Cottage Cheese Lasagna Recipe
Description
This comforting, veggie-packed homemade lasagna recipe with cottage cheese! This is everyone's favorite lasagna loaded with spicy sausage and an ultra-creamy filling. It's ideal any time of the year and is the best for meal prepping or serving to a big crowd.
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Ingredients
Tomato Sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Kosher salt
- ½ white onion, diced (¾ cup)
- 3 large cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 dried bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 (28-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
- 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
Cheese Mixture
- 1 (16 ounce) container whole-milk cottage cheese (2 cups)
- 1 (15 ounce) container part skim ricotta cheese (1¾ cups)
- ¾ cup shredded Mozzarella cheese (3 ounces)
- ½ cup freshly grated or shredded Parmesan cheese (2 ounces)
- ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Filling & Assembly
- 1 pound bulk spicy Italian sausage
- 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
- 1 (9-ounce) box oven-ready lasagna sheets (such as Barilla)
- 1 small zucchini, thinly sliced
- 2 cups loosely packed chopped fresh spinach
- 1 ½ cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- Cracked black pepper
Instructions
Tomato Sauce
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium. Add onion and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook until starting to soften, about 3 minutes.
- Stir in garlic and tomato paste; cook one minute. Stir in bay leaves, basil, oregano, thyme and pepper flakes; cook 30 seconds.
- Add crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce; bring to a simmer then reduce heat to medium-low and cook until flavors have melted and slightly thickened, 30 minutes.
- Remove from heat and let cool.
Cheese Mixture
- In a large bowl, combine cottage cheese, ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, parsley, egg, dried basil, oregano, thyme, pepper flakes and ½ teaspoon kosher salt.
Fillings
- Cook sausage in a skillet over medium heat, beaking up with wooden spoon into large crumbles, until cooked through.
- Using a slotted spoon, transfer sausage to a bowl, reserve drippings in skillet.
- Add mushrooms; increase heat to med-high; season lightly with salt, and cook over medium until browned, about 5 minutes.
- Transfer mushrooms to a small bowl to cool.
Assembly
- Heat oven to 350ºF (177ºC) with rack set in middle position.
- Spread 1 ½ cups tomato sauce in bottom of a 9✕13-inch baking dish.
- Arrange 4 lasagna sheets in an even layer over sauce (overlapping as needed).
- Spread 1 ½ cups cottage cheese mixture over lasagna sheets.
- Sprinkle sausage in an even layer over top.
- Spread 1 ½ cups tomato sauce over meat.
- Layer another 4 lasagna sheets over top.
- Spread 1 cup cottage cheese mixture over lasagna sheets.
- Top zucchini slices, arranging in an even layer.
- Spread 1 ½ cups tomato sauce over zucchini. Layer another 4 lasagna sheets over top.
- Spread 1 cup cottage cheese mix over lasagna sheets. Sprinkle spinach in an even layer over cheese mixture followed by cooked mushrooms.
- Layer another 4 lasagna sheets over top. Spoon 1 ½ cups tomato sauce over top lasagna sheets. Spread remaining cheese mixture over top.
- Sprinkle 1 ½ cups mozzarella and ½ cup grated Parmesan over top. Season with cracked black pepper.
- Spray a large sheet of foil with nonstick spray (or coat in olive oil). Cover lasagna tightly with foil, oil-side down.
Bake
- Bake until bubbly, 1 hour.
- Remove foil and continue baking until browned and bubbly, about 45 minutes.
- Let cool at least 30 minutes before serving.
Equipment
Notes
Reheating: If you’re reheating just a slice or two you can pop it in the microwave for a couple of minutes until heated through. If you’re reheating half a pan of lasagna, we recommend popping it in a 300ºF oven and warming until heated through.
Save some time and use jarred marinara instead of making the tomato sauce. You'll need two large jars.
Tomato sauce can be made up to 4 days ahead of time. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
Cheese mixture can be made and refrigerated up to 1 day ahead of time.
Sausage and mushrooms can be cooked up to 2 days ahead of time.
If you don't have all the individual dried herbs, use the equivalent amount of dried Italian seasoning.
If you want some additional veggies, or would prefer to skip the sausage, add 1 small diced bell pepper to the spinach layer.
Nutrition
Serving: 1/2Calories: 520kcalCarbohydrates: 53gProtein: 30gFat: 21gSaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 78mgSodium: 927mgFiber: 7gSugar: 11g
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