Get over here. We have something to talk about. It’s party time for our blog “Gastro Senses”! We are celebrating the first blog anniversary on December 2nd! 109 posts later, I’m excited about the site more than when I started. I never thought people would be so interested in my everyday gastronomy adventures. Thank you all for your support and lovely comments and questions! They encourage and inspire me to post more yummy recipes from my eastern european childhood and yummy favorites from around the world! And, thank you for being patient with me if I mess something up 🙂 I started with 760 views for the month of December 2014 and in November 2015, I’m at 22,000 views per month. I have also recently beat my daily record with 3,837 visitors. To celebrate this anniversary, we’re sharing an amazing giveaway provided by freeshippingcode.com for $200 USD gift card to spend at Target! Check out the details at the end of this post. 
We are celebrating in style with this classic lasagna with homemade ricotta! I’ve been mega craving some sort of lasagna since always. Especially during these colder months… and especially during the holidays! Something about lasagna just makes people happy. Maybe it’s the slow cooked meat sauce, the carb filled pasta or all the cheese?!? Okay, so it’s probably all three! I was going to make it 3 weeks ago, but I forgot. I was going to make it 2 weeks ago, but I had to walk my dogs. And finally after making homemade creamy ricotta cheese this classic lasagna is giving my whole self a hug today. This delicious classic lasagna with homemade ricotta and rich meat sauce is fantastic for a crowd. And by crowd I mean only your mouth. Lunch all week! 
Tomato Sauce Ingredients:
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb ground beef
4 cups strained tomatoes
1 fresh basil sprig
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
Filling Ingredients:
2 eggs
3 cups ricotta cheese
1/4 cup basil, chopped
1/3 cup parmesan, shredded
1/2 cup mozzarella, shredded
pasta sheets
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
To make the filling: in a bowl, stir to combine ricotta, eggs, mozzarella, Parmesan and basil. Season with salt and pepper and mix well. 
To make the sauce, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the ground beef and sauté until the liquids evaporate. Season with salt, pepper and red chili flakes. Cook until the meat is brown. Then add the garlic, strained tomatoes and basil. Season with more salt and pepper if required and simmer for 1 hour. If the sauce tastes too tart, add a pinch of baking soda and simmer for 1 minute longer. 
Boil the pasta in a big pot of salted water, then use tongs to transfer the sheets to ice water to cool quickly. Leave them in the water until ready to assemble the lasagna. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Coat a 9 x 13′ baking dish with olive oil and start assembling this classic lasagna with homemade ricotta. Assembling is easy, you just have to divide the sauce ingredients in four parts, pasta in three parts and cheese in two parts. So first 1/4 of the sauce goes on the bottom of the baking dish. Then, follows 1/3 of the pasta and 1/2 of the cheese filling. Continue making all the layers topping the last layer of the meat sauce with more fresh mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Cover the baking dish with foil, place it on a sheet pan in case of any spillovers and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and continue cooking for another 15 minutes. Remove lasagna from the oven and let it sit for at least 15 minutes before serving. Cut this classic lasagna with homemade ricotta in pretty portions and celebrate the cozy season! 
Last but not least, as I’ve mentioned at the beginning of the post, freeshippingcode.com is hosting an awesome limited time giveaway for a $200 USD gift card from Target. We are approaching Christmas holidays so this will be a great gift for yourself or your loved ones this season. The giveaway ends on Dec 25, 2015 so hurry up and enter below for a chance to win! OMG! Christmas Giveaway
Also, don’t forget to follow GastroSenses on Facebook and Instagram for extra karma points!
Good luck to all the good gift card lovers!
- Tomato Sauce Ingredients:
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb ground beef
- 4 cups strained tomatoes
- 1 fresh basil sprig
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- Filling Ingredients:
- 2 eggs
- 3 cups ricotta cheese
- 1/4 cup basil, chopped
- 1/3 cup parmesan, shredded
- 1/2 cup mozzarella, shredded
- pasta sheets
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- To make the filling: in a bowl, stir to combine, ricotta, eggs, mozzarella, Parmesan and basil. Season with salt and pepper and mix well.
- To make the sauce, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
- Add the ground beef and sauté until the liquids evaporate.
- Season with salt, pepper and red chili flakes.
- Cook until the meat is brown. Then add the garlic, strained tomatoes and basil.
- Season with more salt and pepper if required and simmer for at least 1 hour (the longer the better). In the end, ff the sauce tastes too tart, add a pinch of baking soda and simmer for 1 minute longer.
- Boil the pasta in a big pot of salted water, then use tongs to transfer the sheets to ice water to cool quickly. Leave them in the water until ready to assemble the lasagna.
- Preheat the oven to 375 F.
- Coat a 9 x 13′ baking dish with olive oil and start assembling the lasagna. Assembling is easy, you just have to divide the sauce ingredients in four parts, pasta in three parts and cheese in two parts. So first 1/4 of the sauce goes on the bottom of the baking dish. Then, follows 1/3 of the pasta and 1/2 of the cheese filling.
- Continue making all the layers topping the last layer of the meat sauce with more fresh mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.
- Cover the baking dish loosely with foil, place it on a sheet pan in case of any spill overs and bake for 30 minutes.
- Uncover and continue cooking for another 15 minutes.
- Remove lasagna from the oven and let it sit for at least 15 minutes before serving.
I love how you used a round dish for the lasagna – it looks so elegant! I usually use no-cook noodles, but I should really try it with regular pasta. Apparently it’s a lot better.
The photos are amazing as usual
Oh, an congratulations on your success with page views! I am still a long way away from your numbers (except for this month, but it was an anomaly as one of my recipes went sort of semi-viral)
Thank you for your nice words Julia! Appreciate that! And I definitely know what you mean with ups and downs on the blog.
Lilechka, Congratulations! I’m so happy for your success! Celebrating Gastrosenses anniversary with one of your dishes! 🙂
Thank you and how exciting that you’re celebrating with one of our recipes! What’s for dinner?
Oven baked creamy dijon salmon. That was really good!!! Thank you Gastrosenses for the great recipes!!!
Yay! Happy Anniversary Gastrosenses! That Lasagna looks very yummy. Leave me a piece. I was dreaming pork belyashi today, I swear could smell them in the morning. oh, well, maybe next time we come visit 😉
Thanks Stas! You are making me hungry with your belyashi dreams. We’ll see, holding on to the magic!!