Classic Italian Lasagna
Get the recipe for this classic Italian lasagna with a homemade, creamy, rich white sauce in lieu of ricotta cheese. It’s absolutely amazing!
I’ve had lasagna.
And I’ve had great lasagna.
And now, I can say, that without a doubt, I have had the most amazing classic Italian lasagna known to man…and I’ve had it at least four times over.
My Aunt Marilyn snagged this recipe from an Italian friend of hers and passed it on to me. I questioned whether to try it, since I am really loyal to my mom’s fabulous lasagna, but I can’t resist trying new recipes, so I made it.
And now I’m trying to find the words to describe it to you.
This lasagna defies the notion of what I always assumed to be normal lasagna (you know, noodles covered with sauce, covered with ricotta or cottage cheese, covered with cheese…and on and on).
That’s all fine and good – and the process creates a great lasagna as I’ve always known it, but this lasagna, oh, This Lasagna…it is unique and different and authentic and just so very, very delicious.
Instead of a ricotta cheese and egg mixture, you get a homemade white sauce that is creamy and rich.
A simmered red sauce compliments the silkiness of the white sauce and this entire classic Italian lasagna is filled with cheese. Lots of cheese.
I couldn’t get over the deep flavor in this lasagna and I attribute the unparalleled richness to the browned mushrooms, garlic and onion that are pureed and added to the red sauce.
What you ultimately get is a lasagna that is a textural masterpiece as far as smooth sauces go. Pair that with the tender ground turkey and the toothsome noodles and this is just an absolute winner.
Go make it now, please. I have no words left to help convince you that your life will not be complete until you try it.
What To Serve With This:
Divine Breadsticks or Cheesy Garlic Bread
Steamed vegetable like broccoli or peas
Simple green salad (or something more fancy like this Gourmet Green Salad)
One Year Ago: Asian Lettuce Wraps
Two Years Ago: My Favorite Cheesecake…Ever
Classic Italian Lasagna
Ingredients
Red Sauce:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 4 cloves fresh garlic, finely minced
- ½ large onion, diced (about 1/2 cup)
- 8 ounces mushrooms, chopped
- 2 cans (8-ounces each) tomato sauce
- 1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning, or a mix of dried oregano and basil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
White Sauce:
- 3 cups milk, not skim, I used 1%
- 5 tablespoons flour
- 4 tablespoons butter
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
Lasagna:
- 9 lasagna noodles, boiled for half the time on the box (or use 12 of the no-boil noodles, of which I far prefer the Barilla brand)
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
- 8 ounces Parmesan cheese, shredded
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9X13-inch baking pan with cooking spray or with a napkin dipped lightly in olive oil and set aside.
- In a large skillet, brown the ground turkey over medium-high heat, breaking the meat apart into pieces with a wooden spoon. When turkey is cooked through, drain the grease and set aside.
- In a medium-size saucepan over medium-high heat, add 2 tablespoons olive oil and one tablespoon butter. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. When oil/butter is hot, add the garlic, stirring constantly. When the garlic is lightly browned, but NOT burned, add the onion and mushrooms. Continue cooking on medium-high heat until the vegetables are soft and browned and the fluid has mostly cooked out.
- Remove from heat and either using a handheld immersion blender or transferring the vegetables to a blender, blend the vegetables to a paste-like mixture. Return the pot to the heat (pour the pureed vegetables back in, if using a stand-alone blender) and add the tomato sauce and tomato paste. Stir to combine. Then add the diced tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Stir.
- Cover and let the sauce sauce simmer for 30 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Right before using the red sauce in the lasagna, stir in the reserved ground turkey.
- While the red sauce simmers, if using lasagna noodles that need to be boiled, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and boil the noodles for half the time suggested on the box. Once the noodles are cooked, drain, but do not rinse. Add a dab of olive oil to keep them from sticking together. If you are using no-boil noodles, you can skip this step.
- Also while the red sauce is cooking, melt the four tablespoons butter and when melted, add the flour, stirring constantly to combine and letting the mixture cook, while stirring, for a minute or two. Gradually add in the milk, whisking constantly. Add the salt and pepper. Slowly whisk the white sauce, ensuring it doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pan, while cooking it over medium heat. Continue slowly stirring or whisking while the white sauce cooks and thickens quite a bit, about 5-7 minutes. Add a pinch of mozzarella for good luck, if you wish!
- To begin layering the lasagna, keep in mind that you’ll have three layers of noodles as well as three layers of the sauces and cheese – so plan on splitting all the sauce and cheese piles into thirds so you don’t run out at the end! On the bottom of your lightly greased baking pan, layer three pre-boiled noodles or four no-boil noodles, slightly overlapping the no-boil noodles. Layer the red sauce, white sauce, Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses, spreading all to the edges and top with another layer of noodles. Again, layer the red sauce, white sauce, Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses and top with the final layer of noodles. Layer the sauces and cheeses again.
