Classic Meat and Cheese Lasagna… With Veggies
Written by Rachel, Posted in Baking, Beef, Cheese, Dinner, Herbs, Main Dishes, Meat, Pasta, Vegetables
Tim informed me the other day that he would like more lasagna, meatloaf, and tacos in his life. Cool. I can do that. I had lasagna on the menu before he even asked.
Winner. (Um, both of us.)
I woke up really early this morning to get started, since I had two meals to cook and photograph. Boy was it fun. No really, it was. I’m totally not being sarcastic. I enjoyed a full day of cooking and picture making.
It’s a lot of fun to cook and photograph for you guys to see on here. But, let’s be honest, when I know that Tim is going to love something as much as he loves lasagna, well, not much can beat that.
We just moved and have some friends coming to visit from Germany next week (yippee!). So I made two, and put one in the freezer. That means that if my kitchen isn’t completely unpacked, or if I don’t have the energy after unpacking and working all day, I can pop a lasagna in the oven, and dinner is taken care of… except for the caesar salad and garlic bread that will definitely need to accompany the meal. Other than that, all I have to do is open the wine.
This is my version of a classic meat and cheese lasagna, with lots of veggies. I threw in some radish, kale, celery, and carrot. I’m not really afraid of veggie-ing up a dish. If you don’t heart vegetables, you are not alone (sorrynotsorry). Yesterday, Tim told me that something we had for dinner was “really good, for vegetables”. We may not share the same opinion about the deliciousness of greens. 😉
Thankfully, we do both really enjoy cheese. I know you can use ricotta for lasagna, but I couldn’t find it at the store, so I used cottage cheese. It’s mixed together with Greek yogurt, mozzarella, and parmesan. I’m not sure that you could have too much of this cheesy mixture.
The sauce is simple, it’s almost just tomato sauce and herbs. Like the cheese mixture, too much is a good thing.
The anatomy of the lasagna and the way it all comes together.
Also, the sunlight changes more than I’d noticed in real life.
It bakes up and bubbles and melts and mmmm tastes so good. You should’a seen the huge helping Tim got. And then I looked over and it was gone. So I gave him a bite of mine. He can’t get enough lasagna.
I served this lasagna with some crazy good garlic bread. Done and done.
Happy Eating!
- meat and veggie filling: 1 lb. ground beef
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3/4 C carrot, diced
- 1/4 C radish, diced
- 3/4 C celery, diced
- 3 C kale, chopped
- to taste salt
- to taste pepper
- pinch nutmeg
- cheese filling: 16 oz. cottage cheese
- 1/2 C Greek yogurt
- 2 1/2 C mozzarella cheese, grated (1 C reserved)
- 1/2 C parmesan cheese
- to taste salt
- to taste pepper
- tomato sauce: 4-6 C tomato sauce
- to taste salt
- to taste pepper
- 1 t dried oregano, crushed
- 1 t dried thyme, crushed
- 1 t dried parsley, crushed
- 1 t dried basil, crushed
- 1/2 t dried rosemary, crushed
- 1 T balsamic vinegar
- 1 – 9 oz. box (about 12 noodles) lasagna noodles (the kind that don’t need to be cooked first*)
- Pre-heat the oven to 350F.
- Cook beef until partially done, then add garlic through celery, and cook for 5-10 minutes. Add kale and wilt down, about 5 minutes. Add salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Taste and adjust seasoning. Remove from heat and cover to keep warm.
- Mix together cheese filling ingredients. Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Mix together tomato sauce ingredients. Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Grease two 8×8 pans (or one 9×13). Spoon a bit of sauce into the bottom of the pan and top with two noodles. Top noodles with meat and vegetable filling, then with cheese mixture, and more sauce. Repeat three more times, topping last set of noodles with lots of sauce and reserved mozzarella.
- Bake covered for 30 minutes, then uncovered for 30-40 more.
- Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
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