weeknight 30 minute skillet lasagna

I'm honestly not going to bother with regular lasagna anymore

TOTAL TIME: 30 minutes

SERVES: 4-6

• 1 tbsp avocado oil

• 1 yellow onion

• 1/2 lb lean ground beef

• 2 italian sausages

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 tsp dried basil

• 1 tsp dried oregano

• 1/2 tsp chili flakes

• 1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce (I love Rao’s or Mezetta)

• 2 cups beef broth

• 10 oven-ready lasagna noodles*

• 1 cup ricotta

• 300 g mozzarella (about 2-3 cups shredded)

• 1/4 cup finely shredded parmesan

• Fresh basil for garnish

1. Prep
   Dice 1 onion, mince 3 cloves garlic, shred 300 g mozzarella (about 2-3 cups) and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. Break up your lasagna noodles into large chunks.

2. Cook your filling
   Heat a large 12 inch cast iron pan over medium-high heat. Add a splash of oil, then diced onions and a pinch of salt and pepper and cook until translucent/turning golden (about 5 minutes). Add beef and sausage: use your hand to squeeze the texture out of the raw meat and press it somewhat flat onto your pan (this is going to help it brown). Season with a bit of salt and let it brown. Once starting to brown, flip and break up with a wooden spoon, mix and leave it to cook for another minute.

   Once meat is golden and about 3/4 of the way cooked, add 3 cloves minced garlic, 1 tsp basil, 1 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp chili flakes and cook for 1 minute. Add marinara sauce and 2 cups beef broth and bring to a simmer. Add your noodles and cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently so they don't stick to the bottom. Not all your noodles will submerge so keep pushing them under and mixing while they cook.

3. Build your lasagna
   While your noodles are cooking, preheat your oven to broil. In a small bowl, mix 1 cup ricotta with 1 cup mozzarella. Once your noodles are cooked through (taste one to double check), stir in half of your ricotta/mozza mixture. Dollop the remaining ricotta mixture on top and finish with remaining mozzarella and parmesan. Broil for 5 minutes or until golden brown. Let sit for 5-10 minutes, top with fresh basil and serve.

Pan: your pan must be at least 12 inches across, and at least 2 inches deep, otherwise this recipe won’t fit and you’ll have a very messy time. I recommend cast iron first, but you can also use stainless steel. I don’t love nonstick for this as your meat doesn’t brown which adds so much flavor, but if it’s what you got, use it! If you don’t have an oven-safe pan, you can cook the filling/noodles in your pan, then dump them into a casserole dish, top with cheese and broil/serve in the dish!

Noodles*: this works best with oven-ready dried noodles. Regular dried take too long to cook, and fresh noodles cook too quickly, resulting in not enough starch to thicken your sauce.

Beef/Sausage: I did this with ground turkey/chicken and was just as good in my opinion. Add 1/2 tsp dried fennel seed and an additional 1/2 tsp chili flakes to account for the lost seasoning from the Italian sausage.

Fresh garlic: 1/2 tbsp powder.

Beef broth: a MUST, do not substitute unless you are vegetarian in which case use mushroom stock.

Oven-ready lasagna noodles: don’t sub another type of lasagna noodle (see note above). But you can sub in another type of noodle if you’d prefer, just adjust cook time.

Ricotta: you could sub cottage cheese here or skip.

Parmesan: pecorino or skip.

Fresh basil for garnish: feel free to skip if you don’t want to buy it just for a garnish.

Questions? Drop a comment below if you have any questions, and don’t forget to let me know if you make it!