- Cover the lasagna with a greased layer of aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and let the lasagna sit for 15 minutes before cutting and serving.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted from Aunt Marilyn
MEL!!!!!
This is a WINNER recipe!!! I have a fabulous manicotti recipe that is so good, I tend not to venture to much into the lasagna sector. But, I had to try this recipe….. (I was a little worried how it would be with such a basic white sauce, to be honest. BUT, apparently I had NOTHING to worry about!!) Seriously, stellar. I added a bit more of the oregano/basil mixture b/c I like things really flavorful. And I added a bit of sugar. It was amazing. I did find that I needed to double the red sauce to have enough for the whole dish. Job well done.
Also tried the no boil noodles for the first time and they worked! Miracle!
This was super. I really liked the white sauce, but at first I wasn’t sure I would because I like the cottage cheese mixture in my normal recipe. This was a bigger hit with my kids than my usual recipe. I think it also helps that the onion (didn’t use mushrooms) were blended, so nothing they had to pick out. Thanks for the delicious recipe!
My mom always made noodle casserole on Friday with cream of mushroom soup. She hid the can at the bottom of the garbage. To this day, I cannot eat anyone’s casserole. When cooking for a crowd, use cream of celery soup.
Wow, finally someone who doesn’t use cottage cheese or ricotta in their lasagne!
When I moved to the States I was really surprised seeing that besciamella was replaced by *ugh* cottage cheese 🙁 it takes away so much of the original lasagne taste and no one would put that in their food in Italy (most people never ate cottage cheese in their entire lives, let alone putting it in everybody’s all-time favourite dish!)…
Anyhow, where I’m from in Italy we would just use parmesan cheese, besciamella (white sauce) and ragù alla bolognese (tomato sauce+ ground meat), layer that with pasta sheets and that’s it!
April, the longest I’ve made this in advance is the morning of so I don’t know how the night before would be. If you try it I would make sure you cool the sauce components to room temp before assembling.
Can i assemble this the night before?
Ooh, I was looking for a lasagne recipe w/o ricotta and this looks good! Question – I already have a bunch of homemade sauce put away from our bounty of garden tomatoes, how much sauce do you think I would need for this?
Katie – I’ve never pureed the tomatoes so I’m not sure how that would affect the liquid. It might make it a bit more liquidy but with only one can of diced tomatoes, I think it’s definitely worth a try. I’ve frozen it with the no-boil noodles and it worked great!
This sounds delicious! I found your site a couple weeks ago and have already used and loved over 10 of your recipes so far….thanks for helping me enjoy cooking again!! Two questions….my husband is weird about chunks of tomatoes….do you think it would work if I puréed the diced tomatoes before adding them to the sauce or would it make it too soupy? Also…as far as making this in advance and refrigerating or freezing (I’ve read the previous comments) does this still work for the no boil noodles as well? Thanks so much, I can’t wait to make it!
Hi Tara – so happy you liked this. Thanks for checking in (as always!). I appreciate the clarification on terminology for what kinds of foods you can find in England. Are the pureed tomatoes you used similar to crushed tomatoes? You said that tomato paste is called tomato puree so I didn’t know if the pureed tomatoes you used were actually tomato puree, or in other words, tomato paste. Whew! This is confusing. Basically, I would sub for the tomato sauce another tomato product with the same consistency as crushed tomatoes. I’d probably try to stay away from the jarred pasta sauces so you don’t get added flavors, but you might want to throw in some salt to taste and that would be about it.
One more note (to Mindy a few comments above): I used oven-ready noodles also and the 30 minute cooking time was perfect. They were very tender. I then removed the tinfoil and broiled the lasagna for 2 minutes to bubble and brown the cheese.
hoooo! Wow! Yummy supper. So I’ve always kinda prided myself in my lasagna making. It has been my fave food since childhood and on the rare occasion that I have used recipes, they’ve never compared to my own out of my head…..until today! That was amazing! Wow! Even my daughter who hates lasagna (which I think has got to be a crime!) loved it–and she had actually cried when she discovered I was making lasagna for supper! I can’t quite figure out why this was so good cuz it is so similar to how i make my own, however it has got to be how the sauce was cooked–with the pureed, fried veggies and all. I don’t know. Just amazing.
My only question: I am living in England at the moment, and here, as well as in most countries outside of the US and Canada, we do not have ‘tomato sauce’. In most countries that would be construed as ketchup, or maybe a jar of bolognese sauce or Ragu. What would you suggest I substitute for that? Today I used pureed tomatoes (which is the same as passatta), should I just add extra salt or should I add other things as well? Should I use a pre-made jar of Ragu-type sauce? Also here, they call tomato paste tomato puree. So a non-North American reading American blogs could certainly be confused!! thanks for your advice!
