Mom's Awesome Lasagna

Every family has a lasagna recipe, and this one earns its ‘awesome’ by being both genuinely good and genuinely easy. The biggest shortcut is that the noodles go in dry. No boiling, no draining, no slippery sheets to wrangle. The trick is a splash of water stirred into the sauce, which turns to steam under a tight foil cover and cooks the noodles tender right in the pan.

The other homestyle move is cottage cheese in place of ricotta. Mixed with an egg, it bakes up into a lighter, slightly tangier layer that holds together between the ground beef sauce and the gooey mozzarella.

It builds in simple layers and bakes covered, then gets uncovered at the end so the top can brown and bubble. The hardest part is the wait afterward: let it rest a full 15 minutes so the layers set, or it slumps into a tasty heap instead of slicing into neat squares.

Kitchen Tips

• Don’t skip the water in the sauce; it’s what steams the uncooked noodles tender as the lasagna bakes.
• Cover tightly with foil so the steam stays trapped; a loose cover leaves the noodles hard.
• Rest it a full 15 minutes before cutting so the layers firm up and slice cleanly.

Variations

• Use ricotta in place of the cottage cheese for a richer, more classic filling.
• Swap in Italian sausage, or half beef and half sausage, for a meatier sauce, and serve with garlic bread.