Tuesday, January 9, 2024
Molly is my sister and she’s a really great cook! For Thanksgiving on Thursday with Tom’s family, we had the traditional foods, but on Black Friday, we had a pasta bar with my family to mix it up and it was a huge success. We had 3 or 4 types of pasta, salad, bread, and cake for dessert. No one had too much work and the kids really liked it, too.
Molly brought her lasagna and I am not kidding when I say I hadn’t stopped thinking about it. Ha!
I missed cooking and my kitchen while I was gone and decided to finally make this when I got home from my trip.
This post is by request from so many people (one person!) and I think it’s just such a solid recipe that it should live on the blog.
This is the easiest and yummiest lasagna I have ever eaten or made and it might shock you that it has no ricotta cheese – it has cottage cheese!
Here’s what Molly says to do:
Preheat oven to 350
Here is what you need:
no boil lasagna noodles (1 package)
2 lbs. ground beef (I only did one)
one onion
a couple of garlic cloves
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1-2 bags of shredded mozzarella cheese
2 jars of your fave marinara sauce
one large container of cottage cheese
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. parsley flakes (not fresh)
She does not like oregano but you could do it if you do like it.
What you do:
Brown your ground beef with your one onion diced up. I diced mine really, really fine and then I drained the grease on a plate lined with paper towels even though I used a really lean ground beef.
Add your red pepper flakes.
Add your jars of marinara – Molly and I both used Prego Garden
Now make your cheese mixture by adding your garlic powder and parsley directly into the cottage cheese container if you have room and if not, just do it in a bowl.
In your 9 x 13 pan, put 1-2 cups of your sauce mixture
add layer of lasagna noodles
spread the cheese mixture over the noodles
sprinkle some mozz
more sauce, more noodles, more cheese until gone
End with just lasagna noodles on top and do last of the sauce mixture with more mozz on top
Cover with foil and bake for an hour
Take foil off and do another 20-30 minutes until golden brown and bubbly.
Mine turned out perfect! Maybe I don’t like oregano either because the flavor of this was so good. No eggs and no ricotta required, either! I loved the not messing with the noodles and just taking them straight from the package and I think that the really long cooking time made this dish so good. Also, I could taste a bit of a kick from the red pepper flakes in a good way.
Let me know if you try it and I will send the love to Molly!
I would like to try this with fat free cottage cheese and ground turkey – what do you think?
Amy
Coffee and Cocktails at the Casa 
Hi Amy, I’ve been following you for a while but first time commenter! I’m in Scotland so loved seeing your UK trip posts. I think fat free cottage cheese might make it too watery. Often when you’re using dairy in place of a traditional white sauce you need the full fat variety. I use creme fraiche (do you have that in US?) In my lasagne, mixed with grated parmesan and some chopped anchovies (trust me) and you need the full fat to make it work!
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Oh welcome! Where in Scotland do you live? Now we want to come in the summer after experiencing just a taste in the winter. I also wish we had explored a small town, but ran out of time.
I think you are right about not switching. I think I used low fat and it was fine? We can buy creme fraiche here but it can be a bit hard to find. I know I can get it at a couple of specialty markets near me, though. I bet that is good!
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We are in Broxburn, a wee town 12 miles west of Edinburgh. So we get the best of all worlds, being close to Edinburgh and Glasgow. I hope you make it back one summer! You could try Perth or Stirling for smaller towns. And the west coast or the east neuk of fife for feeling like you’ve gone back in time!!
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I need to start using the word “wee”. It’s so cute! Oh, that sounds perfect! I will write those down and those are great suggestions.
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I switched to cottage cheese in my lasagna last year and I like it so much better than ricotta! This sounds delicious.
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Right? Not sure what it is, but it just works! Pioneer Woman does it, too, and she does no wrong in my book! Ha!
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This sounds sooooo delicious. My husband makes a great one, but this is something we definitely need to try.
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It’s so easy! Let me know if you do make it!
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I made lasagna for Christmas Eve but it was a seafood version and so good. My mom is Italian and I love her lasagna, of course she has no recipe just throws it together – ha!
The no boil noodles are a godsend – I cannot imagine boiling noodles first.
Thanks for sharing Molly’s recipe!
xo,
Kellyann
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Oh, seafood! I would like to try to make a white lasagna with chicken. Maybe add mushrooms and spinach? I loved the no boil but in the past I had thought that was “cheating”!
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This reminds me of the Pioneer Woman’s recipe for lasagna! I really, really love lasagna and haven’t had it in forever. Call me crazy, but this even sounds delicious without the noodles; just in “bowl” form. I may make this one night this week! Thanks for sharing!
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You might remember my zucchini lasagna bowls? So good!
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This looks delicious. A friend gave me a similar recipe that she swears by, but I haven’t made it yet!
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Thank you! Pioneer Woman also uses cottage cheese! I do love ricotta, but this works in this recipe so well!
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Sounds delicious! Lasagna was the first meal I ever cooked for Vic when we were dating. Ah, the memories!
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Aww, so sweet!
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Oh, I will save this to cook! I think fat free cottage cheese and maybe a mix of turkey and low fat beef would be good.
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I hope you like it! Let me know! I think I used lower fat cottage cheese so that helps a bit. I also used lean ground beef and drained the grease.
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This is pretty much the way I make lasagna. I’ve tried it with cooking the noodles and not cooking the noodles. I think I like it better cooking the noodles. Now that I think about it, I usually only use one jar of spaghetti sauce. That might make the difference. Thanks for sharing the recipe, Amy!
https://marshainthemiddle.com/
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I was worried about not cooking the noodles but because of the long cook time, it worked great. The noodles were the perfect thickness, too. They were not too thin! I think I used less than 2 jars but I had one of the bigger sized ones, so it was hard to tell exactly. It was perfectly saucy! Why is lasagna so good! I ate it for many days after, too!
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Yum! Sounds delish.
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It is a solid recipe and the no boil noodles were delicious and made it so easy!
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I don’t think I’ve ever had to boil lasagna noodles. Whoever figured out no boil is a genius haha
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Right? In the past I worried they would be too thin, but this time they were just perfect so now I am a convert!
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We use sausage instead of ground beef and use grated Parmesan in with our cottage cheese and egg/parsley mixture.
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So many variations! I love egg with ricotta, too, but this new to me recipe was so good! Sausage is always great, too!
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This sounds so yummy! I love putting crushed fresh garlic in ricotta or cottage cheese mix too, instead of cooking w meat. The more the better!
I’ve also used Italian sausage instead of ground beef, and throw in plenty of fresh spinach. Love using the no boil noodles. Thx for the recipe!
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It turned out so well! Great idea, too! You can’t go wrong with sausage and I would like to do a veggie version with spinach.
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