How often do you make lasagna? I tend to make it about once or twice a year. I should make it more often but sometimes the prep time is more than I am willing to commit to. Then there’s the whole business of how many calories and fat are in the rich, cheesy pasta meal. I love lasagna made with ricotta, Parmesan, and mozzarella cheeses and they way I was brought up to make it, it was loaded with these cheeses. On occasion, my Dad would make the pasta dish with cottage cheese in place of the ricotta. This had nothing to do with saving calories. It was a test to see if my Mom could tell the difference between the two cheeses when it was in lasagna. She never could.
Recently, Red Gold Tomatoes was kind enough to send me an entire lasagna kit – including a coupon for the ground beef which just happened to be from the only brand of ground beef I will buy, Laura’s Lean Beef. Was I excited? Oh, you bet I was! Also included was a recipe card and one of the recipes was for Skinny Lasagna, which they suggested to try with my kit. I decided that it was time to make this cheesy meal again but with way less calories and fat. Would my family go for it? We were about to see. The changes I made in the recipe was that I cooked the noodles prior to assembling the lasagna. Totally not necessary but I am old school with the noodles. I also let the sauce simmer while the noodles were cooking and I used mozzarella cheese on the top of the layers along with the Parmesan cheese. This girl isn’t ready to give up all of the cheeses just yet.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 28 ounce can Red Gold® Crushed Tomatoes, or 2 (15 ounce) cans Red Gold Crushed Tomatoes
- 2 14.5 ounce cans Red Gold® Diced Tomatoes with Basil, Garlic & Oregano
- Ground black pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 pound Laura's 96% Lean Ground Round or ground turkey, cooked and drained
- 1 16 ounce box traditional whole wheat lasagna noodles
- 1 15 ounce carton low fat cottage cheese
- 2 cups shredded low fat mozzarella cheese plus 1 cup for top layer
- 1/2 cup grated low sodium Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook lasagna noodles according to package directions for al dente.
- In large saucepan combine water, crushed tomatoes and diced tomatoes, black pepper, Italian seasoning and ground round, stir to combine ingredients in the sauce.
- Let simmer for about 30 minutes. I let it simmer until my noodles are finished cooking.
- Cover the bottom of a 9x13x2 inch baking pan with 1½ cups of sauce mixture.
- Arrange 1/3 of noodles on top of sauce, slightly overlapped.
- Top with ½ of cottage cheese, ½ of mozzarella cheese and 1 cup of sauce.
- Repeat layers and top with last 1/3 of noodles and the remaining sauce.
- Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and the additional 1 cup of mozzarella cheese.
- Cover tightly with foil and bake for about 45 - 1 hour; until it's bubbly and the cheese is melted.
- Uncover and cook additional 10 - 15 minutes or until cheese starts to brown.
- Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I am not receiving compensation for this post from Red Gold for my opinions on their products. The opinions here are my own.
My favorite pasta dish? This is really hard because I LOVE all things Italian and pasta is so awesome! Can I list a few? 🙂
I love pasta salad, and lasagna too, spaghetti and meatballs and roasted veggies over hot pasta are favorites as well.
Your lasagna recipe sounds great and I’m an old-school girl with the noodles too – I always boil them first, and don’t do the “no cook” variety.
The giveaway sounds fantastic. Thanks for hosting!
Karen, it is hard to just name one, I know. I love all things Italian as well but lately my favorite is the roasted veggies over pasta way – healthier too! Thanks for stopping by and sharing!
My favorite pasta dish is Chicken Florentine.
Great choice Annette! I haven’t had that dish in some time. It may be time for it to make an appearance on the menu. Thanks for stopping by!
I would say spaghetti is my favorite.
Janice, spaghetti makes a weekly appearance here in my house now that my classes are back in session. Easy to prepare! Thank you for visiting and sharing!
Hey old neighbor!! Glad to see this recipe because I’ve been making my lasagna with cottage cheese for years! Not sure where I got the idea from. I make it indifferent size dishes. I’ll make one 9×9 dish, and divide the rest between 3 mini loaf pans. I freeze those and send them back to school with the boys! Perfect size for them and usually get 2 meals out of one mini loaf.
Hi Karen! What a great tip! I should have thought of this when the oldest was in college, she would have appreciated the freezer meal! When I make a tray of lasagna, it’s the meal of the week now! Literally, we eat it all week! Thanks for stopping by and sharing! (miss you!)
My favorite pasta dish is chicken gnocchi soup! And thank you!
Yummy! Thanks for sharing Debbie!
Oh, and my favorite pasta dish is lasagna!
The entire family loves chicken parmesan
We love Chicken Parm too! Thanks for stopping by Harmony!
Lasagna, there is nothing better in my book. thanks!
Welcome, Mary and thank you for visiting and entering!
It’s hard to pick just one pasta dish I love, but I’d have to say manicotti!
I haven’t had manicotti in years! So good!
My favorite pasta dish is ravioli.
Lauren, do you make your own ravioli? Sadly I use the frozen kind but would love to learn to make it from scratch.
Bowtie pasta with pesto & pine nuts is a favorite
Fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp and broccoli
That lasagne looks and sounds delicious! I wish I still lived in an area I could get Creamettes pasta.
Have a wonderful week.
Lasagna tops my list as my favorite pasta dish.
My favorite pasta dish is lasagna!
I love baked ziti.
I love lasagna of all kinds – beef, veggie, chicken…Yum!
Hi Lisa,
Your Lasagna looks delicious. Hope you are having a great week and thanks so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
Come Back Soon!
Miz Helen
Spaghetti and meatballs.
My favorite pasta dish is ravioli.
Thanks for the recipe…while I like to be healthy, I generally use full fat dairy when I’m cooking, because the low fat sometimes compromises flavor…how does this one do?
Hi Liz, thanks for stopping by! To be honest, I do not taste any difference using lowfat cheeses in this recipe. I grew up with lasagna being made with ricotta cheese and full fat mozzarella cheese and when I use the lowfat cheese and the cottage cheese there is only a slight less rich flavor but all the cheesy-ness comes through.