If you love both marinara and Alfredo-style pasta sauce, then you’re going to love this meaty, cheesy lasagna that combines both into one delicious dish.
Sometimes, I’m in the mood for marinara sauce, and sometimes I’m in the mood for creamy Alfredo sauce, and thanks to this Red and White Lasagna recipe, I don’t have to choose.
The lasagna itself is quite traditional–tender noodles, a meaty marinara sauce, and plenty of mozzarella cheese, with the special addition of a white béchamel-style sauce added in for an extra creamy taste and texture.
I keep any additional white sauce (and I always make sure there is extra) to spoon over each individual serving of lasagna, because it’s just so, so good.
The combination of sauces, melted cheese and savory ground beef and sausage come together to create one of the most incredible lasagnas you’ll ever eat!
Just be sure to invite some friends to join you for dinner, because you’ll have plenty to share. Or plan on leftovers, which is never a bad thing. Lasagna is almost always better on day two!
The meat sauce for this lasagna calls for a mix of ground beef and Italian sausage, although you could use just one or the other. I like to use hot Italian sausage for extra kick, but mild or sweet are delicious too.
If you do use just ground beef, be sure and add some extra seasoning to the mix, since it doesn’t come packed with as much flavor as Italian sausage does.
This recipe is a bit more time consuming than your typical lasagna, but many of the elements–including both sauces–can be prepared ahead of time.
And you’ll likely have enough food to feed your family for at least two days, so in the end, it’s really not that much extra work. Cook once, eat twice, as the saying goes.
If you’ve been on a quest to find the most incredible lasagna recipe out there, this Red and White Lasagna may just be the one. Hopefully you’ll love it as much as my family does.
Be sure to save this Red and White Lasagna recipe to your favorite Pinterest board for later.
Here’s what you’ll need to make Red and White Lasagna
- Lasagna noodles
- Mozzarella cheese
- Olive oil
- Produce: onions, garlic
- Ground beef
- Italian sausage
- Spices: Italian seasoning, salt and pepper, nutmeg
- Beef broth
- Crushed tomatoes
- Parmesan cheese
- Cream
- Milk
- Butter
- Flour
- Sugar
Red and White Lasagna
Ingredients
For the red sauce
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion diced
- 3-4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 pound Italian sausage
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 2 26 oz. cans crushed tomatoes
- 1 1/2 cups beef broth
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- Salt and pepper to taste
For the white sauce
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- Salt and pepper to taste
For the lasagna
- 16 oven ready lasagna noodles
- 4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- To make the red sauce, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.
- Add the ground beef, sausage, Italian seasoning and cook until meat is no longer pink, breaking up the meat as you go. Add the crushed tomatoes and broth and bring to a simmer. Stir in the sugar, then salt and pepper, to taste. Simmer, partially covered for about an hour.
- Meanwhile, prepare the white sauce by melting the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the flour.
- Gradually whisk in the milk and cream, and bring to a simmer. Stir in the nutmeg, Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper, to taste. Cook until cheese is melted and sauce is thickened.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9×13 inch baking pan. Cover the bottom of the pan with a layer of the meat sauce. Top with 3-4 lasagna noodles, a layer of white sauce, and 1/4 of the mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers twice more.
- Add one final layer of noodles to the top of the lasagna, then top with the remaining meat sauce and the remaining cheese. Reserve additional white sauce to spoon over the lasagna.
- Bake, covered, for about 30 minutes. Uncover and bake about 20 minutes more, or until the top is browned and bubbly. Let stand 10-15 minutes before slicing and serving, with extra white sauce on the side.
Video
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Nutrition
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Who Dished It Up First: Adapted from One Dish at a Time
1 comment
Jana
Just to confirm, by oven ready noodles, you mean the ones that don’t need to be cooked prior to baking?
Thank you