Crockpot lasagna
Uncooked noodles, meat sauce and three cheeses layered in the slow cooker, with no boiling and no oven to watch.
- 390 min total
- 35 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 6
- About $3.27 a serving
- 710 calories
- Good the next day
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 6 servings.
- 1 lb 85/15 ground beef
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 jar marinara sauce
- 15 oz ricotta cheese
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup grated parmesan, divided
- 9 lasagna noodles
- 3 cups shredded mozzarella, divided
From your pantry
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ cup water
Each serving has about 710 calories, 46 g protein, 46 g carbs and 38 g fat, and costs about $3.27 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No 85/15 ground beef? 90/10 ground beef works.
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No ricotta cheese? Cottage cheese works.
- No grated parmesan? Parmesan wedge works.
- No shredded mozzarella? Provolone slices work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Heat a large over medium-high, add the beef and onion, and press the beef flat. Leave it 3 minutes, until underneath.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Medium-high heatTimer: 3 min
Break it into and cook 5 minutes more, until no pink is left. Spoon off the fat.
Crumble. Crumbling means breaking food into small, rough bits with your fingers or a spoon, like feta or ground meat in the pan. Small bits spread through the dish, so there’s some in every bite.
How you’ll know: The pieces are small and uneven, about pea-size, with no big clumps left.
Medium-high heatTimer: 5 min
Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
Stir in the garlic, Italian seasoning and salt for 30 seconds, then the marinara and water, and take the pan off the heat.
Medium-high heat
Stir the ricotta, egg and ¼ cup of the parmesan together in a bowl.
Spread 1 cup of meat sauce in the bottom of the slow cooker and lay 3 uncooked noodles over it, snapping them to fit.
Dolly’s tip: Broken pieces and small gaps are fine. The cheese fills them in.Dollop a third of the ricotta over the noodles, then add 1 cup of sauce and ¾ cup of the mozzarella. Repeat the noodles, ricotta, sauce and mozzarella twice more.
Spread the rest of the sauce over the top and finish with the remaining mozzarella and parmesan.
Cover and cook on low for 4 to 5 hours, until a knife slides through the noodles easily.
Timer: 240 min
Dolly’s tip: Check at 4 hours. Much past 5 and the noodles go soft.Turn off the slow cooker, take off the lid, and let it sit 20 minutes to firm up before scooping.
Timer: 20 min
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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