I am not a fan of red sauce. Marinara, pizza sauce, whatever it is, I will not go bonkers about eating it. Obviously, I eat pizza and I’m a sucker for a huge plate of spaghetti and meatballs, but if you offer me alfredo or carbonara instead, I’ll take it.
This weekend I made a white lasagna. It was something I’ve been wanting to try for quite a while and since I had the time this weekend, I went for it.
White Lasagna Recipe:
1 lb. ground turkey
Lasagna noodles (I used a total of 9)
1 15oz. jar of alfredo sauce (I SWEAR by Classico Four Cheese Alfredo Sauce)
2-1/2 cups of shredded mozzarella
1 15oz. container of ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 Tbsp. chopped garlic
1 Tbsp. oregano
1 Tbso. Basil
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
Preparation:
- Preheat your oven to 375-degrees
- Brown your turkey in a pan with the garlic, salt and pepper it well
- While your meat is browning, if you are boiling your lasagna noodles, get those cooked until ALMOST al dente (don’t cook them as long as you would mac & cheese noodles, because you’re going to bake this as well!) I used oven-ready lasagna, so I skipped this part
- While your pasta and meat are cooking, in a small bowl add the ricotta and the egg and mix until combined well, then add the oregano, basil and paprika to the ricotta mixture and make sure everything is evenly incorporated
- Once your meat has browned, add the whole jar of alfredo sauce and mix well, remove from heat
- Take the meat/sauce mixture and lightly coat the bottom of an 8×8 glass baking dish (this is the one part of the lasagna that won’t bake to the bottom of the pan and leave you with a mess later)
- Add a first layer of lasagna noodles (I used 3 noodles per layer) over the meat/alfredo base
- Spread 1/3 of the ricotta mixture over the noodles (I always go in this order of layering because you can easily spread the ricotta over the smooth noodles without it clumping or making a mess)
- Sprinkle 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese over the ricotta mixture
- Spread 1/3 of the meat/sauce mixture over the mozzarella
- Repeat and repeat!
- You should finish with a layer of the meat/alfredo mixture at the very top. Reserve the last cup of cheese for later
- Cover your lasagna with foil and place in your preheated oven for 35 minutes
- After 35 minutes, remove the foil and sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella cheese and bake for an additional 25 minutes, uncovered, until the cheese is golden brown. *NOTE: If you’ve pre boiled your noodles you just do about 15 minutes covered and 20 minutes uncovered, until everything is warm and brown and delicious.
I was distraught when I saw my grocery store ONLY had “oven-ready” lasagna noodles at the store because well, I don’t like change. My mom has made lasagna with perfectly boiled noodles since I can remember (and yes, she always made me a couple extra to snack on) and I was not a happy camper when I realized I’d have to change my routine. But truth be told, I had to edit my timing a little bit with the baking (which I cover in the recipe for this meal), but otherwise, everything turned out great!
Yes, while I was taking pictures of this one I accidentally dumped an entire glass of water on my counter. And no, I didn’t clean it up until after I was done…
