I’m not sure who thought of the idea of a skillet lasagna but they are real smart. I love a good homemade lasagna but I’m finding that I’m having less and less time to make them. Fall days are getting closer and my schedule doesn’t seem to be opening up. Last Friday night, all I wanted was a good homemade dinner with my friends and I knew a rich lasagna would hit the spot. But who has time to layer a homemade lasagna after a full days work? Then, I saw a recipe for a skillet lasagna!
Basically, a skillet lasagna is a short cut to the real thing. I browned italian sausage, made a simple tomato sauce with onion, garlic and canned tomatoes, stirred in broken pieces of lasagna noodles and top with ricotta cheese and and fresh mozzarella. It tasted like the real thing and took a quarter of the time. And, it’s a one dish meal – which I served straight out of the pot.
You could use ground beef, roasted veggies (a lot of eggplant at the market these days!), chicken or turkey sausage. Be creative! Try smoked mozzarella! Be creative and skip a step – you won’t regret it and you’re guests won’t taste the difference!
Here is the recipe I put together. Enjoy!
Quick & Easy Skillet Lasagna with Italian Sausage!
- 8 ounces lasagna noodles, broken into thirds
- 1 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small sweet onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 pound italian sausage (or turkey or chicken sausage!), casing removed
- 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 handful fresh basil
- 1 ball, fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced
- 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
- parmesan cheese for grating
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare water for pasta (with salt!) and bring to a boil.
In a large cast iron skillet, brown the sausage while breaking up with a wood spoon. Once browned, set the sausage aside.
Add in olive oil , then toss in onions with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cook until soft – about 5 minutes. Add in garlic and cook for another minute, then add in the sausage. Add in tomatoes and half the 3 fresh basil, tossing well to coat. Season with salt, pepper and a touch of sugar. Taste it – you’ll be able to balance the flavors. I find that most canned tomatoes need a bit of sugar to cut the acid. Allow to simmer has the noodles cook.
Toss the broken noodles into the boiling water and cook until al dente. Once cooked, add in broken noodles, and fold into the sauce. One noodles are evenly distributed and mostly under the sauce, top with dollops of ricotta and slice mozzarella. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove and add torn basil on top. Enjoy!
Mod Meals on Mendenhall 
Cecelia, I just made a big batch of ravioli for a special occasion (meat filling and cheese filling) and had lots of filling left over. I put them in separate bags in one freezer bag and market it “Lasagna.” Next time I want lasagna, I will thaw it, boil some noodles, add a good jar of tomato sauce and have homemade lasagna in about 20 minutes! Not that you don’t have to make the stuff earlier, but you can make double when you have time and that second use will be a breeze. Mrs. B.