If Kieran ever cheats on me it will be with lasagna. After I make him a big cheesy batch of lasagna goodness, I often see him lovingly gazing into the fridge at the leftovers. Once I SWEAR I overheard him whispering sweet nothings to the leftover lasagna, but he denies it. Whatever, I know what I heard.
I could also have a love affair with all that cheese but my waistline would murder me. My metabolism sucks balls, I’m in awe of people who can eat whatever they want, whenever they want because my body would never allow that to happen. I mean, if I even THINK about food I gain 5 pounds. Stupid jerk metabolism 🙁
So, as much as I love a good slice of lasagna, I feel so guilty trying to polish off the rest of the pan of lasagna leftovers. Yes, I’ve frozen leftover lasagna before, which works really well, but then I know the leftovers are in the freezer, taunting me.
Single serving lasagna is the answer to all my prayers. I get to have lasagna for dinner without worrying when we would consume the leftovers.
You can easily make this lasagna without meat, but sometimes I girl needs a little Italian sausage in her life (insert dick jokes here).
The pictures below show the process of making these darling little lasagnas. It couldn’t be any easier and if your lasagna noodles break? So what?! No one is going to notice, or even care when there are cooked!
So above you will see I crisscrossed the lasagna noodles over the ramekins so the middle of the noodles was in the center of the ramekins. You gently push the noodles down into the ramekins (spray the ramekins with cooking spray first) so an even amount of noodles hang over the edge.
Now the fun part, time to assemble these adorable SOB’s! Slap in some meat sauce, then some cheese mixture, fold up the first noodle, and repeat! After you fold up the last noodle, hit it with more meat sauce and sprinkle with some mozzarella cheese, bake and BLAMO! You’re about to have awesome in your mouth.
- 11 uncooked lasagna noodles
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ small onion, diced
- 1 red pepper, diced
- 2 Italian sausage links
- Big pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon oregano
- 3-5 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 cups tomato sauce (homemade or store bought)
- Big pinch of red pepper flakes
- 2 pinches of sugar (optional)
- Juice from ½ a lemon
- More salt and pepper to taste
- 2 cups cottage cheese
- ¼-1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella (divided)
- ½ tablespoon oregano
- Pinch of cayenne pepper
- Pinch of nutmeg
- Fresh basil to garnish
- Cook the noodles according to the package's direction, but undercook the noodles by one minute. Drain the noodles and put them in a big bowl with water to keep them from sticking, until needed.
- In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat.
- Add the onion, red pepper, oregano, red pepper flakes, and salt, and cook until the onion is translucent and the red pepper has softened (approx 5-7 minutes).
- Either using a knife or a pair of scissors, cut the sausage casing and remove it before adding the Italian sausage to the skillet. Break up the sausage with a spatula until the sausage is in small pieces. Cook the sausage until it's brown. When the sausage is fully cooked, move all the ingredients to one side of the skillet, and gently tilt the skillet in the other direction. You're trying to pool the grease from the sausage in one area without the other ingredients getting in the way. Using balled up paper towels and a pair of tongs, mop up the majority of the grease with the paper towel. Leave some of the grease for flavor.
- Now make a well the middle of the skillet, and add the garlic and cook for approx 30 seconds, or until the garlic becomes fragrant.
- Add the tomato sauce and bring the skillet to a simmer, cover, lower the heat to low, and simmer for 20 minutes (if the tomato sauce gets too thick, add a splash of water as needed).
- When the sauce finishes simmering, taste it. Depending on your tomato sauce, you may need to add a pinch of sugar (or two) to even out the acidity.
- Add the lemon juice. IF at that time you think the sauce needs more salt, add a pinch at a time. Lemon juice is magical and wakes up every dish, so add the lemon juice before adding more salt.....the lemon juice may be just the thing to brighten the dish without overloading it with salt.
- Remove the skillet from the heat and set aside until needed.
- In a food processor, add the cottage cheese, Parmesan, 1 cup mozzarella, oregano, cayenne, and nutmeg. Pulse the mixture until everything is well combined.
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees
- Lightly spritz 4 oven safe ramekins, with cooking spray and place on a baking sheet lined with tin foil or parchment paper.
