Hat Dad Gets a Break From Cooking: Meatball Lasagna

I tried to help Hat Dad out around the house this week by going grocery shopping for the family, and making dinner Monday.  I had been wanting to try this Meatball Lasagna recipe for-ev-er, and I'm so glad I finally did.

I used beef italian meatballs, but I think this would be awesome with turkey meatballs or even veggie meatballs.

I'm not sure where I originally saw this recipe, so if you know where it is from, please let me know!

Meatball Lasagna

Serves 5-6

Ingredients:

9 dried lasagna noodles (I cooked 11 because inevitably some rip, and I'm anal)

1/2 of a 15 oz container ricotta cheese

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

16 oz miniature frozen italian-style meatballs, thawed* 

16 oz jar of marinara pasta sauce

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  

Cook lasagna noodles according to package.  Set noodles aside to cool.

In a small bowl, stir together ricotta, 1 cup mozzarella, and parmesan cheese.

In a medium bowl, stir together meatballs and 1 cup pasta sauce.

Spread a small amount of sauce over the bottom of a baking dish.

Layer 3 noodles in dish.

Spoon meatball mixture over noodles.

(Don't waste your time counting out the meatballs to ensure the 

same amount overs each noodle - no one will notice)

Layer 3 noodles over meatballs, and spread half of the remaining pasta sauce over the noodles.  Spoon ricotta mixture over sauce, and spread evenly.

Top with remaining noodles and sauce.

(Now if you're me, about here is where you put the foil on and tell Hat Dad or Handsome Husband to put it in the oven in a few hours while you're off to suffer in Professor All Over the Place's class.)

If you're not me, however - cover the dish with foil, and bake 35 minutes.  After 35 minutes, remove foil and sprinkle remaining mozzarella over lasagna. 

Bake another 10 minutes, and remove.  Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

(Personally, I think it could use some more cheese, but I'm a BIG cheese fan)

The meatball lasagna was a pretty big hit.  I loved it, so did Hat Dad.  Handsome Husband doesn't like ricotta (something that would've been nice to know before planning to make lasagna, no?), but still enjoyed it.

*For the meatballs, I could only find a huge bag of them, so I simply figured they each were about a half ounce, and counted out 32 meatballs.  Also, I put my lasagna in the oven with the meatballs still fairly frozen and it turned out just fine!