Skillet Lasagna
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Tired of waiting an hour for your lasagna to cook? Make this easy Skillet Lasagna on the stove top in under 30 minutes!
I love pasta. It’s the one thing that I could seriously eat every day of my life. I enjoy it in red sauce, in white sauce, or even just plain buttered noodles.
One of my favorite pasta dishes to make is lasagna. There’s just something about the hearty pasta with layers of meat and cheese that makes my stomach happy.
I do have several favorite lasagna recipes. In the winter I absolutely love Beef and Winter Vegetable Lasagna which is packed full of veggies. One of the most popular lasagna recipes on my blog is Tony Bennett’s Mother’s Lasagna. In the summer I really enjoy a Garden Fresh Lasagna with vegetables from my own garden or the farmer’s market.
What is lasagna?
Lasagna is a classic Italian dish made with alternating layers of pasta, cheese, sauce, and various fillings. Traditionally, the pasta used in lasagna is a broad, flat sheet that holds the layers together. While many people still use the noodles that need to be boiled, there’s also a no cook, ready to use noodle available these days.
While I absolutely love lasagna, it does take a while to make and it’s a bit of a pain to layer everything into the pan. There’s just too many steps to preparing it and then it takes an hour to bake in the oven.
So when I saw a recipe for skillet lasagna I was pretty excited to give it a try. I’ll admit that I was skeptical on how it was going to taste but I was willing to give it a shot since it took half the time as a normal lasagna.
Can I add additional vegetables to Skillet Lasagna?
While this lasagna only has onions in it as the vegetable you can add additional vegetables and saute them along with the onions. Vegetables that would be easy to use in this recipe would be bell peppers, chopped zucchini or squash, or spinach.
Ingredients:
- olive oil
- onion (I prefer a sweet onion in this dish)
- garlic
- salt and pepper
- lean ground beef (I like using 85/15)
- Italian seasonings
- Lasagna noodles (the type you have to boil)
- diced tomatoes
- marinara sauce (I like to use my homemade Roasted Tomato Sauce when I can)
- mozzarella cheese
- Parmesan cheese
- ricotta cheese
Make sure you have a deep skillet with a lid to use for this recipe. Heat the olive oil in the skillet over medium heat. Add in the onion and saute for 5 minutes. Add in the garlic, salt, and pepper, and cook for an additional minute.
Add the ground beef and the Italian seasonings to the pan. Use a wooden spoon or a ground beef chopper to break apart the beef. This will help it cook quicker. Cook for 5 minutes or until the beef is no longer pink.
Scatter the broken pasta noodles on top of the meat and then pour the tomatoes and sauce on top of the noodles. Stir, increasing the heat to medium-high, and cover.
You want to cook the dish at a simmer for at least 20 minutes or until the pasta is tender. Make sure to lift the lid every 3-5 minutes and give it a good stir so that the noodles don’t burn on the bottom of the skillet. I ended up turning my heat down to medium during this process.
Stir half of the mozzarella and parmesan cheeses into the lasagna. Dot the ricotta cheese over the noodles in spoonfuls, then sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and parmesan. Cover and allow the cheese to melt for 2-3 minutes.
I liked the ease with which this dish is made. The beef and veggies are heated in the pan then the pasta is sprinkled on top, followed by the tomatoes and sauce. It cooks for 25 minutes and it was done!
We loved this lasagna. Both my husband and I were skeptical as to whether or not we would enjoy it but it was delicious. I like that there was a higher meat and cheese to pasta ratio then in traditional lasagna.
I also liked that it only took about 40 minutes total to make instead of an hour and a half like regular lasagna does. I’ll definitely be making this in the future when I’m having a lasagna craving but don’t have the time for the original. It was packed with flavor and really tasty!
How do you store Skillet Lasagna?
Storing the skillet lasagna is a little tricky. I let it cool for about 30 minutes before chopping it into pieces and placing it in an air tight container. Store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Skillet Lasagna
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1 t. salt
- 1 t. black pepper
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 lb. lean ground beef
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasonings
- 8 lasagna noodles the type you boil broken into 2 inch pieces
- 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
- 4 c. marinara or homemade tomato sauce
- 3/4 c. mozzarella cheese shredded
- 1/2 c. Parmesan cheese grated
- 3/4 c. part skim ricotta cheese
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add in the onion and cook for 5-7 minutes.
- Stir in the garlic, salt, and black pepper and cook for 1 minute.
- Add the ground beef and Italian seasonings to the skillet. Use a wooden spoon or ground beef tool to break up the ground beef. Cook for 5 minutes or until there is no more pink.
- Scatter the pasta on top of the meat and then pour the tomatoes and sauce on top of the noodles. Stir, increasing the heat to medium-high, and cover.
- Cook at a simmer, stirring every few minutes, until the pasta is tender. You may need to reduce heat to medium. This will take about 20 minutes.
- Stir half of the mozzarella and parmesan cheeses into the lasagna. Dot the ricotta cheese over the noodles in spoonfuls, then sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and parmesan. Cover and allow the cheese to melt for 2-3 minutes.
- Remove the cover, sprinkle with parsley if desired, and serve.
Notes
I made this for dinner last night! I liked that it was so easy to make. I will cut back on the noodles next time.