Cheesy Sausage and Beef Lasagna Recipe
How to make the ultimate meat lasagna with a hearty tomato and meat sauce made with sausage and ground beef. Our readers have said this is the best lasagna they’ve ever made. Jump to the Sausage and Beef Lasagna Recipe or watch our quick recipe video to see us make it.
More Lasagna Recipes
We love lasagna — and have quite a few variations on Inspired Taste.
- For a vegetarian spin, our Fresh Vegetable Lasagna has tender vegetables, a light tomato sauce and lots of cheese. We love this recipe so much, we’ve even made it into Veggie Lasagna Roll-Ups!
- Another veggie-based lasagna, this Spinach
and Mushroom Lasagna Recipeis light and very simple to make. - For a creamy, white sauce based lasagna, try our White Chicken Lasagna.
How to Make the Best Meat Lasagna
The star of this lasagna recipe is the meat sauce. We brown sausage and lean ground beef and stir it into tomato sauce. We love the combination of sausage and beef. By combining the two, the lasagna becomes rich and immensely satisfying.
For a quicker, lighter meat sauce, try using ground turkey or chicken. We use ground turkey to make our Homemade Spaghetti Meat Sauce and love it.
How to Make The Meat Sauce
Here’s the thing. We like store-bought pasta sauces. That’s why we 100% believe it is perfectly fine to use your favorite jarred sauce to make lasagna. It cuts time and tastes great. With that said, we also really love dedicating a sleepy Sunday afternoon to homemade sauce. You can relax, read, watch a movie, or whatever else while the sauce slowly bubbles away on the stove.
In the recipe below, we’ve shared two versions of our recipe. We love them both. The first shares how to make a meaty tomato sauce from scratch, the second takes a well-deserved shortcut and uses jarred marinara sauce. Choose either one or make both. It’s entirely up to you.
Once the sauce is made — which could be done in advance (see our tips below) — it’s time to assemble.
When layering lasagna, we start with sauce on the bottom, add noodles then add a mixture of ricotta cheese, egg, and parmesan. Add another layer of the meat sauce and add noodles. Repeat until all the ingredients are used up.
Here’s another sausage pasta recipe: Try our Easy Fettuccine Alfredo Recipe with sausage and spinach
Make Ahead Tips: How to Make Lasagna in Advance
Lasagna is the perfect make-ahead meal. Here’s how to do it:
- The meat sauce can be made in advance and should last in your refrigerator up to 3 days and in your freezer for about three months. We recommend using freezer-safe glass containers, or double layers of freezer bags to store sauces. To thaw, leave it overnight in the refrigerator.
- Baked lasagna freezes well. Let it cool completely on a rack before freezing, and then wrap it very well with foil (we use two layers). Defrost the frozen lasagna overnight in the refrigerator and then bake at 400°F for about 1 hour.
- Consider using no-boil noodles. Now that no-boil noodles are more readily available at larger grocery stores, we love using them to make lasagna — especially if we plan to make it ahead of time. The no-boil noodles don’t tend to become as soft or mushy after freezing or reheating compared to boiled noodles.
Recipe updated, originally posted January 2013. Since posting this in 2013, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne
Cheesy Sausage and Beef Lasagna Recipe
- PREP
This is the ultimate lasagna recipe. You have two choices here. If you’re up for it, you can make your own sauce, which takes about 2 hours. Or, to save time, you can substitute your favorite store-bought sauce. We have done both. It’s all up to you. Our homemade sauce will make more than what’s needed for one lasagna. Since it takes so long to make the sauce, we always make sure we have enough for a second lasagna or to use, as is, over pasta for another night. You can save the extra sauce in the refrigerator up to 3 days or in the freezer up to 3 months.
Makes approximately 10 servings
You Will Need
Meat Sauce1 pound sweet Italian sausage
1 pound lean ground beef
1 cup (150 grams) finely diced onion
1/2 cup (75 grams) finely diced carrot
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup (75 grams) tomato paste
2 teaspoons dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 1/2 cups water
2 (28-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
1 to 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 to 2 teaspoons sugar (optional, see notes)
Assembling Lasagna1 tablespoon olive oil
12 unbroken lasagna noodles
16 ounces part-skim ricotta cheese or cottage cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 large egg, beaten
1 pound part-skim mozzarella cheese, grated
Directions
- Make Meat Sauce
- Prepare Lasagna
- Bake Lasagna
If you have sausages with casings, you will need to remove the casings. To do so, take a knife and cut down the length of the sausage. The casing should peel away easily. If you purchased sausage meat without casings, continue to the next step.
Place a heavy large pot over medium-high heat. When hot, add the sausage and beef and cook until browned, about 10 minutes. As the meat cooks, use a wooden spoon to break the meat apart into small crumbles.
Stir in the onion and carrots. Cook, stirring occasionally until softened and starting to brown, about 8 minutes.
Stir in the garlic, basil, oregano, and tomato paste. Cook for 1 minute or until fragrant and the redness of the tomato paste has turned more orange.
Pour in the water then use a wooden spoon to scrape any bits of meat that have stuck to the bottom of the pot — there’s lots of flavor there. When the pot is almost scraped clean of stuck bits, stir in the canned tomatoes.
Bring the sauce to a low simmer. Taste then season with salt, pepper, and sugar as needed. We usually end up adding 1 to 2 teaspoons of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of ground pepper and little to no sugar (see notes about sugar). Gently simmer the sauce, uncovered for 1 1/2 hours. (Keep the sauce at a very low simmer). Skim off any fat floating on top and adjust the seasoning as necessary.