I saw that someone subsituted Spinach for the Mushrooms in the recipe. How much Spinach do you use or recommend? I’m super excited to try this recipe but am not a fan of Mushrooms.Thanks!
This definitely was the best lasagna ever! I made this last night for a get-together and everyone loved it. My husband thought the turkey was sausage. I did cook it for 60 minutes on 375 degrees because I was using oven ready noodles and I didn’t think 30 minutes was long enough. Turned out awesome! Thanks for the recipe!
I’ve got a shortcut that makes this the crowd pleaser at my house. Of course, everyone loves it, but I’ve made it easier on the cook. I process all my veggies 1st, then saute them – the result is the same with far less mess than processing hot cooked vegetables. This is also a great recipe to go vegetarian – the mushroom sauce is so ‘meaty’, even without the turkey, that my husband never misses it on Meatless Monday!
Oh my goodness, this lasagna is delicious!! Thanks for sharing!!!! You really do have the best recipes!
So good! My husband is pretty sure anything with ground turkey is the opposite of good so I subbed out 1/2 hot Italian sausage and 1/2 ground beef. This was seriously delicious. We had my sister and her carnivore husband over and lets just say we didn’t have to worry about leftovers. The amount of food consumed by the guys was spectacular. Definitely a home run meal.
Amber – I buy anything from Hunts to Red Gold. I stay away from the generic, simply because I haven’t had good results but otherwise, I’m not brand specific.
Which brand of tomato paste and sauce do you usually use?
It was perfect!
I have never eaten lasagna before and I made this recipe since it was mentioned as a classic dish… I substituted the meat with carrots,red peppers, mushroom, broccoli and spinach and it tasted GREAT! Thank you for the recipe!
Oh my goodness! I have used plenty of recipes from online blogs and such, however, I have NEVER taken the time to comment. THIS lasagna, game changer. Sold. Will NEVER make it another way again! I will say I did the unthinkable (inexcusable, but I’m just sooo busy and have limited time), I used a jar sauce (ouch, I know.), next time I will allow myself the time and energy to use all FRESH ingredients (no jar/can of anything).
Thank you so much for the recipe, had more than one person say it was their best ever, and certainly MY best ever!
Made it and LOVED it! Will use it again and again!
Leslie – hmmm, that’s a good question. You could probably eliminate the butter and flour altogether and then bring the milk, salt and pepper to a simmer. Make a little slurry of cornstarch and cold water (maybe 2 tablespoons cornstarch with 2 tablespoons water) and whisk it into the milk. Bring the milk to a boil and whisk constantly to let thicken. If needed you might have to add more of the cornstarch slurry – just keep in mind that the cornstarch has to be mixed with cold water before being added to the milk. I honestly have no idea what the consistency/flavor would be like but it’s worth trying. Good luck!
I was wondering what you’d recommend if I’m making this gluten free as far as the flour in the bechamel sauce…. Do you think I could heat the butter and milk together and then whisk in cornstarch? I think the flour might be the key for the smooth silky sauce, but then nothing is ever the same without gluten, is it? (Yes, I’m planning on using G-F noodles!)
I’m thinking using Mel’s Creamy Garlic Alfredo recipe would be a good substitution…
This is a great lasagna recipe. I am love with bechamel sauce in lasagna, and so is my husband. Thanks!
I will be making this one instead of my other go to from now on…thank you…looking forward to making more stuff from this website! Thank you
It was awesome.. I left the sauce in the frig overnight and put it together for dinner this evenin…my mom, my niece and her friend said it was great! ! Turned out not to be salty
Lisa – I don’t know why your sauce tasted overly salty – how was the finished lasagna?
I just made the red sauce and seems to me it is really salty? Will the white sauce help wittaking out some of that or maybe it is too much garlic?
I am a newcomer to Mel’s Kitchen and I love it! I tried this lasangna and it was awesome….and believe me I have made some pretty teriffic lasagna from some famous chefs. I used turkey italian sweet sausage instead of regular ground turkey and baked mine for 10 minutes more with the foil off, but I live at high altitude. I was shocked at how easy this recipe was but how delicious!
Wow! I love pinterest and that’s how I found your blog. I also love it when I actually have time to prepare a recipe and give my real honest opinion….this was fabulous!!!
Mine took a good bit longer to bake than yours, but other than that the instructions were easy to follow, clean up wasn’t bad since there was a little down time, and the result is divine!
I used ground beef, but next time I think I am trying sausage for a little something extra.
Thank you, thank you!
This was an amazing lasagna! I always trust your word. Thank you for the recipe!
Has anyone tried this with veggie turkey or soy?
