Lasagna is a pretty complicated dish, and out of all of the various Italian pasta dishes I make, it’s the one that’s by far the easiest to mess up. In fact, most of the time when I make it, it doesn’t go well.
So this time, I decided to try it out in my dutch oven. It’s a little different from a normal lasagna because of the shape of the pot, and I take a shortcut by using oven-ready no-boil noodles, but those two things combined made something layered, cheesy, and tasty, so I’m not going to complain.
Can you use normal lasagna noodles? Sure! Boil them first and reduce the cooking time by a few minutes. You might also want to reduce the amount of salt in the recipe if you salt your pasta water (which you should), but that’s up to personal taste. I think my recipe is fine; my partner likes to add a bit more to his portions.
Can you add meat to the dish? Of course! Ground beef is the go-to, but you can also use some Italian sausage, or really anything you like. Just cook it first before you mix it in and you’ll be good to go.
Why ricotta and cottage cheese? I find that just plain ricotta is a little one-note in both flavor and texture, and honestly, I don’t much care for the texture of ricotta itself. Mixing it with some small-curd cottage cheese solves those problems, so I tend to do it in all of my ricotta-using recipes. Feel free to replace the cottage cheese with more ricotta if you prefer!
Easy Dutch Oven Lasagna
Equipment
- Large Dutch Oven
- Mixing Bowls
Ingredients
- 1 Box Oven-Ready Lasagna Noodles
- ½ Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
- 2 Cups Shredded Mozzarella
- 1 Cup Ricotta Cheese
- 1 Cup Small-Curd Cottage Cheese
- 1 Cup Chopped Mushrooms
- 14.5 Oz Diced Tomatoes
- 28 Oz Crushed Tomatoes
- 1 Cup Chopped Spinach
- 1 Egg
- 1 Cup Water
- 1 Onion Diced
- 5 Cloves Garlic Minced
- 2 Tbsp Oil
- 2 Tsp Oregano
- ½ Tsp Seasoned Salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Over medium heat, heat the oil in the dutch oven.
- Add your diced onion and cook about five minutes, until translucent.
- Add the garlic and cook about a minute.
- Add the tomatoes and mushrooms, and simmer for about 10 minutes.
- While simmering, mix the ricotta, cottage cheese, egg, oregano, salt, and spinach in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
- In another bowl, mix the mozzarella and Parmesan together.
- Transfer the sauce to another mixing bowl, leaving the dutch oven empty.
- Assemble your lasagna layers. Add a layer of sauce, then of noodles, then ricotta mix, then mozzarella mix, then repeat. Sauce -> Noodles -> Ricotta -> Mozzarella. You should have enough ingredients for 3-4 layers depending on the size of your dutch oven.
- Top with any additional mozzarella and parmesan. Bake uncovered for 40-45 minutes, or until the noodles have your preferred texture.
- Let cool for about 10 minutes out of the oven before digging in and serving. Enjoy!