The sauce can be prepared in advance and refrigerated for up to 3 days, or frozen for up to 3 months. This recipe yields about 9 cups of sauce. You will need 4 to 5 cups of sauce for the lasagna. You can save the sauce for a second lasagna or use to top pasta another day.
Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Bring a large pot of salted water with one tablespoon of olive oil to a boil.
Add lasagna noodles to the boiling water. Return to a boil, stirring frequently. Cook the pasta, according to package directions, this is usually about 10 minutes. Drain.
In the meantime, stir ricotta with Parmigiano-Reggiano, and the beaten egg.
To assemble the lasagna, ladle about 3/4 cup of the meat sauce into the bottom of a 13-inch by 9-inch baking dish. Arrange noodles lengthwise and side by side and cover the bottom. (If the noodles are short on one end, you may need to cut an extra noodle and place into the dish to cover where the other noodles have not).
Next, spread about half of the ricotta cheese mixture over the noodles. Sprinkle with a third of the shredded mozzarella cheese then top with about 1 1/4 cups of meat sauce. Add another layer of noodles and repeat. Add a third layer of noodles then top with remaining sauce and a final layer of shredded mozzarella cheese.
Cover loosely with aluminum foil and bake 30 minutes, uncover then bake 20 minutes until cheese is crusty around the edges. Let rest at least 15 minutes.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Make Ahead: Cover and refrigerate unbaked lasagna up to 2 days. If baked, let it cool completely on a rack before freezing, and then wrap it very well with foil (we use two layers). Defrost the frozen lasagna overnight in the refrigerator and then bake at 400 degrees F for about 1 hour. The meat sauce can be made in advance and should last in your refrigerator up to 3 days and in your freezer for about three months.
- Meat Sauce with Jarred Marinara Sauce: Cook sausage, beef, onions and carrots as shared above. Add garlic then cook about 1 minute until garlic becomes fragrant. Next, add 2 (24-ounce) jars of marinara sauce and use a wooden spoon to scrape up the brown bits that are stuck to the pot. Then, add sausage and beef back to the pan with onions and carrots. Simmer the sauce 20 to 30 minutes until carrots are tender. Skim off any fat floating on top and adjust the seasoning as necessary.
- Nutrition facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA Supertracker recipe calculator to calculate approximate values.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
Nutrition Per Serving: Calories 597 / Protein 40 g / Carbohydrate 37 g / Dietary Fiber 4 g / Total Sugars 7 g / Total Fat 32 g / Saturated Fat 14 g / Cholesterol 112 mg / Sodium 1582 mg
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Hi, this is one my favourites and the recipe given so simple..thank you
This recipe was soooo good delicious!!! Make it as soon as possible
This lasagna was so good I suggest everyone make it!
Is a standard 13×9 Pyrex okay for this or would I need to use a deeper lasagna-specific pan?
Thank you!
That should work just fine.
I am making a big batch of the lasagna because my family loves to eat and we make this at work Love it
wonderful recipe. Followed entire recipe. Added spinach.
Spinach sounds good! How much and when did you add?
I made this with a jarred marinara sauce. Turned out fantastic! The next day; the leftovers were even better. Definitely will make again.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I made this for my son, family and his military friends this Christmas. Everyone flipped over it!It was wonderful sharing such a great dish with so many away from home and home cooked meals. Even my Italian husband who comes from a long line of great cooks thinks its the best he’s ever tasted. I did omit the carrots, water and added a litle crushed peper. Im now offically the family lasanga queen!
If I use the oven ready (no-boil) lasagne noodles, how many sheets should I use? This recipe sounds yummy!
Thanks!
We like three layers of noodles (probably 3 or 4 sheets per layer). You may find that you need to break a few apart to make it fit.
Do you use all of the homemade sauce. I plan on making tomorrow. Thanks
You will actually have some leftover. We love to freeze that for another day then use it as a topping for spaghetti or over roasted vegetables.
this recipe was incredible being that I come from an Italian family from South Philly mom and grandma taught me how to make lasagna as I was coming out of the womb but I have to say this was fantastic. lots of friends have asked me how to make lasagna knowing that I’m Italian and both my parents are from Italy I always give them my parents recipe however after eating your lasagna I’ll be sharing your recipe from here on out
I have this baking in the oven right now. I have to comment though, that The sauce is amazing. I did add a little crushed red pepper as we like some heat. My husband can’t stop “tasting” the sauce. Im sure the lasagne will be a hit as well. thank you for sharing!
What a great recipe and easy instructions to follow! I never made a lasagna and when I have eaten it before it was not my favorite.. I’m glad this recipe gives a balance of meat and cheese. Neither meat is overpowering. I used homegrown tomatoes and and the veggies extra fine. I didn’t add any water bcuz the water from the tomatoes was enough. I didn’t want it too drippy. I made a nice thick sauce. The cheese was oh so good! This lasagna was approved by my husband and I will be remaking this!! Thanks for sharing!
Bravo! I haven’t made lasagna from scratch for a long time. After hunting online for a couple days, I finally settled on your recipe as my guideline with a few minor changes (no carrots, more onion, beef, garlic, and cheese). It turned out awesome! I’m so glad you shared your recipe and we are looking forward to trying more of them. Thank you!
Not only was it saucy, but it was sassy. My family went crazy for it! Make sure you have some Italian bread on hand because you’ll want to wipe up every bit of the sauce on your plate…not to mention dipping into it while you’re cooking. This is some “slap yo Italian mamma” kinda lasagna!!!
Can you use fresh mozzarella and how does it change the taste or texture?
Hi Anne, You can use fresh mozzarella. The taste should not change much, but fresh mozzarella does have a bit more moisture that comes out when it has melted.