This is literally the BEST Gluten-Free Lasagna recipe and it requires no noodle pre-boiling! It's layered with a hearty, flavorful sauce, all the good cheeses (ricotta, mozzarella, Parmigiano), and a gluten-free lasagna noodle that could fool even those who aren't gluten-free. Serious comfort food that is ultra delicious!
Get out your fork because it's time to eat some AMAZING lasagna...and it's gluten-free.
Will the gluten-eaters know you served them gluten-free lasagna? I've got my bets placed that they won't (unless you tell them). Will they ask you for the recipe? Yes, yes they will.
Get ready to be amazed.
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🌟 Why you'll love this recipe
- No noodle pre-boiling! We want to eat lasagna but we don't want it to take all day. And we definitely don't want to end up with a pile of soggy noodles as we layer them with the sauce and cheese. For this lasagna, we don't need to pre-boil the noodles, and that my friend, is a glorious thing.
- The perfect meal for a large group. Hosting a family gathering? Is your kid's whole baseball team coming over for dinner after practice? Need something tasty for the company potluck? Make this lasagna!
- Serious comfort food (that also makes for awesome leftovers). There's a reason why a popular comic strip feline character centered his whole life around obtaining and eating lasagna. Layers of pasta intertwined with the best meat sauce you'll ever taste. And the cheeeeese...three different types holding the beautiful mess together is the ultimate Italian comfort food.
🍅 Recipe ingredients for the lasagna sauce
For a truly crowd-pleasing lasagna, it's all about quality ingredients. If you want to make the best gluten-free lasagna, you've got to use amazing, quality ingredients. And it all starts with the lasagna sauce. Too many processed pasta sauces are loaded with mediocre ingredients and then sweetened with refined sugar. So for this lasagna, we're making the sauce from scratch. Don't be scared, it's super simple.
- Diced fire-roasted tomatoes - I love using fire-roasted tomatoes in lasagna for their sweet but subtle smoky flavor. Muir Glen organic canned tomatoes are my favorite brand for fire-roasted tomatoes. They produce great tasting tomatoes without the use of synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers. You can find them in most grocery stores.
- Crushed tomatoes with basil - Provides a flavorful base for the sauce.
- Tomato paste - Adds a concentrated depth of flavor to the sauce.
- Ground beef - I use a mix of 85% lean to 15% fat. If you opt for ground beef with a higher fat content just keep in mind that it will produce a lasagna that is more greasy.
- Mild sweet Italian ground sausage - Because my kids will be eating this lasagna I stick to using mild sausage, but if you'd like to kick up the heat use medium or hot.
- Mushrooms - They add an extra layer of umami and texture to the sauce. I pulse the mushrooms in my food processor until they are very small so that my kids don't freak out. I suggest doing the same versus leaving them out if you have any mushroom-haters in your household too.
This lasagna sauce is so incredibly tasty and easy to make. It would also be an amazing sauce for just about any other pasta dish you can think of...spaghetti, penne, manicotti...I ♡ ALL of the pasta.
🧀 Additional ingredients needed #allthecheese
- Don't skimp on quality cheese. Get the good stuff. We're talking quality whole milk ricotta, REAL Parmigiano Reggiano (no parmesan in a can plz), and FRESH mozzarella. The most economic place I have found to buy fresh mozzarella and Parmigiano Reggiano is at Costco. I purchase ricotta at my regular grocery store.
- Gluten-free lasagna noodles - There are two brands of gluten-free lasagna noodles that I believe make the cut for this recipe. Be sure to check out either Tinkyada Brown Rice Lasagna or Jovial Gluten-Free Brown Rice Lasagna. These two gluten-free pasta brands have each developed a great tasting gluten-free noodle that requires NO PRE-BOILING!! This saves a TON of prep time and mess, plus they taste awesome! A gluten-eater probably wouldn't even know they were gluten-free. In fact, they may end up liking them more than the non-gf lasagna noodles!
For a full list of ingredients and quantities see the recipe card at the end of this post.
🔪 Step-by-step instructions
Step 1: Let's make the lasagna sauce! Cook ground beef, sausage, and garlic.
Step 2: Add onion, mushrooms, crushed tomatoes, fire-roasted tomatoes, tomato paste, and water. Season with basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and parsley.
Step 3: Allow the sauce to simmer.
Step 4: Meanwhile, in a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, parsley, and salt.
Step 5: Once the lasagna sauce has finished cooking, spread 3 cups of the sauce in the bottom of a large baking dish.
Step 6: Arrange 1 layer of the gluten-free lasagna noodles on top of the sauce.
Step 7: Spread one half of the ricotta cheese mixture on the lasagna noodles.
Step 8: Top the ricotta with half of the mozzarella cheese slices.
Step 9: Spread 2 cups meat sauce evenly over mozzarella, and sprinkle with ½ cup Parmigiano.
Step 10: Repeat layers: noodles, ricotta, mozzarella, sauce, and top with remaining Parmigiano.
Step 11: Tent the lasagna with foil and bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes.
