lay­er on top.
• Spread the remain­ing pas­ta sauce over the top and cov­er the top with the remain­ing 1 cup of shred­ded cheese.
• Cov­er with NON stick foil.
• Bake at 375 for 1 hour, remove the foil and bake for an addi­ton­al 15 min­utes or until top is nice and light­ly browned.

Notes

If you want to make this GLUTEN FREE, Bar­il­la makes GLUTEN FREE lasagna sheets that work beau­ti­ful­ly! Your guests who are not gluten free will NEVER know the difference!