Slow cooker sausage lasagna
Real layered lasagna with Italian sausage and ricotta, made with uncooked noodles and no oven, just four hours in the slow cooker.
- 330 min total
- 30 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 8
- About $2.44 a serving
- 620 calories
- Good the next day
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 8 servings.
- 1 lb Italian sausage, casings removed
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 jar marinara sauce, 24 oz
- 2 cans tomato sauce, 8 oz each
- 15 oz ricotta cheese
- 1 large egg
- 3 cups shredded mozzarella, divided
- ½ cup grated parmesan, divided
- 9 lasagna noodles, uncooked
From your pantry
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- ½ cup water
Each serving has about 620 calories, 33 g protein, 38 g carbs and 38 g fat, and costs about $2.44 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No tomato sauce? Crushed tomatoes work.
- No ricotta cheese? Cottage cheese works.
- No shredded mozzarella? Provolone slices work.
- No grated parmesan? Parmesan wedge works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Cook the sausage and onion in a large over medium-high for 8 to 10 minutes, breaking it up, until no pink is left.
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.
Medium-high heatTimer: 9 min
Food safety: Raw pork sausage is done at 160°F and raw chicken or turkey sausage at 165°F. Precooked sausage just needs heating until hot all the way through.
Stir in the garlic and Italian seasoning for 30 seconds, then add the marinara, tomato sauce and water and stir. Take it off the heat.
Medium-high heat
Stir the ricotta, egg, 1 cup mozzarella and half the parmesan together in a bowl.
Spread 1 cup of the meat sauce over the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker.
Add a layer of noodles, broken to fit, then a third of the ricotta mixture and a third of the remaining sauce. Repeat twice more.
Dolly’s tip: Snap the noodles to fill the gaps. Every bit of noodle should end up covered in sauce, or it stays hard.Sprinkle the rest of the mozzarella and parmesan over the top.
Cover and cook on low for 4 to 4½ hours, until a knife slides through the noodles easily.
Timer: 240 min
Dolly’s tip: Check at 4 hours. Longer than that and the edges start to scorch.Food safety: For the safest eggs, cook until the whites are fully set and the yolks begin to thicken. Dishes made with eggs are done at 160°F.
Turn off the slow cooker, take off the lid, and let it 30 minutes so it firms up enough to cut.
Rest. Resting means letting cooked meat sit for a few minutes before you cut it. It keeps cooking gently, and more of the juice stays in the meat instead of running onto the board.
How you’ll know: Loosely covered with foil, it stays hot, and very little juice runs out when you slice it.
Timer: 30 min
Cut into squares and lift them out with a wide spatula.
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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