Like me.
My recipe may be a bit too complicated for the beginner, and not to be attempted if you’re planning to do anything that afternoon, but it’s utterly delicious, well worth the effort, and keeps well enough to feed a single person for a week. I’ve been tweaking it for over 15 years since I first cooked scratch lasagna from a cookbook recipe as a teenager, eventually incorporating a recipe for ragu Bolognese (adapted to be a little sweeter than the traditional recipe, which I find preferable for lasagna) and lots of other little twists and innovations of my own.
Ingredients;
2 medium onions, finely chopped
4 celery stalks, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, grated
5 garlic cloves, minced
4-5 strips pound bacon, cut into matchsticks
1 pound ground beef
1 pound sweet Italian sausage
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken broth
2 tsp. thyme
1 bunch fresh Italian parsley, chopped
1 tbls. and 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tbls. sugar
1/4 tsp. fennel seed
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. rosemary
1/4 teaspoon pepper
12 lasagna noodles
16 oz. mozarella cheese, shredded
6 oz. Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated
6 oz. Pecorino Romano, grated
1 15 oz. container ricotta cheese
1 egg
Boil 1 quart of water in a saucepan. Blanch bacon in boiling water, stirring occasionally, about 7 minutes. Drain.
Transfer bacon to a skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly, until fat is rendered and bacon is beginning to become crispy. Remove bacon and set aside, leaving the fat in the pot. Add onions, celery, carrots, half the parsley, and garlic and sauté 10-12 minutes until soft. Set aside. (Perform this stage in two batches if necessary to avoid crowding the skillet; 1-2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil may be added if there is not enough bacon fat.)
Cook beef and sausage in a large, thick-bottomed stockpot until browned; drain. Add bacon and vegetables to pot and mix thoroughly. Add tomato paste, mix, and cook 2-3 minutes. Gradually stir in wine, cream, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil and add thyme, 1 tbls. salt, pepper, sugar, fennel, oregano, and rosemary. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 3 hours.
In a small mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese, egg, remainder of salt, remainder of parsley, and half of the Parmigiano-Reggiano and Pecorino Romano.
Cook the lasagna noodles in salted boiling water 12-15 minutes until tender.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. In a 13"x9" rectangular cake pan, spread 1 cup of the meat sauce. Lay three lasagna noodles over the sauce. Spread one third of the ricotta mix over the noodles, then 1 1/2 cups of the meat sauce, and one third of the shredded mozarella. Repeat with three more noodles, one third of the ricotta, 1 1/2 cups of the sauce, and one third of the mozarella. Repeat again with three more noodles, the remainder of the ricotta, 1 1/2 cups of the sauce, and the remainder of the mozarella. Top with the remaining three noodles, the remainder of the sauce, and the remainder of the Parmigiano-Reggiano and Pecorino Romano. Cover pan with aluminum foil.
Bake on center oven rack 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake 25 minutes more. Remove and let stand 15 minutes before serving.
I always assumed that he’d done it over and over and over until he got it the way he wanted it. It’s a lot of steps, but each step is pretty easy. And as mentioned before, you can bake several pans worth at once and it keeps really well. Warmed up leftover lasagne is as good or better than the first night.
Frozen lasagne keeps well. The fact that it cuts into squares makes it easy to store and to plan around. Bachelors may appreciate that. If freezer space is small, being able to stack the cubes saves space.
I wouldn’t say ground beef and Italian sausage (pork) are interchangeable. The former I would season with garlic and oregano, the latter with anise and fennel seed.
I’d drain off the fat that cooks out of the sausage, and use that to oil the noodles (and the pan).
You can make anything using noodles and call it lasagna. However, it doesn’t come close to what lasagna really tastes like. You could label piss as beer too I guess.
Hmm. Since this is now a recipe thread, and mine is different enough from Smapti’s, and I’ve wanted to write it up for a while now… here goes.
