This Delicious Lasagne Bake could be made traditionally with lasagne noodles, but I like to switch things up and try different sizes and shapes of pasta. Also, it’s very tedious working with lasagne noodles. They stick together, and you have to lay each one out individually. If something can be done easier and quicker, I’m going to figure it out. This is a perfect example.
My local grocery store has an “around the world” section. Here you can find ingredients for staple dishes imported from several countries. I found these huge pasta shells called Lumaconi Rigati in the Italian aisle.
The ricotta cheese we are using is homemade. This will take your Delicious Lasagne Bake dish from ordinary to outstanding. It’s very easy to do, don’t be nervous. It can be completed in as little as 1 hour of your time. Give it a try. You will be so glad you did. But if you don’t have one at hand, use store-bought ricotta cheese.
I think if you have company or if you have the extra time, stuffing the shells with the cheese mix (using a pastry piping bag) would be really lovely. But, no time for that today, so I just layered like traditional lasagne. It all ends up tasting the same, but the extra work would be a great presentation.
This Delicious Lasagne Bake makes an enormous amount of food. You can use a deep restaurant-style stainless steel pan called a table pan. They are really deep. I’ve never been able to find a deep enough dish for cooking lasagne-type dishes.
This Delicious Lasagne Bake is a great dish for potlucks, new mothers, grieving families, or anywhere else where you want to take a dish to feed a lot of people. Prepare up to the baking point. Cover tightly and give to friends or family with instructions to freeze or bake.
Delicious Lasagne Bake
Ingredients
3 cups ricotta cheese - homemade or store-bought
16 ounces Mozzarella cheese - divided- 8 ounces shredded provolone cheese
8 ounces pecorino romano cheese
6 ounces Parmesan cheese
3 medium egg
1 bunch basil
2 pounds ground beef (minced beef)
2 jars Marinara sauce (tomatoes, garlic, herbs, and onions – pasta sauce in southern hemisphere for Italian seafood dish) - 24 ounces each of your favorite pasta sauce- 2 pounds dried pasta - I used Lumaconi Rigati
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Cook pasta according to package directions using the minimum cook time. Drain and set aside.
- Set aside 8 ounces of mozzarella cheese.
- Combine all the remaining cheese (mozzarella, ricotta, provolone, pecorino, and parmesan) with egg and basil. Mix well.
- Brown the ground beef and drain.
- Add pasta sauce to beef and heat through.
- Add 1 cup of meat sauce to the bottom of a very deep pan.
- Place 1/2 of pasta layered over the meat sauce.
- Cover pasta with 1/2 cheese mix.
- Cover cheese mix with 1/2 meat sauce.
- Repeat this again with the remaining ingredients and top with the 8 ounces of mozzarella you have set aside.
- Bake for 40 minutes or until heated through.
- Serve hot.
