Main Dishes
Crockpot Lasagna
Description
Crockpot Lasagna is the gift that keeps on giving. Proud layers of saucy beef, melty mozzarella, tender noodles, and a sneaky spinach cottage cheese filling, this hearty Italian favorite can feed a crowd and tastes fantastic leftover too!
Ingredients
- 1 pound 90% lean ground beef
- 1 small yellow onion diced
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt divided
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper divided
- 6 cloves garlic minced (about 2 tablespoons)
- 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
- 1 (32-ounce) jar good-quality marinara sauce (4 cups), divided
- 24 ounces low-fat cottage cheese or part-skim ricotta cheese (about 3 cups)
- 1 (10-ounce) bag or box frozen spinach thawed and squeezed very dry
- 1 large egg
- ⅔ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup packed fresh basil leaves chopped, or ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley, plus additional for serving
- 9 dry lasagna noodles do not use oven ready/no boil noodles
- 8 ounces part-skim mozzarella cheese shredded (about 2 cups)
- ¼ cup water
Directions
- Coat a 6- or 7-quart slow cooker very generously on the bottom and sides with nonstick spray. Heat a large, deep pan over medium-high heat. Add the beef, onion, oregano, ½ teaspoon of the salt, and ¼ teaspoon of the pepper. Cook, breaking apart the meat with a spatula or spoon, until the meat is browned and cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, balsamic vinegar, and red pepper flakes and cook 30 seconds.
- Reserve 1 cup of the marinara sauce. Remove the pan from the heat and add the remaining 3 cups marinara sauce. Stir to combine, then set aside.
- In a large bowl, use a fork to stir together the cottage cheese, spinach, egg, Parmesan, basil, and the remaining ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper until evenly combined. Use the fork to break apart the spinach as needed.
- Assemble the lasagna: spread the reserved 1 cup marinara sauce on the bottom of the slow cooker. Lay 3 of the noodles on top of the sauce, breaking them as needed to make a roughly even layer—it doesn’t need to be perfect and is fine if some of the noodles overlap slightly and parts of the sauce peek through. I typically lay one noodle down the center, then break the other two in half and arrange them in a wide "V" in the open spaces on either side of the center noodle.
- Top with one-third of the meat sauce, spreading it into an even layer.
- Evenly dollop half of the cottage cheese mixture over the meat sauce. With the back of a fork, spread it into an even layer.
- Sprinkle with one-third of the mozzarella.
