Well, I kinda boogered this one up but that doesn’t mean I didn’t learn enough to tell you what not to do lol. Don’t add one last layer of noodles on top, they burnt and I had to peel them off leaving me with horrible photos. So just know that. Lasagna gets popular when the weather gets cold, it’s the heartiest of the pasta dishes. It fills you up and always smells like a hug from Grandma. Just close your eyes for a second and picture you’re sitting at the table and someone scoops out a big, steamy piece of lasagna with the cheese stringing all over the place. It’s the best. No one eats lasagna in the summer, think about it. It’s inherently FALL.
This is a slightly lighter take on the traditional (though I personally LOVE old school lasagna). It’s got a bunch of mushrooms and the normal, abundant amount of cheese. It only takes a little over an hour start to finish, but you can definitely make this ahead of time and use simple hacks to save about half an hour. Most of my evenings are a warzone, so saving 30 minutes during that time of the day matters a ton. Now, you do spend that time…it’s just not when kids are screaming and everything is going off the rails.
When cooking the mushrooms and onions, cook until almost all of that liquid is gone, see below.
HACK 1: Make the entire thing ahead of time, bake at dinner. This lasagna takes about 35-40 minutes to cook in the oven, so you can’t avoid that. But with zero prep work whatsoever, 40 minutes isn’t bad. Make and assemble the entire lasagna right up until putting it in the oven, cover and store in the fridge until you’re ready.
HACK 2: Make your filling mixture ahead of time. You can knock off about 15 minutes of prep by making the filling mixture beforehand. Get all your veggies cut and cooked off and store in the fridge. Combine this with HACK 3 for an added time saver.
HACK 3: Use “ready to bake” noodles. I’ve recently noticed these particularly in lasagna sheets, they’re par-boiled noodles so you don’t have to cook them before baking. Just layer up your lasagna and throw it in the oven. However long it normally takes you to cook noodles, knock that off the timeline. If you’re going to use these, you might as well do HACK 2 as well and just have to assemble-> bake.
DONT DO WHAT I DID BELOW!
Ingredients:
Box of lasagna noodles
Olive Oil
Onion
Garlic
Mushrooms (1 pound)
Dried thyme, salt and pepper
Marinara sauce (3 cups, or one typical 24oz jar)
Ricotta, mozzarella, and parmesan cheese
Spinach
Mushroom Lasagna
Equipment
- 1 9X13 Baking Dish
- 1 Frying pan
- 1 Bowl to boil noodles if needed
Ingredients
- 1 Box Lasagna Noodles Seriously, use the ready-bake ones. So much easier
- 2 TBSP Olive oil
- 1 Onion – Chopped Yellow preferred, then white. Avoid red
- 3 Cloves Garlic Minced
- 1 Pound Mushrooms Sliced
- 1 TSP Dried Thyme
- Salt and Pepper To taste
- 3 Cups Marinara Stick to something pretty standard, you don't want any weird flavors messing up what you have going in the filling
- 2 Cups Ricotta Cheese
- 1 Cup Mozzarella Shredded
- 1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese Grated
- 2 Cups Spinach Chopped
Instructions
- This is assuming you're using the ready-bake noodles, if not, cook the noodles before assembling per package instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 Farenheit
- Using olive oil or cooking spray, lubricate your 9×13 baking dish
- Add oil to your frying pan and heat for a minute or two over medium heat
- Add the onion, letting that cook for 3-4 minutes before adding the garlic and cooking for another minute
- Add the sliced mushrooms, dried thyme, salt and pepper and cook the mixture until the mushrooms are soft and browning. Most of the liquid released from the mushrooms should be evaporated when you're done
- Add the chopped spinach leaves to the pan, stirring and cooking until they wilt, usually only 2-3 minutes
- To assemble: Ladle some marinara on the bottom of the pan and add your first layer of noodles
- Put half of the ricotta cheese on top of the noodles and spread to cover
- Add a layer of the mushroom mixture and top with about 1/3 of the mozzarella and parmesan
- Repeat these layers of noodles, ricotta, mushrooms, cheese until your pan is full. Be sure to leave just enough room to top the whole thing with as much marinara as you can fit.
- Cover this with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake for another 10-15 minutes or the cheese is nice and bubbly taking on some browning
- If you want the best results, let this sit for about 10 minutes before slicing in so everything has a chance to meld together OUT of the oven, but otherwise serve it up!
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