Slow Cooker Lasagna

Slow Cooker Lasagna is one of a bunch of recent slow cooker pasta dishes we’ve been enjoying at home. I used to shy away from dishes that would take a lot of cook time right before dinner because I am always in a rush in the evenings.

When I have time to cook on the weekends I always make theUltimate Meat Lasagnarecipe I’ve been making for years!

The miracle of this Slow Cooker Beef Lasagna is that it takes almost no time at all! No boiling of noodles, no long simmer times for the tomato sauce (the flavors build all day long as it cooks low and slow! ) and the smell in your kitchen will remind you of a Sunday sauce you’ve been working all day on.

Some important notes about cooking this Slow Cooker Lasagna:

• Homemade Quick and Easy Marinarais a super flavorful and easy sub recipe you’ll want to have for this dish. I make batches and freeze them so I can have them ready to go.
• The lasagna will stay moist and not dried out, but if you find your sauce is not enough to rise to the level of the pasta, add some water around the edges until it does.
• I use all beef in this Slow Cooker Beef Lasagna, but the sausage flavor in most restaurant lasagnas is one I love duplicating. To do that easily here without using sausage, I add in some fennelseedswith goes a long way in making it taste like a Slow Cooker Beef and Sausage Lasagna.
• Make sure you know if your slow cooker has hot spots. Some of them can be severe leading to part of your pasta drying out. With a roast this is less important but for pasta dishes this could ruin the dish.
• Check the doneness at the lower end of the times given, if not quite done cook for the additional hour.
• In the picture above I sprinkled on a bit extra of dried basil just for the look. You certainly don’t have to there is enough in the recipe as is.

How long does it take to make Slow Cooker Lasagna: The prep time is just 20 minutes, but the cook time is 3-4 hours on high as there is a lot of pasta in the slow cooker that has to cook through.

Can you cook pasta in the slow cooker? Yes, absolutely. This is one of my favorite ways to cook pasta, just adjust the cook time to about half of your normal slow cooker recipes so the pasta doesn’t dry out.

Some more Slow Cooker Pasta Dishes:

Yield: 10 servings

Slow Cooker Lasagna

Prep:20 minutes

Cook:3 hours

Total Time:3 hours 20 minutes

Slow Cooker Lasagna made with lasagna noodles, beef, mozzarella, ricotta and Parmesan cheese is the ultimate comfort food in just 20 minutes of prep time.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 2 teaspoons dried basil
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 6 cups marinara sauce (or two bottles of pasta sauce with two added cups of water)
• 1 box lasagna noodles, don’t use the no-boil variety
• 8 ounces ricotta cheese
• 8 ounces mozzarella cheese
• 6 ounces shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. In a large dutch oven or saucepan, brown the beef well on medium high heat, breaking it apart into small crumbles.
2. Drain the fat from the pan.
3. Add in the basil, oregano, fennel seeds, Kosher salt and crushed red pepper flakes and cook for an additional 30 seconds.
4. Add in the marinara sauce and stir to combine.
5. Add enough sauce to cover the bottom of the slow cooker.
6. Into your slow cooker evenly layer in the following order (take care to make sure the layers are as flat as possible):
   1. Lasagna noodles broken to fit the shape of your slow cooker (a little overlap is totally fine here).
   2. Spoon a third of the meat sauce.
   3. Add a third of the ricotta in small spoonfuls along with a third of the mozzarella and Parmesan.
7. You will likely have some noodles left over, using them all in the slow cooker would be difficult.
8. If your liquids are not fully covering the noodles, add more water to just cover them.
9. Cook on low heat for 5-6 hours or on high heat for 3-4 hours.
10. If you want the slices to come out clean, as with any lasagna you would have to wait 15-20 minutes for it to cool a bit.

Nutrition Information

Yield: 10 servings, Serving Size: 1/10th recipe

• Amount Per Serving:
• Calories: 249 Calories