Sallie – I’ve never frozen this, although my sister has and said it baked up wonderfully. I have made the day before and refrigerated – that’s what I’ll be doing this year.
Have you ever tried freezing this or making it a day ahead of time? I am having an Italian Christmas Eve and I’m hoping not to get stuck in the kitchen all night!!
I tried this lasagna tonight and it was awesome!! My husband and I invited my sister, brother in law and my dad over for dinner and were nervous about trying a new recipe. It was amazing!
I just had to post that I made this lasagna last night and it was AMAZING! My husband and I both agreed that it was the best lasagna we’ve ever had! Thanks for all your amazing recipes!
Ok I made it!! And OMG it was the Best Lasagna I’ve ever had!! And I don’t eat lasagna because I never like the way it was put together! Now I’m in heaven and will probably gain 10 pounds! I definitely went heavy on the cheese, but well worth it!! Thank you so much!!
I just want to say I just prepared this! It’s cooking in the oven as we speak, with 2 minutes left on the timer! I had soooo much FUN making this!! I can’t wait till it’s done and I can write all about it! Thanks doll!
I made a similar recipe from Cooks Illustraed magazine, they made a bolognese (meat) sauce and the white sauce with the Barilla no cook noodles and cheese. Most amazing lasagne I ever made, and I have made plenty. So this sounds amazing too, who would have thought no ricotta? Saves a lot of money too, as ricotta can be expensive.
Hello!
Can this lasagna be made a day ahead of time? If so, what would you suggest for the cooking time? Thank you!
Jennifer – yes, you can make it ahead of time. I would recommend letting the sauce components cool before layering the lasagna. If refrigerated, I would add 15 minutes to the baking time.
I made this lasagna last night and it was absolutely delicious. The sauce is so creamy! I really can’t wait to have some for lunch today. This is recipe box worthy for sure!
I made this lasagna last week along with your other lasagna recipe (your mom’s). We ate the other one the night I made it and put this one in the deep freezer. I just cooked it last night. 90 min covered @ 375 then 3o more minutes uncovered, and about 10-15 to cool on the stovetop. I have to say my husband and I prefer this one. We loved it! It is a new favorite. Oh, and I used the Wal-Mart/Great Value no boil noodles with no problem…
I assembled it the night before – put it in the fridge overnight “raw” and it cooked up beautifully and everyone LOVED it. Raved. And now they all asked me to send them your link. So you have some big new fans in the greater Buffalo region! I ended up making it with 1% since I had to go to the store anyway…
trying this today – serving tomorrow… can’t wait! Just a quick question – why not skim milk? I have made white sauce before (for a “fancy” mac and cheese recipe) and used skim, and it seems to turn out fine. Is it for more flavor or the texture of the sauce? Many thanks!
Nancy – the milk adds a richness to the sauce that is hard to achieve with skim – having said that, if you prefer skim, I’d still give it a try. The sauce might be slightly thinner, but it could still work, I’m thinking.
SO excited to try this, and am SO GRATEFUL that Allie M got me addicted to your site!
Mel, this might just be the BEST thing I have made off your site…and that’s saying A LOT considering I have made tons of your stuff and loved every bite of everything! I cannot get over the smooth, richness of the two sauces in this! I love skipping the ricotta and going straight for the bechemel! Especially since it just makes the already amazing red sauce taste even better! My entire family just about died over it! I added frozen chopped spinach to the red sauce based on some of the previous comments, and it was a success! The leftovers were AMAZING! Why are lasagna and spaghetti so much better the second day? I really can’t figure that one out, but man oh man we were fighting over these leftovers! Thanks yet again for making me look like a genius!
I can’t wait to make this tonight! It looks delicious!! Except I have one question.. I know your feelings about shredded mozzarella cheese for pizza, is that the same for lasagna too or can I use pre-shredded cheese? Thanks!
Alicia – well, to be honest, I only ever shred my own mozzarella since my husband (by virtue of him working for a cheese manufacturing company) has tainted my tastes for preshredded cheese forever. Having said that, in this lasagna, I actually think preshredded mozzarella would work fine. It might be slightly less melty than cheese you shred yourself but mixed in with all the other ingredients and you probably won’t be able to tell.
OMG! Now that I am not working b/c of our recent move, I have been trying to cook more meals at home. I have downloaded and printed and filed maybe 20 recipes and this is the one that has been the hands down very favorite of mine . I may have used all the saucepans I own and dividing the portions out in 3’s was very clever although I was not sure at first. I have never been so satisfied with the flavors and texture.. oh and the cheese! In not so short. Mel, thank you for taking the time to do this for not only those who cook often but those like me… just getting started. 🙂
Catherine – I’m glad that despite the multiple pans used and the time that this lasagna was a hit. It is one of my absolutely favorites. Just seeing your comment makes me want to have it for dinner tonight!