This lasagna is a hearty, comforting meal that is perfect for a special Valentine’s Day dinner. It’s easy to do by simply cutting heart shapes out of the cooked lasagna noodles. It’s also a pretty mess-free cooking project for your kids. My three-year old son loved helping me cut out the shapes! I used my Grandma’s lasagna recipe with a few minor tweaks and then we used heart cookie cutters to cut the hearts out of the cooked lasagna noodles. With the heart cut-outs we made individual heart lasagna that would actually make cute little appetizers.
Heart Lasagna
Author: Itsy Bitsy Foodies
Recipe type: Main Course
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4+
Turn your lasagna into a special Valentine's dinner by cutting heart shapes out of the cooked lasagna noodles.
Ingredients
- 1 large can of tomatoes
- 1 12-ounce can of tomato paste
- 1 tsp salt, to taste
- 2 tsp oregano
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 pound ground beef or chicken sausage
- ½ pound whole wheat lasagna noodles
- ¾ pound {or less} ricotta cheese
- ½ pound mozzarella cheese, grated
- ½ cup grated or powdered cheese
Instructions
- Sauté the onions and the garlic in a little bit of oil.
- Remove the onion and garlic from the pan and add the ground beef or chicken sausage to the pan.
- Brown the meat over medium heat until it is fully cooked.
- Combine the canned tomatoes, cooked onion and cooked garlic in a blender and blend until the sauce is smooth.
- Pour the blended sauce into a large sauce pan and add the tomato paste, ¼ cup parmesan cheese and the seasonings.
- Simmer the sauce uncovered for 5-10 minutes.
- Then add the browned meat and let the sauce simmer for 2½ hours.
- Cook the lasagna noodles and drain them in a colander.
- In a 9×13 pan, layer the ingredients as follows:
- About ⅓ of the sauce
- About ½ of the cooked noodles, to cover the area of the pan in one layer
- Half of the ricotta cheese or just spread a little bit of ricotta over the noodles
- Roughly ⅓ of the mozzarella cheese or enough to generously cover the ricotta
- Roughly 1 Tbsp of parmesan cheese or enough sprinkled to cover the mozzarella
- Repeat the layers ending with the sauce.
- Cut heart shapes out of the remaining lasagna noodles using cookie cutters.
- Arrange the noodles on top of the sauce.
- Sprinkle ⅓ of the mozzarella cheese and the remaining parmesan cheese on top of the noodles, leaving the heart cut-outs open so that the red sauce shows through.
- Cover the lasagna with foil and bake it at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until it is bubbly and lightly browned.
- You can assemble mini heart lasagna using the lasagna noodle heart cut outs, the remaining ingredients and a mozzarella cheese heart, baking them in individual ramekins.