2 medium onions, finely chopped
4 celery stems, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, finely chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced
2 lb of minced meat - this can be pork (sausage), beef, lamb, bison, emu, or a blend
2 big cans of tomatoes
1 small can of tomato paste
Red wine - up to 1/2 bottle - sub stock/broth, white wine, whatever is in the fridge
BIG handful of Italian blend mixed herbs - I buy in a big bulk box, it lasts well, but if you’re a purist/separatist/recipe-follower, a teaspoon each of oregano, marjoram, rosemary and thyme would probably do it
In a big pan or pot, soften the veg in a tbs of olive or veg oil over low temp. Add the garlic and herbs, then break up the meat, turn the heat as high as it will go, and brown the meat, stirring throughout. Reduce temp, add tomato products and simmer for at least 1 hour. This is a nice general purpose meaty pasta sauce - if you’re serving as-is, add a big handful of shredded basil and/or parsley right before eating.
The second component is the bechamel:
1.5 sticks of butter
1 small onion, diced finely
3 cloves of garlic, minced
Flour - I prefer Wondra aka gravy flour, but all purpose is also fine
Milk, um… 3 cups? (I eyeball)
White pepper, pinch
Nutmeg, pinch
In a big pan or pot, melt the butter and gently saute the onion and garlic. When soft but not coloured, add flour. Eek, I eyeball this too - maybe 1/2 cup? Enough that the butter is all soaked up, not so much that it’s bone dry in the pan. Add more butter if you go too far. If using Wondra flour, dump in the milk and whisk. If using regular flour, add a little milk at a time, stirring thoroughly, until it’s all added. Simmer the sauce until it thickens a little.
To assemble, start with a layer of meaty sauce, then no-boil pasta sheets, then white sauce. Repeat, ending with a bechamel layer, and cover with grated cheese - don’t buy the pre-grated stuff, take a minute to do it yourself, and remove the sawdustfrom your diet. I like using Oaxaca cheese, which is often cheaper than mozzarella here in CA, and has similar properties.
As you can maybe tell, I’m no good at recipes, I tweak and tweak. I don’t think I’ve ever cooked the same thing twice. But this is my outline. Add a bunch of mushrooms! That’s nice. I’ve also done veg lasagne by replacing all the meats with mixed veg like eggplants, zucchini, kohlrabi, etc. Layer spinach between the meat and bechamel layer - use frozen or even bagged baby spinach, doesn’t need precooking or chopping.
I made some big lasagnes once for my then-fiance MaxTheVool’s family reunion. They were popular, leading a cousin to remark, “You know what I like about this? It’s just meat and cheese and nothing else.” He wasn’t much of a culinary critic, it seems. Then, the next day, I overheard another cousin saying to someone, “You have to try (MaxTheVool’s mother’s) lasagne, it’s great!” Sigh. Never did get the credit.
Could I get a cite for this? I’m no Garfield expert (it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen the strip), but I always associated lasagna with Garfield himself rather than with Jon (online sources seem to agree), and I never got the impression that Garfield’s love of lasagna had anything to do with its supposed ease of preparation.
Garfield does not subsist largely on lasagna. He would certainly like to, but where did you ever get the impression that he’s satisfied by Jon? What he mostly subsists on is a combination of some sort of featureless brown pile that’s presumably meant to be canned cat food, and whatever he can steal off of Jon’s plate.
That said, since this has evidently become a recipe thread, here’s my recipe for Too Much Lasagna:
1 lb (1 box) noodles
2 lb hot Italian sausage
Cumin
1 onion
8 cloves garlic
8.5 oz (2 cans) crushed olives
52 oz (2 large cans) tomato sauce
1 bunch spinach
1.5 lb mozzarella cheese
2 pints cottage cheese
Liberal shaking of basil, oregano, red pepper flakes, Parmesan cheese
Brown meat, cumin, onions, and half the garlic in a frying pan, and boil noodles. Then layer all ingredients in a 10x15 inch casserole pan.
