Let me give it to you straight. I work way over 40 hours a week number crunching, typing and engaging in general office shenanigans. I love my friends and hubster a TON but there are not enough hours in the day for homemade lasagna – by scratch – on a weeknight – while there is still light outside. So, I’ve come up with the “working lady’s lasagna.” There are some homemade parts, some store bought parts and a whole lot of wine. I mean a whole lot of love. But mostly wine.

If you really want to get down and dirty we’ll post a full blown made-from-scratch lasagna that would be the talk of the town in any trendy hipster alcove. That post will come soon enough. For now. Working Lady Lasagna.

The Goods

• Lasagna noodles (alright, just buy a box of the kind you boil in water. Trust me, it’s fine. Breathe in, then out and then realize there are worse things in life. You’re making dinner for crying out loud! *patting self on back*)
• 1 large jar (24 oz or so) pasta sauce
• 1 bag mozzarella cheese (shredded)
• 1 container ricotta (17 oz, I used low fat but who are we kidding, this is lasagna. Get the regular kind if you’d like)
• 1 bunch basil leaves
• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef, ground pork, or a mixture of both (get crazy if you want just stay away from the heavily seasoned meat like chorizo. There is a time and place for that delicious Spanish & Latin morsel and this is not one of them)
• 1 large onion
• 1/2 cup sour cream or greek yogurt plain flavor
• S&P
• Garlic

Let’s do this…

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Boil the noodles until al dente. The lasagna will continue to cook in the oven. Ideally, you want the noodles to be done as soon as you are ready to start layering. If they get done early, drain the noodles and lay out on some parchment or wax paper and it’ll prevent it from sticking. Rad, right?!?

Get your lasagna pan ready (I have both glass and ceramic and both work fine) by putting a bit of the sauce at the bottom of the pan.

Heat a large sautee pan (I’m talking as large as you can get. If you don’t have one feel free to use a pot, either works just fine) and give it a couple o’ swirls of olive oil.

Dice up the onion and throw it in the pan. Immediately hit it with S&P (seasoning is your best friend).

Once translucent add a healthy tablespoon full of chopped garlic and stir around a bit for a few seconds.

Add in the meat. You’ll want to break it up so it ends up looking like ground beef when done. Cook until all the pink is gone.

Add in the rest of our sauce to the pan and stir to combine. Let this hang out a bit until the meat is cooked through then turn down the heat to low to keep warm.

Next you want to make the delicious cheesy layer. You see the Mister does not like ricotta. So I basically hide it. You know, like you hide vegetables in kid’s meals? I hide Ricotta in adult meals. Same-same.

In a bowl combine: the jar of ricotta, 1/2 c sour cream, 1/2 c mozzarella cheese, and a handful of basil either chopped up or ripped by hand. Be rustic, I dare you. Add S&P and taste. It should taste lovely.

Now it’s time to layer.

Lay down 4 pieces of lasagna noodle, lengthwise, overlapping, to create a bottom in your lasagna dish.

Add half the meat/sauce mixture.

Add half the cheese mixture and spread evenly. It’s ok if the two layers mix, it will be all that more delicious.

Add 4 more pieces of lasagna noodle, the rest of the meat and the rest of the cheese.

Top with 4 more noodles and some shredded mozzarella.

Bake in oven for about 30-40 min until bubbly and hot. Invite some friends or family over and dig in. Or eat the whole thing yourself. This is a no judging blog, eat your heart out. We dig it.

Enjoy friends!

xoxo Shawna