Oooey Gooey Quick Three Cheese Skillet Lasagna
Ingredients
- 8-10 in no-boil lasagna noodles broken half
- 1 - 475 g tub of ricotta
- 1 - 340 g mozzarella ball cut into approximately ¼“ slices
- 2 - 796 ml cans tomato puree
- 2 cups chopped onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 T olive oil
- 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup + more to taste torn fresh basil leaves
- 1/4 t salt
- 1/2 t dried oregano
Instructions
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Use a large, deep skillet for this recipe. Heat the olive oil over medium high heat and add onions, cooking until translucent.
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Add the garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes. ** If you choose to make this recipe with meat, here’s where you’ll add the meat and cook until it’s browned. Pour both cans of tomato puree into the skillet and stir to combine with the onions and garlic. **
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If your tomato puree is overly thick, add ½ cup water to the skillet. Add the salt, oregano and basil and stir to combine.
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Cook on medium heat until warmed. Once the tomato puree is warmed, take the lasagna noodles and push each one under the tomatoes, covering the noodle and creating a layer of noodles all around the skillet.
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With a large spoon, place dollops of ricotta cheese all around the top of the tomatoes, then layer the mozzarella cheese slices on top of the entire dish. Sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese.
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Cook the lasagna on the stovetop, on medium-high heat, for 15-20 minutes until the noodles are soft and the cheese is melted.
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I found that pushing down on the ricotta and mozzarella to partially submerge them and help them melt was really helpful.
Recipe Notes
This is my day from 4pm on:
The kids come home cranky and starving. My husband then gets home cranky and starving. Even the dog looks at me dolefully, waiting for mommy to feed him. Sigh. I guess that’s part of doing what I do: people are always waiting for me to produce food for them, and by ‘food’ I don’t mean a sandwich; I mean a hot meal. I work 70 hours some weeks, so it's not like I sit around waiting to produce these grand meals. I do love to cook though, so I appreciate when people come to me for food.
I've made regular lasagna several times, and it's sort of time consuming. I remember that I spent $50 on all the ingredients and my kids hated it every time I made it. I truly think that the more time and money you spend on a meal, the less your kids are going to like it. So frustrating!! I knew I wasn't trying traditional lasagna again, no way. I couldn't take the rejection. This time, I spent very little - this is a very cost-effective recipe - and the kids were in love with it. PHEW!
I developed this skillet lasagna using a lot of the ingredients that you might have in your pantry. You can swap out the ricotta for cottage cheese if you want, and you can also easily put a layer of ground meat or sausage in the bottom of the pan – just brown it after the onions and garlic, then add the tomatoes. This lasagna recipe is just waiting for you to throw your favorite vegetables in it – I bought spinach to put into it and promptly forgot to use it – but if you’d like to add it, just stir it into the tomatoes once they’re in the pan. Use any vegetables you want; they'll cook perfectly in the skillet.
As far as the tomatoes, I used diced tomatoes, but found that they were (obviously) really chunky, and chunkier than I wanted. I grabbed my new Philips hand blender and blended the tomatoes, along with the onions and garlic already in the skillet, until they were pureed. It’s up to you and how you prefer the texture to be, but I’m recommending that you choose tomato puree for this recipe.
You seriously can’t screw this recipe up, and it’s fast. Really fast – like 30 minutes from start to finish.
Round this meal out with a salad or even some raw vegetables, and you’re all set. Plus, this skillet lasagna is perfect for a freezer meal or leftovers the next day.
Enjoy!