Step 12: Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes, or until the lasagna is hot and bubbling, the noodles are tender, and you get those cheesy, crispy lasagna corners! Cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Now who's ready to dig in to the BEST lasagna ever?!
👩🍳 Recipe tips
- Use a baking pan that is deep enough and large enough to hold it all in while baking. I recommend using a baking dish that is at least 3 inches deep so that when the lasagna begins to bubble it doesn't bubble right over the side of your dish to the bottom of your oven. Here's the dish I use. Save the lasagna mess cleanup for your kids' faces (or maybe yours 😉).
- Allow the lasagna to rest for at least 10 minutes after baking before slicing into it. It's so hard to not just dig in, but it you give the lasagna that extra bit of time to rest before cutting into it this will allow the lasagna to firm up a bit helping to keep those dreamy cheesy noodle layers intact.
- Quality ingredients matter! I know I've already mentioned this but I need to say it one more time. If you want a fantastic tasting lasagna you've got to use high-quality ingredients. It really does make ALL the difference if you want to make the best lasagna ever versus a mediocre lasagna.
- Use ample lasagna sauce on the bottom and on the top. Make sure you have fully and evenly spread the lasagna sauce on the bottom of the baking dish and also fully covered the final layer of noodles on the top with sauce. The lasagna sauce on the bottom keeps the noodles from sticking to the bottom of the dish while the sauce that covers the final layer of noodles will keep the top layer of noodles from becoming hard and brittle while baking.
💭 Frequently asked questions
It's debatable. But consider the components of lasagna for a moment. We need sauce on the bottom to help cook and soften the noodle while also preventing the noodle from sticking to the pan. Then we need some cheese in the middle because cheese and pasta are an amazing and very necessary marriage, plus that extra cheesy layer in the middle is just plain awesome. And of course lasagna isn't lasagna without layers, hence the repetition of sauce, noodle, and cheese.
Yes, you can. The flavor will be similar to ricotta but the texture will be slightly different unless you blend it slightly. You may also need to drain off some of the liquid from the cottage cheese in order to avoid a watery lasagna.
The egg combined with the ricotta cheese acts a binder helping to hold the lasagna together while also adding a bit of creaminess. However, if you need to omit the egg you can. Your lasagna may just not hold together as well.
Now go share this amazing lasagna with your family, with your friends, with your co-workers. Make it for the parents who just welcomed a new baby into their family. Make it for the family that just needs a comforting meal. Or make it for yourself and plan on eating it every day for at least a week. You could even eat some now and freeze some for later but I'm personally thinking lunch, dinner, and maybe even fourth meal...
Who loves lasagna?!?!
(Me!) ♡
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📖 Recipe
The Best Gluten-Free Lasagna
Ingredients
Lasagna Sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 lb (450 g) lean ground beef
- ¾ lb (340 g) ground mild sweet Italian sausage
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- ½ medium-sized onion chopped
- ½ cup (75 g) mushrooms minced (see notes)
- 1 (28 oz / 400g) can crushed tomatoes with basil
- 2 (14.5 oz / each 400g) cans diced fire-roasted tomatoes
- 1 (6 oz / 170g) can tomato paste
- ½ cup (120 ml) water
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley chopped
Additional ingredients needed
- 15 oz (425 g) ricotta cheese
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 16 oz (450 g) fresh mozzarella cheese sliced (about 24 slices)
- 1 cup (100 g) Parmigiano Reggiano grated
- 10 oz (285 g) gluten-free lasagna noodles (see notes)
Instructions
- Make the sauce: Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven or large pot over medium heat. Add the ground beef, ground sausage, and garlic, and cook until well browned. Stir in the onion, mushrooms, crushed tomatoes, fire-roasted tomatoes, tomato paste, and water. Season with basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and parsley. Cover and simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Prepare the ricotta mixture: In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, parsley, and ½ teaspoon salt. Set aside.
- Preheat oven: Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C).
- Assemble lasagna: Spread 3 cups of the meat sauce into the bottom of a large baking dish (see notes for baking dish size). Top with a layer of lasagna noodles. Spread half of the ricotta mixture over the noodles, then layer with half of the mozzarella slices. Spoon 2 cups of meat sauce over the mozzarella, and sprinkle with ½ cup of Parmigiano. Repeat the layers—noodles, ricotta, mozzarella, and sauce—and finish with the remaining Parmigiano on top.
- Bake lasagna: Cover the lasagna with foil. To prevent sticking, tent the foil slightly so it doesn’t touch the cheese. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 25 minutes, or hot and bubbling, the noodles are tender, and you get those golden, crispy lasagna corners! Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.
Equipment
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information should be considered an estimate only; please consult a registered dietician, nutritionist, or physician for specific health-related questions.
Update Notes: This post was originally published in July 2016, but was re-published with updated step-by-step instructions, pictures, tips, and FAQs in November 2020.
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LC says
I’ve made this lasagna every Christmas Eve for several years and make it for meal trains, and I get the highest praises every time. No one can tell it’s gluten free and everyone always says it’s the best lasagna they’ve ever had. I love this recipe!
Shannon Emery says
Thank you SO much LC! Your comment just made my day!