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This easy pasta recipe has all the best ingredients in a lasagna, but is made much faster. It’s a one-skillet lasagna recipe that you make on the stove and is so easy and comforting, especially when it’s cold outside. Lasagna noodles, sauce and cheese cooked together in one pan means there’s less to prep and less to clean-up. If you love lasagna but don’t want all the hassle this easy lasagna recipe is for you.

We’re pretty lucky with the weather in San Diego but every so often we get a cold snap during the winter, which is very unusual for us. It means I have to cover my fruit trees and other plants so they don’t freeze, but it’s also an excuse to make some of my favorite cozy comfort food like this one-skillet lasagna or carbonara, fajita pasta, macaroni and cheese, and enchilada rice casserole.

Easy Lasagna Recipe

One of the dishes I hardly ever make is a traditional lasagna. I love it, but I usually save it for restaurants and order it when we go out instead of making it home. There’s a lot of cooking involved – you usually have to precook the fillings, sauce and noodles – before it even goes in the oven. It makes a big mess in the kitchen and most recipes I see feed a lot of people. Since it’s just the two of us we don’t need all the leftovers.

This lasagna recipe I’m sharing is the opposite. All of the components cook in one skillet at the same time and you don’t have to spend time assembling the noodles and fillings in a baking dish. It makes just four servings which is enough for dinner with leftovers for the next day (instead of the next week!). It’s my favorite way to make lasagna.

Ingredients

I used lean ground turkey but you can also use lean ground beef or Italian sausage.
Minced garlic
Salt and pepper
Broken lasagna noodles
Tomato sauce
Water
Ricotta cheese
Shredded low-fat mozzarella cheese
Sliced fresh mozzarella

My favorite part of lasagna is the cheese and this skillet lasagna has lots of it. The ricotta cheese is stirred into the sauce and the shredded mozzarella and fresh mozzarella cheese are layered on top so the skillet lasagna has a cheesy topping.

How to Make Skillet Lasagna

In a large skillet, brown and season the ground turkey with the garlic, salt and pepper.
Add the lasagna pieces (I break each noodle into five parts), tomato sauce, and water.
Bring the skillet to a boil and cover it with a lid for about 15 minutes or until the noodles are tender. Lift the lid periodically to stir the noodles so they don’t stick together and cook evenly.
Once the sauce has thickened and the noodles are tender, add the ricotta cheese and stir it into the sauce.
Spread the shredded cheese over the top and place the sliced fresh mozzarella in an even layer. Cover with the lid for a couple of minutes or until the cheese has melted.

Can I use a different kind of pasta?

I’ve only tested this skillet lasagna recipe with lasagna noodles. One-pot dishes can be a little tricky because you need the right ratio of liquid to pasta in order for it to turn out right. So, I can’t say another type of pasta will work because different pasta shapes need different cook times.

Can I substitute jarred marinara sauce (store-bought sauce)?

I have not tested this recipe with store-bought sauce, but I think it would work fine. I recommend using a sauce that is the same consistency of canned tomato sauce and be sure to include the water, too. If your pasta sauce is very thick it may not work right because there won’t be enough liquid for the pasta to absorb.

If I had my way, I’d stay huddled in bed all day when it gets cold but dinners like this one-skillet lasagna makes it a whole lot easier to deal with it.

Want more easy dinner ideas? Be sure to check out my One Pot Dinners recipe round-up.