Meat Lasagna Recipe – How to make lasagna step by step

Discover how to make lasagna from scratch! This comforting dish features silky sheets of pasta, a smooth Béchamel sauce, a rich Bolognese sauce made with minced meat, and melted cheese on top and within the layers. This traditional lasagna recipe is sure to become your family’s favorite meal.

Making homemade lasagna might seem a bit daunting, but it’s really not as hard as it seems if you break it down into a few simple steps. You’ll be making two sauces in separate skillets:

1. Classic Italian Ragù (Bolognese Sauce): This rich, meat-based tomato sauce is a staple for pasta dishes.

2. Béchamel Sauce: This creamy sauce adds a lovely texture and complements the melted cheese perfectly.

To make your life easier, try to prepare the sauces ahead of time. If you’re not making your own pasta sheets, all that’s left to do is grate the cheeses and layer everything together. It’s really that simple!

I love lasagna for its incredible depth of flavor and unique mix of textures. I hope you will appreciate this all-time favorite comfort food!

Traditional Lasagna Ingredients:

• 8 lasagne sheets, uncooked;
• 170 g hard cheese, grated;
• 50 g parmesan cheese, grated.

Ragù – Bolognese Sauce Ingredients:

• 380 g ground beef;
• 1 onion;
• 1 carrot;
• 2 tbsps. olive oil;
• 1 tomato;
• 35 g tomato paste;
• 100 ml water;
• 1 tsp. Italian mixed herbs;
• Salt to your taste.

Béchamel Sauce Ingredients:

• 400 ml milk;
• 25 g butter;
• 25 g all-purpose flour;
• ¼ tsp. ground nutmeg;
• Salt to your taste.

How to cook a lasagna from scratch:

• Let us make Béchamel sauce, first. Chop onion into small pieces and sauté it in the skillet smeared with olive oil over medium-high heat until soft and translucent.

• Grate peeled carrot, add it to the skillet with onion, and continue sautéing until carrot softens.

• Add ground meat to the vegetables in the skillet. Give the mixture a nice stir and cook for 10 more minutes. Try breaking ground meat into the smallest pieces (use a fork or a spatula).

• Peel a tomato and cut it into the smallest pieces (or grate/grind it). Add it to the skillet together with tomato paste. Pour water and mix.

• Add herbs and let the mixture simmer for 10 minutes. Cover the skillet with a lid and take the skillet from the stove.

• Cook lasagna pasta al dente according to the instructions on the package. First, I let the water boil in a pot and then add only two lasagna sheets at a time. Cook them for 2-3 minutes. Rinse under cold water and set them aside to dry.

• Meanwhile, make Béchamel sauce. Melt butter in a skillet or a saucepan on low heat. Add all-purpose flour. Keep stirring the mixture until the flour becomes golden. Pour warmed milk in small portions, so that it will be easier to mix it with flour and butter and to get rid of the lumps. Add ground nutmeg and salt. Cook the sauce for 2 minutes until it thickens while constantly stirring. Set it aside.

• Preheat oven to 350ºF/180°C.
• Now is finally the time to arrange our lasagna. Take a casserole dish and smear the bottom with béchamel sauce. Layer two boiled lasagna pasta sheets.

• Divide Bolognese sauce into three parts and top the first layer of lasagna noodles with the first part. Even out the mixture, that it covers the entire surface.

• Pour Béchamel sauce over so that it covers the layer of Bolognese sauce.

• Spread out one-third of the grated hard cheese over the sauce.

• Repeat the layers twice: lasagna sheets + Bolognese sauce + Béchamel sauce + grated hard cheese. End with the final two lasagna sheets. Sprinkle grated parmesan cheese for a final step.

• Bake lasagna in the oven for 35-40 minutes until the top layer browns.

• Let it cool down before serving!

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If you’ve had the chance to try this recipe, I would greatly appreciate it if you could take a moment to rate it. Additionally, I invite you to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below. Your feedback is invaluable, and I genuinely enjoy hearing about how the recipe turned out for you!