EASY One Pan Lasagna

This is an easy, cheat One Pan Lasagna recipe – with bolognese meat sauce from scratch!

Lasagna noodles cooked straight in an easy, rich bolognese sauce topped with delicious melty cheese.

This one pan lasagna is going to be your new go-to recipe because:

1. It’s extremely easy and quick to make
2. It makes cleaning up a breeze.
3. It’s done and dusted in 30 minutes.

Lasagna is one of those… laborious meals that I love to eat, but not necessarily love to make. Classic lasagna requires me to make that bolognese sauce (30 minutes MINIMUM for a good rich sauce) and the white cheese sauce. Then you have to arrange it in your pan, lay the lasagna sheets over, and then pop it in the oven to bake for 20-ish minutes until tender. Sprinkle over cheese, pop it back in and let that melt. THEN your lasagna is ready. Ain’t nobody got this much amount of time on a weekday. On top of that, all of these ingredients racks up quite a bill… *looking at you cheeses*.

THIS one pan lasagna gives you this same comfort as a regular lasagna, but with LESS effort and less dishes to clean up.

What Pasta Noodle to Use for This?

I’m using no-boil lasagna sheets for this. It can also be known as instant lasagna pasta. Basically this just means you can layer on uncooked lasagna sheets in the pan with the sauces, and pop it straight in the oven. The lasagna sheets will cook and soften as it bakes in the oven. Just because it’s no-boil, doesn’t mean you can’t cook it over stove top! If boiling lasagna sheets, it would typically take about 10 minutes to cook to al dente.

I actually broke my lasagna noodles in, because it makes scooping it out more easier! Breaking it in will let the noodles to overlap one another, making it even more like lasagna. Having the smaller pieces will also help in taste testing when you’re making sure lasagna is cooked to al dente.

You can most definitely keep it whole if your pan can fit. Break the lasagna noodles to fit the round edges.

No lasagna sheets? No problem. You can EASILY replace it with your favourite pasta like penne and macaroni.

The Bolognese Sauce from Scratch for One Pan Lasagna

This is such a *chef’s kiss* recipe because I made the bolognese sauce here from scratch! It was so incredibly simple, but it does require a bit more time.

TIP #1 – for AMAZING bolognese sauce, let it simmer for as long as possible! I like to let my bolognese cook for 30 minutes (or while I clean up) for the full flavours, but you can get a good sauce in 15 minutes. You need to let the tomatoes really cook and break down to remove the raw tomato flavours and get a rich, tomato sauce.

When you’re happy with your bolognese sauce, it should have reduced with no runny liquid. If you want to cook it for longer, and it has reduced to this consistency, simply stir in more water and allow it to reduce until you’re satisfied with your bolognese.

Since it is this thick consistency, you will need to introduce back liquid so you can properly cook the pasta noodles. You can use water, but even better – use stock!

TIP #2 – Use stock for a boost of flavour! I used stock at this final stage of cooking the lasagna sheets for an even more delicious lasagna. This is optional, you will still get a great dish with just water. If using water, you want to add additional salt to season since stock has salt in it already.

Don’t even have 15 minutes, but want a full flavoured sauce? Cheat and use ready-made pasta sauce. There is no need for the cook-down time, which means you can get your lasagna in 20 minutes. I have a homemade roasted tomato sauce recipe right here.

Hide Delicious Vegetables!

I love adding vegetables to my dishes this way – in plain sight! In this recipe I added capsicums, which add extra nutrition and a sweetness to the dish to help with the tartness of tomatoes. Other vegetables I love include are carrots and corn. This is optional, but highly recommended.

I added Thai bird’s eye chillies in this recipe for a nice, sharp punch of spice that goes so well with the tomatoes. Completely optional!

The White Sauce for One Pan Lasagna

In this recipe, I excluded the creamy white sauce altogether. Making the bechamel sauce and/or getting ricotta cheese (which is not a common ingredient in my Asian fridge) is simply too much effort for my one-pan laziness.

If you want a closer dish to a lasagna, the lazy way is to simply dollop some ricotta cheese – straight out the tub, no prep required! – into random spots in the pan, before sprinkling the cheese over.

In the recipe, I covered the pan with a lid to melt the cheese. To level this up, pop your pan in the oven to broil the top to get some good colour on top!

More recipes like this

• One Pan Cheeseburger Pasta
• One Pan Creamy Chicken & Mushroom Pasta
• Chilli Crisp Pasta

EASY One Pan Lasagna

Recipe by Sha

5.0 from 1 vote

Course: Recipes

Servings

2-3

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

30

minutes

Ingredients

• 200g or about 5-6 Lasagna pasta sheets

• 300g Ground Beef

• 1 Onion

• 2 cloves Garlic, minced

• 1 tbsp Tomato Paste

• 1 tsp Chilli Flakes

• 1 tsp Dried Oregano or herb of choice

• 2 tsps Salt and Pepper, to taste

• 1 Capsicum, diced (optional)

• 1 Bird’s Eye Chillies (optional)

• 1 Canned Tomatoes* (or ready-made tomato pasta sauce. see Notes)

• 2 cups Water, with extra on the side

• 2 Cups Beef/Chicken Stock or Water

• 1 cup Cheese

• Parsley for garnish

Directions

• In a large, deep pan over medium high heat, brown the ground beef until fully cooked.
• Stir in onions and garlic and saute until fragrant. Add chopped capsicums, tomato paste, dried herbs, chilli flakes, salt and pepper and stir to combine until fragrant.
  Optional: Add chopped capsicums and bird’s eye chillies.
• Stir in canned tomatoes and 2 cups of stock or water. Stir to combine and allow it to come to a boil. Turn heat down to a simmer and allow to simmer for at least 15 minutes. The longer you can leave this to simmer, the better! Add more water if the sauce has cooked off too much. When you come back, the sauce should be reduced.
  
  If using ready-made pasta sauce:
  Add 2 cups of pasta sauce and 2 cups of water to the pan. Stir to combine.
  Go straight to step 5.
• Add the rest of the stock or water, and stir to get a more liquid sauce to cook pasta in.
• Layer in lasagna sheets. Break in lasagna sheets to and wiggle it in the sauce. Try to lay the sheets flat in the pan amongst the sauce, making sure the sheets submerge in the liquid. Add more liquid if the lasagna is not submerged. If some of the sheets are layering with each other – it’s ok! In fact, it adds more to the lasagna feel. If using water, add a pinch of salt to season.
• Continue to simmer for about 8-9 minutes, or 1-2 minutes before lasagna until the lasagna cooks through. Sprinkle cheese liberally and evenly all over the top.
• Either cover the pan with a lid to melt the cheese, or place pan in oven on broil setting to melt and brown the cheese.
• Once all the cheese has melted, lasagna is done! Garnish with some parsley, and serve one pan lasagna immediately!

Notes

• *If using ready-made pasta sauce, use 2 cups of sauce for this recipe. You can also use tomato passata, or tomato puree.

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