I usually like leftovers, but I’m not a fan of eating leftovers for days, especially when it comes to pasta dishes. I dunno… I feel like the noodles get bloated and mushy, and the cheese never melts the same. But with this recipe, I don’t have to worry about that! You just make it in a little loaf pan and it ends up being the perfect amount for two. Yeah, you’ll probably still end up with a little leftover, but you can handle that.
You just need some oven ready lasagna noodles, which don’t require boiling in advance. So not only is it cute and small, but it’s low fuss too. And you still get all the great comforting flavors of the ricotta and meat sauce layers that we all love from a lasagna.
If you want to make a bigger version of this cutie patootie lasagna, just double the recipe and use an 8×8″ square baking dish and it should do the trick. You can watch how I assemble this easy and delightful little lasagna layer by layer in EPISODE 11 of Bits & Pieces SEASON 2 below:
WATCH EPISODE 11 HERE:
I will say that even though this is NOT an endorsement for Barilla brand noodles, you probably have to get this specific kind in order to make this particular recipe. I actually tried it with another brand and the results were not as successful. I quickly learned that not all oven ready lasagna noodles are created equal.
The other brand noodles I tried using before were way thicker and longer than the Barilla kind, so not only did they not fit in the loaf pan, but they took a lot longer to cook too.
But if you can’t find this specific brand, and your noodles are thicker and longer than what I showed you in the video, then just do what I did the first time, which is break it up so it fits in the pan, and either cook the lasagna longer until the noodles are tender, or soak them in some boiling water first, to give them a head start.
When it first comes out of the oven, it does look like it’s swimming in too much tomato juice. But not to worry because a few minutes on your counter and that sauce gets absorbed into the pasta a little more.
See? Where did all that liquid go?
By the way, don’t you think someone should come up with a tool that makes taking the first pesky end piece out of a baking pan easier?
I probably should’ve made a salad to go along with this lasagna when we were filming our video, because that’s how we normally eat this, but I was feeling too lazy at the time. But if you’re looking for suggestions, it goes really AMAZINGLY well with my Kale Salad Recipe.
There’s no need to describe or overly explain the taste of this lasagna, because the moment you take the first bite, it’s just familiar. It’s everything you knew it would be. The way Joe describes it is “it taste’s like a lasagna…it’s really good.” Haha… but that’s the truth! Nothing fancy here. Just good old-fashioned comfort and a happy stomach.
Lasagna for Two
Ingredients
Meat Sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion chopped finely
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 8 ounces meatloaf mix or 4 oz each of ground beef & ground pork
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Filling and Noodles
- 4 ounces ½ cup ricotta cheese
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese plus 2 tablespoons extra
- 1 large egg lightly beaten
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- Pepper to taste
- 4 no-boil oven-ready wide flat lasagna noodles Barilla brand
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat and add onion with a pinch of salt. Sweat for 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and chili flakes and cook for 30 seconds. Stir in meatloaf mix, and break it up with a wooden spoon. Season with a little salt and pepper. Cook until no longer pink, for about 2 minutes. Stir in cream, diced tomatoes with their juice, and tomato sauce. Bring to a simmer and cook for 2 minutes. Season lightly with salt and pepper to taste. Don't season too much or overall lasagna will be too salty.
- Combine ricotta, ½ cup Parmesan, and egg together. Sprinkle in a little pepper and mix. To assemble the lasagna, spread ½ cup of meat sauce over bottom of a loaf pan. Spread ⅓ of the ricotta mixture on top of 1 noodle, and lay on top of sauce. Sprinkle on ¼ cup of mozzarella cheese, and a little more sauce. Repeat this layering 2 more times, making sure you end up with enough meat sauce and mozzarella cheese for the top layer. When you lay the last noodle down, you will have no more ricotta mixture left. Place the remaining sauce on top of the dry noodle. Mix together the remaining ¼ cup of mozzarella with 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese and sprinkle on top of the sauce.
- Cover pan tightly with aluminum foil that has been sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake at 25-30 minutes, or until the noodles are cooked and the sauce is bubbly around the edges. Remove the foil and bake until the cheese is lightly brown in spots, for an additional 10 minutes or so. Let cool for 5-10 minutes out of the oven to let it set a little more before cutting into it.
