No matter the occasion, whether it was a holiday, birthday, or family gathering, one thing was always guaranteed—if my family was getting together, a piping hot homemade lasagna would be sitting in the middle of the table.

It’s a tradition that still carries on to this day.

My aunt usually takes the reins and makes this whole dish, and every single time, this classic recipe comes out perfectly.

And what’s the key to a perfect lasagna, you may ask?

Ask anyone in my family, and they’ll tell you the same thing every time—the sauce, and the bake time.

That’s right, it’s all in the cooking time.

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How Long To Cook Lasagna?

How long you’re going to cook your lasagna for depends on a number of factors.

For starters, it depends on whether or not you are cooking your lasagna from frozen.

Using our homemade lasagnas as an example, that specification makes all the difference.

You can find all of this information in our cooking instructions, but our basic rule of thumb is:

“Preheat your oven to 400°. If frozen, bake for 65-75 minutes. If thawed, bake for 35-45 minutes.”

Granted, this is based on a 2 ¼ lb lasagna that feeds 2-4 people. If your lasagna is bigger, or even smaller, you may want to adjust the cooking time to accommodate those factors.

However, I find that whenever I stick to these step-by-step instructions, my lasagna comes out perfectly each time.

When baking a lasagna, whether it be fresh or frozen, you always want to allow your dish some time to rest.

By allowing your lasagna to rest for a bit before you dig in, it’ll prevent the insides from spilling everywhere, burning your mouth, and tasting like hot lava.

I find that 15-20 minutes under some aluminum foil does the trick, and your lasagna will still be hot and ready to eat.

How To Make Lasagna

Even though it may seem like a complicated process to some, lasagna is surprisingly quite easy to make.

The hardest part about making lasagna is making the sauce, and even then, you can always use your favorite jar of sauce to speed up the cooking process a bit.

If you’re making your own homemade sauce for this lasagna, I recommend using a bolognese sauce. The tender meat will make your lasagna extremely juicy and will even out the rich flavors of the ricotta, provolone, and pasta.

Not a fan of bolognese? Have some vegetarians joining you for dinner? Marinara sauce works just as well, and is extremely easy to make.

What You’ll Need

When it comes to making the best lasagna recipe, you’ll need a few simple ingredients to make sure everything comes together amazingly well.

Ingredients:

Bolognese Sauce: Ground beef just makes sauce taste so much better. Make your own or use your favorite!

Lasagna Sheets: Boil lasagna noodles before you start assembling this recipe rather than using uncooked noodles for the best results.

Ricotta Cheese: Creamy ricotta is key here. You’ll want to season it with parsley, grated Romano cheese, salt, pepper, and a splash of warm tomato sauce. If you don’t like ricotta cheese, you can try using cottage cheese.

Provolone Cheese: You can substitute this for mozzarella cheese if you would rather use that.

Mozzarella Cheese: If you don’t like provolone, double up on the amount of mozzarella cheese that you’ll need for this recipe.

Grated Romano Cheese: We’re using four kinds of cheese to make this lasagna. You can substitute this with parmesan cheese if you’d like

Equipment:

Casserole Dish: You’ll want to make your lasagna in a casserole dish. Personally, I prefer it wider and more shallow, but you can always use a deeper pan if you want.

Oven: Oven not working? Don’t want to heat up the whole house? Try making this using the “bake” setting in an air fryer.