Pinterest Review: 30 Minute Stovetop Lasagna

I love lasagna.  When I was a kid, I always like it when Mom would make lasagna on Fridays, because then on Saturday morning I could eat leftover lasagna while watching Garfield cartoons.  Life was good.



So it's really no surprise that we had lasagna for Christmas dinner, is it?

We'd had the family Christmas the Sunday prior, so on Christmas day it was just Jeff & I.  We went to church in the morning, stopped at the dinner on the way home, and I tried a new recipe for Christmas Dinner.

30-Minute Stovetop Lasagna

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 pound ground beef
• 3/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
• 12 ounce package lasagna noodles, broken in pieces
• 28 ounce can tomatoes, undrained and chopped
• 15 ounce can tomato sauce
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• 15 ounce container ricotta cheese
• 2 cups shredded Italian cheese blend

Instructions

1. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add garlic, beef, and spices. Cook, stirring occasionally, until beef is no longer pink - about 8 to 10 minutes.; top with Italian cheese.
2. Place lasagna noodles over meat mixture; top with tomatoes, tomato sauce, basil and 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, 20 minutes or until noodles are tender.
3. Dollop ricotta cheese evenly over mixture, stirring slightly. Cover and let stand 2 minutes or until cheese is melted.

This had really good flavor, and I will keep this recipe for the seasoning alone.  However, when I make it again I will make some changes.  

First of all, I thought it was weird that I was to put the shredded cheese in the meat mixture prior to putting the noodles & tomatoes in.  That cheese ended up kind of disappearing.  So maybe it added to the salt factor (which was perfect, really), and maybe it helped to make some of the charring on the meat (which was also really flavorful), but in the future I will do that differently.

The other thing I would do differently is that I would go ahead and boil the noodles separately.  And I would probably use a different noodle, like the kind that comes in the Lasagna flavor of Hamburger Helper.  I felt that the noodles never really had a chance to boil/soften.  The noodles were tough and where they were stuck together, downright uncooked.  But when I ate leftovers 3 days later, the noodles were pretty perfect.

The verdict?  It was good!  I'll keep the recipe but make my adjustments when I make it.  And I love that I can make lasagna during the week without worrying about how long it takes or being too tired to make it.