Cheesy Classic Dairy Lasagna

This was the answer to all my lasagna dilemmas! Oven-ready noodles, cottage cheese, and no cheese overload, for the perfect saucy, creamy, cheesy classic dairy lasagna!

Lasagna is a great supper. Everyone loves it, it’s quick and easy to prepare, and it can easily be made in advance. If I need to make it very far in advance, I can even freeze it and it defrosts and rewarms beautifully!

For years, though, I didn’t make lasagna for several reasons: I found it pricey, since one pan called for so much cheese. The recipe that I had used ricotta cheese, and I couldn’t get kosher ricotta. And I hated cooking up those long lasagna noodles (see my lasagna soup post for more on that!). 

However, I didn’t want to give up on lasagna completely, since I really do love eating it — and so does my family. So I found solutions to all of my lasagna problems. I started using less cheese (it still came out amazing!), I used cottage cheese instead of ricotta (just as good!), and I discovered oven-ready lasagna noodles (no more pre-cooking!).

Now, I make lasagna all the time — no more excuses!

Today, kosher ricotta is readily available. However, I still use cottage cheese since I find the ricotta to be too dry. When I mentioned this on social media, someone suggested mixing ricotta cheese with sour cream for the perfect consistency, but in truth, I really love it with cottage cheese and see no reason to change it up. 

My secret trick for the creamiest lasagna is adding milk to the empty marinara sauce jar, shaking it well to get out whatever’s left in the jar, and then pouring that around the edges of the lasagna. It really comes out the best that way.

You can make this classic dairy lasagna in a disposable 9×13, but I like it best in an oven-to-table dish. That way you can serve it straight on the table, and it looks much nicer!

Cheesy Classic Dairy Lasagna

This was the answer to all my lasagna dilemmas! Oven-ready noodles, cottage cheese, and no cheese overload, for the perfect saucy, creamy, cheesy classic dairy lasagna!

Print Recipe

Ingredients

• Oven-ready lasagna noodles*
• 1 jar marinara sauce
• 1 lb. cottage cheese
• 3 cups (approx.) shredded mozzarella cheese
• ½ cup milk

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• In the bottom of a 9×13 pan or oven-to-table dish, pour a thin layer of sauce. Top with a layer of noodles and then more sauce. Spread cottage cheese on top and sprinkle with shredded cheese. Add another layer of noodles and repeat until pan is full.
• Add another layer of noodles, sauce, cottage cheese, and shredded cheese. Keep repeating until pan is full.
• Pour milk into (empty) jar of marinara. Shake it up and then pour it around the edges of the lasagna.
• Cover and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and baked an additional 10 minutes, until cheese is bubbly.

Notes

This freezes well. You can either bake and freeze or freeze raw and defrost and cook.

*I use Tuscanini brand lasagna noodles. You’ll need about half a package for one lasagna.

Recipe by Faigy Murray | https://mykitchenmystudio.com/cheesy-classic-dairy-lasagna/