TIPS: For this recipe, I highly recommend Barilla brand oven ready noodles because they're thin and fit perfectly in a loaf pan. Other brands tend to be thicker and some don't fit in the pan. Although I didn't do this in my video, if you grate your mozzarella cheese from a block yourself, the results will be more gooey and stringy, rather than when you use pre-shredded cheese.
I’m going to make the lasagna for two, but I’m using pre-made meat sauce to cut down on time. About how much meat sauce do I need?
Hi Kayla.
I’m not sure since I’ve never substituted with pre-made meat sauce, but just use your discretion. Each layer of noodle needs to be well coated with sauce so that it cooks in the oven without being too dry. I think you can be pretty flexible with the amount you use. And since pre-made meat sauce is already well seasoned, I would go easy on the salt everywhere else.
Thanks for the reply! I made this today, and it was delicious!
Nice Kayla! Thanks for letting me know that it turned out well. Next time, post a pic and tag me on social media so I can see it! 😉
Just now made this
Absolutely delicious.
Thank you Julie
Is it customary for bloggers to use a cookbook recipe (w 2 minor changes) and claim it as their own without credit to the original recipe producer?
And what cookbook is that exactly? Lasagna and ingredients aren’t copyrighted so you can make any recipe as long as you don’t take it word for word. You really think someone in a cookbook created lasagna ratios from scratch? I guess scrambled eggs must be a recipe rip off too?
Hi I couldnt find my loaf tin, so gonna use a bigger dish, i know you said you can double it but do i have to double the cooking time?
Hi Mikaela.
I wouldn’t double the cooking time, but you might have to cook it a little longer. Just check as you go by stabbing the noodles with a fork to see if they’re tender.
I made this lasagna for two last night and it was delicious! Just enough leftovers for my lunch today. I usually won’t make lasagna because of the large quantity recipes make but this was perfect!
Hi Rose.
So glad to hear that… I had the same problem since it’s just the two of us right now… so I totally get you. Glad you thought this made just the right amount!
I’m making this soon for dinner but I want to know, do you drain the meat after browning it? Thanks
Hi Brittany,
I probably didn’t if I didn’t state it in the recipe, but you can if you want. If you use lean beef, you might not have to at all.
I’m going to make this tomorrow. I am going to double the recipe how much sauce would you recommend? I’m going to use already made marinara
I can’t wait to try it.
Hi Chef Julie!!! Love this recipe. MY wife and I have made it a half dozen times now. The YouTube vid is very clear, but your website recipe page for this neglects the parsley. It’s in the ingredients list, but you say nothing about it in the instructions. Like you mention we can in the video, we go half beef/half pork. We also use fresh basil instead of parsey and we put it into the ricotta mixture. I also find that troweling the ricotta mixture onto each of the four dry pasta shingles prior to assembly makes the whole thing go a lot easier. It’s about done, so I gotta go eat 🙂
This is genius ! Thank you for sharing this recipe and idea – I am going to make it for my son and his wife – they will love this !
I LOVE this recipe. I have made it so many times! It is one of the best lasagna recipes and we find it to be about 3 servings.
I also put on broil for the last couple minutes to get brown spots on the cheese
Hi Chef Julie!
I really want to make this lasagna, except I’m a vegetarian. So I’m not going to add meat; would you suggest still including the heavy cream in the sauce even though there is no meat?
Thank you!
What are your thoughts on using all ground beef and no pork?
I made this last night and it will now be my go to lasagna recipie. Not only was it super tasty but it stayed together perfectly. Even that first slice! Thank you for adding the section about the extra juice. If you hadn’t said not to worry I would have freaked out when I first took it out of the oven :). But it did just absorb right in and it was perfection.
What is your recommendation if I don’t have no-cook noodles? I have several boxes of Barilla regular lasagna noodles. I’ll try cooking them a little before assembling?
I’d like to make this lasagna for my grandparents as an easy freezer meal. How long would I tell them to bake it from frozen, and at what temperature would you recommend?
Usually for any standard frozen lasagna, it’s best to thaw in the fridge overnight first, and then pop into a maybe a 375F oven to be safe, for roughly 50 minutes, and then for a few minutes uncovered, to brown. But since this is a smaller size, it might take less time. They can check it by inserting a butterknife in the center and feeling it to see if it’s warm. Following my normal baking instructions, but adding a little more time is usually safe.
