Having my family over for dinner is one of my most favorite (and I mean favorite) things in the world. What is better than enjoying a delicious meal over the dinner table with the people you love the most?! It doesn’t get any better than this for me. My husband and my dad absolutely love my traditional lasagna! So I decided to bake an oldie but goodie and enjoy a family dinner with lasagna and garlic bread.
My dad doesn’t like as much garlic or spice as my husband and I do. So this recipe doesn’t have the same amount of garlic or red pepper flakes I normally use. It was perfect for my dad and also my 10 year old nephew. However, if you love garlic and spicier sauce add double ( maybe even triple heehee) the garlic and red pepper flakes.
Ingredients for Lasagna:
Large batch of Spaghetti Sauce
1 package of lasagna noodles
1 lb of ground beef ( we buy from a local MO farm)
1/2 onion ( chopped up)
2 containers of Ricotta Cheese
1 tsp each of rosemary, oregano, thyme
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
3 garlic cloves crushed up
1 tbsp olive oil
8 slices of provolone cheese
Fresh Mozzarella (optional but recommended, my favorite is Belgioiso)
Fresh Basil (for topping, optional)
Ingredients for Garlic Bread:
2 loaves of french bread
12 tbsp of butter
10 cloves of garlic crushed up
Instructions Below!
Let’s make the lasagna.
First Step: Have the spaghetti sauce in a pot simmering and preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Second: Boil water to cook the lasagna noodles just shy of being al dente 5-7 minutes. When the noodles are cooked, use a tong and pull them out. Place them in a bowl with cold water. This prevents the noodles from continuing to cook and also easier to handle when layering.
Third: Add the tbsp of olive oil to a large skillet on medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 5-6 minutes until they start to become translucent (clear in color). Add the ground beef and use a spatula make sure the beef is broken up into small pieces and no big clumps are left. Cook beef until it browns entirely, 5-7 minutes. Half way through cooking, toss in the garlic, red pepper flakes, and seasoning. When it’s finished browning, add to the spaghetti sauce.
Yay! It is time to start assembling the layers.
Don’t forget to grease the casserole dish first.
First Layer:
Lasagna Noodles
2 ladles of meat sauce
1 container of ricotta cheese
2nd Layer:
Repeat above
Add 5 slices of provolone cheese
3rd Layer:
Noodles
Sauce
4 slices of provolone
Fresh mozzarella
Basil Leaves
Place casserole dish on a jelly roll pan. All the delicious flavors and juice from the sauce will bubble over and could drip on the bottom of your oven. The jelly roll pan will collect the overflow and make for an easier clean up!
Bake for 45-60 minutes. Let sit for 10-15 minutes so the layers can set.
While the lasagna is cooling, bake the garlic bread!
Cut the loaves in half. Melt the butter and add the garlic. Mix well. Coat the bread with the garlic butter.
Bake for 12 minutes, or until crispy golden brown.
Dinner is ready to serve!
Until our next family dinner,
Lisa Annie
XOXO
PS. Cut the garlic bread as you need it. If you don’t need it all, you can save it and make sandwiches out of! Can you imagine a garlic bread italian beef sandwich. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
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