Bake 30 minutes covered, 20 uncovered at 350 degrees.
Makes 8-12 servings
Sample layers:
mozz
sauce
noodles
olives
cottage cheese
mozz
sauce
noodles
spinach
onions
sausage
cottage cheese
noodles
sauce
I’ve done it both ways, and prefer to boil the noodles beforehand. I find it can become a bit gummy (at least when I make it from scratch) if I don’t boil them first. It’s a real pain-in-the-ass, but it makes enough of a difference to me that I force myself to do it.
I make from-scratch lasagna with spinach noodles, ragu bolognese, and bechamel, about once a year. It’s wonderful, wonderful stuff, but a pain in the ass and time consuming. On the other hand, as others have said, it can be as easy or difficult as you want it to be. Precooked noodles, some jarred sauce, ground beef & sausage, ricotta, and you can have it assembled in twenty minutes or so.
Life got easy with the no-boil noodles. Add in a simple marinara sauce
Garlic (I use a zester rather than chopping), salt, olive oil and canned tomatoes (S&W crushed) in a crockpot all day. Chop up some fresh basil and throw it in at the end.
Now put some marinara in the bottom of a cheap-ass foil lasagna pan and layer no-boil noodles, marinara, handfuls of mozzarella/parmasan, spoonfuls of ricotta, maybe some kind of meat or fresh spinach or dried mushrooms - whatever and you have a gourmet lasagna.
To late to edit: If you do add meat to lasagna, please cook it first. And I’ve tried to add zucchini and yellow squash to lasagna but it just makes it too watery.
I tend to add cooked chicken, spinach and onions to my ricotta layer. I have also tried it with and without bechamel. That said, I am a sucker for the party size Stouffer’s. It makes a 13x9 pan of lasagna with no prep time for about $14 and I seriously doubt I could get the ingredients for most of the recipes cited here for less than that.
I don’t know why everyone makes such a big deal about Stouffer’s lasagna. I find it fairly flavorless.
Lyman’s departure was the jump the shark moment for me. Poor guy was the Chuck Cunningham of the funny pages.
And I’m very proud of myself for getting TWO “Happy Days” references into that post. 
It’s certainly not as good as homemade, but for a frozen mass-market entrée, it usually* isn’t all that bad. I’ve been eating it off and on for close to 40 years.
- They habitually change the recipe every three or four years. “Improved!” Some of those recipes are all that bad. I stop buying it at that point until I notice that they’ve changed it again.
Some of the recipes in this thread look interesting. I’ll have to note them in case I ever get up the ambition.
In place of noodles I sometimes use a mandolin (sp?) or wire cheese slicer to cut very thin slices of zucchini.
I always assumed it was Stouffers’, too. The strip began in, what, the late 70s? It’s long been a cultural trope that bachelors cannot/do not cook. It’s still around today, though not nearly as strong. And like many stereotypes, it doesn’t even have to be accurate for the vast majority of the group for it to stick around.
And Garfield is, at the end of the day, a comic strip; it’s not high art. If you want high art Garfield, you gotta go to Garfield Minus Garfield. 
It’s decent comfort food; it’s got lots of sauce, it’s sweet but not too sweet, and it’s got a decent amount of meat in it.
Plus it doesn’t wind up all watery for some reason like certain other frozen lasagnas.
This thread had forced me to check out Garfield Minus Garfield, to see what Jon’s eating. Here he’s eating spaghetti and bread. I hope it’s garlic bread.
This one looks like meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and peas. And another just like it a few days later. Here he’s gonna go broil something. After he put the frozen chicken down his pants, he had to cook it when it thawed, right?
Corn on the cob. Scrambled eggs and bacon. “Iced catsup isn’t so bad.” A couple of strips where he’s holding pans with unidentified brown stuff in it. Not seeing lasagne.
The strip started in 1978. Maybe Jim Davis got tired of lasagne after the first twenty years. Nah. That just means that it wasn’t Jon that was into lasagne.