I won’t use any product made by Barilla thanks to their CEO’s homophobic public statements. I will try this recipe and will use no boil Safeway house brand noodles that I use all the time successfully though you have to use more liquid in your sauce.. Otherwise this recipe sounds good to me. I normally make a big pan because lasagna freezes well.
I would like to make this recipe in advance and freeze it. How long can I freeze it for, and what would be your instructions for cooking upon removing from freezer?
Not exactly sure how long it would last frozen, but probably the same as any standard lasagna would hold. Just assemble everything up until the point where you pop it in the oven, and cover tightly with layers of plastic wrap and then foil. Thaw in the fridge overnight, remove the plastic wrap, and pop into the oven covered (with foil) until almost completely warmed through. Then remove the foil to finish browning. Just follow my baking instructions, but add more time to it. Check to see if it’s heated through by inserting a butterknife into the lasagna and feeling it to see if it’s warm.
Hello! I just came across your website and I am very excited about making more dishes. I just made Lasagna for Two and it was so simple and SO DELICIOUS! THANK YOU!
Hi right back at you! Thanks for giving the recipe a try and glad you enjoyed it!
Made your recipe with less than spectacular results, sorry to say. The diced tomatoes made the meat sauce far too watery and the size of the dice was far too big (just regular diced tomatoes-nothing fancy). Anyway, the noodles in the layers were somewhat mushy. Might try again, with some adjustments to the recipe. Since I live alone, I did LOVE the concept, so thanks for someplace to start.
Sorry it didn’t come out as you liked, but definitely feel free to make your own adjustments! The sauce is a little watery at first when you pull it out of the oven, but as it sits for a few minutes, it should absorb more. And if you think the dice of the tomatoes are too large, feel free to pulse them in a food processor or just omit and see how it turns out for you!
Just checking I’ve got the same cup sizes as you, my cup measurements seem a lot less even half of the quantity your using, even the table spoon measurement of Parmesan you have are twice the size of mine?
I’m just using standard measuring cups and spoons!
I made this last night, followed your instructions and it was perfect! Thank you!! IMG_8959.HEIC
Awesome! Glad it worked out perfectly for you!
Hi there! Making this tonight and it smells delicious so far. Just wondering what to do with the parsley? Didn’t see it listed in the instructions and wasn’t sure if it should be mixed in with ricotta or just sprinkled on top?
Would Barilla Gluten Free Oven Ready Sheets work with this recipe??? Thank You…
I love this recipe because it always ends up with a perfect amount of liquid for the no boil noodles
Hi! I have a glass loaf pan. Do you think that would be OK to use for this recipe? I’m really anxious to try this recipe as I live alone and while I don’t mind leftovers, I’d rather not have to eat the same thing for two weeks. Thanks for the recipe!
I have been looking for a lasagna recipe for two and this one came up in my search. So I tried it and it was exactly the recipe I had been looking for. The video was very helpful. Lasagna is one of my husband’s favorite dish and we were both thrilled at the taste and look. I added fresh spinach. Thank you and I look forward to trying more of your recipes. Happy in Nashville, TN
Hi Julie
Thanks so much for this recipe. I found it last year and have made it several times. I have leftover cheeses and thought I would make an extra this time and freeze. However, I have never frozen the no-boil noodles before and am wondering if I should bake the lasagna first and then freeze it after it cools? Any thoughts?
Just made this for a special NYE dinner! Came out wonderfully. Thank you so much!
My husband and I tried this recipe last night, and it was WONDERFUL! It exceeded our expectations, and was the best lasagna we remember having! We had enough leftover for tonight’s meal.. We make lasagna in November to celebrate the life of a departed family friend on his birthday.
You only need to UPDATE RECIPE instructions #2 to include parsley in the ricotta mix (listed as an ingredient but not in instructions) . One of the previous respondents had mentioned this discrepancy as well.
Followed this recipe to a tee. It’s super yummy, and tasted clean . I also love the little kick from the pepper flakes! It’s a keeper.
I have not made this yet; I am on my way to the grocery store now. I wanted to thank you for your excellent explanations on the video. I have only made lasagna in 9 x 13 pans years ago and it was lousy. Should I wait a certain amount of time before I cut into it to serve it? Thank you again!
great recipe. My 6 year old and 5 year old helped me assemble it and had a blast. Picky 8 year old actually asked for a second helping. Must admit for the sake of time, we browned meat and added a jar of Rao marinara sauce. Very easy to make. Just the right size left overs. Highly recommend.