- Lay one lasagna noodle across each ramekin so that the middle of the noodle is in the middle of the ramekin. Lay another noodle over the ramekin, perpendicular to the first noodle you laid down (see pics above).
- Add about ½ cup of the meat sauce to each of the ramekins, on top of the noodles. Now add ½ cup of the cheese mixture on top of the sauce. Fold over the lasagna noodles (the noodle you put in 2nd).
- Repeat and add ½ cup of the meat sauce and ½ cup of the cheese mixture, then fold over the remaining lasagna noodles. Now top each ramekin with the remaining meat mixture.
- Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella cheese over each ramekin as well.
- Pop those tasty babies into the oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until the cheese is melting and a golden brown.
- Once the lasagnas are finished cooking, take them out of the oven, and let them rest 5-10 minutes before you dig in, otherwise, you will burn your tongue on on the hot lava cheesy goodness.
- Now you can either eat the lasagna's straight out of the ramekins or carefully lift them out of the ramekins and put them on a plate (before you lift them out, run a knife along the inside of each ramekin so they easily dislodge).
- Top each individual lasagna with fresh basil and enjoy those tasty, tasty cheesy towns of happiness.
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Hi! I love this recipe, but as a vegetarian and there just being one person to serve, I did a small adaption I thought I’d share. I only really tried to cut this by around a half, a little under that, because my little ceramic baking dish looked about twice as big as the pots in the pictures and I didn’t want to have an unsatisfying little layer of cheese on the bottom, so I figured having more dinner and reaching the top of the dish was best haha! I hope the other veggies can enjoy you’re dish the way I do too 🙂
Ingredients:
• 4 lasagna sheets/noodles
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• ½ small onion, diced
• ½ red pepper, diced
• 80g Quorn mince
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 1 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ tin chopped tomatoes
• 100g ricotta cheese
• 75g shredded mozzarella
• ½ tbsp oregano
Method
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Cook the lasagne sheets/noodles until they are firm but undercooked. Drain the noodles and put them in a bowl of water to keep them from sticking.
2. In the same pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat.
3. Add the onion, pepper, oregano and salt and cook until the onion is translucent and the red pepper has softened (5-7 minutes).
4. Add mince and allow to soften, stirring often.
5. Now make a well the middle of the skillet, and add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
6. Add the tomatoes, bring the skillet to a simmer, cover, lower the heat, and simmer for 20 mins.
7. Meanwhile, in a bowl, thoroughly mix ricotta, mozzarella and oregano until well combined.
8. Take meat sauce off the heat and if it tastes bland, add lemon juice. Set aside until needed.
9. Lightly spray or coat baking dish with oil and place on baking tray (incase of spillage).
10. Lay two of the lasagne sheets lengthways, meeting in the middle, hanging over the edge.
11. Put about half the sauce mixture in the dish, cover with the sheets hanging over the edge of the dish, add half the cheese mix and cover with two lasagne sheets in the same way.
12. Add half the sauce and follow with the cheese before covering with sheets. Sprinkle with extra cheese. Bake for 20 minutes.
OH man, that sounds awesome!!!! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Hi,
This looks awesome. I was wondering, what size ramekin are you using and have you tried freezing these before? I’m teh only one who eats lasagna and I would like to make these ahead of time for emergencies.
Thank you,
Samantha
Thanks, Samantha!
I’m using 8 oz Threshold porcelain ramekins that I purchased from Target. According to Threshold, the ramekins are freezer, dishwasher, microwave, and oven safe (up to 350 degrees). Please note I’ve never tried freezing the single serving lasagnas before so I’m not entirely sure how to answer your question, and I don’t want to mislead you. I think if you transferred the frozen ramekin into a hot oven, the dish would crack. My guess is you’re allowed to freeze them, just ensure the frozen dish and lasagna has thawed before you put them in the oven.
Another possibility is freezing the lasagna in the ramekin for an hour. Then popping the lasagna ingredients (now frozen in the shape of the ramekin) into a freezer bag. I think the lasagna would keep longer in the freezer that way. Then, when you’re ready to eat, take a portion of lasagna from the freezer bag, place it back into the ramekin, and THEN cook it in the oven.
That would be my best guess!! Good luck, and if you try it, please tell me if it works!
wow, this looks fabulous. just like me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hahahaha, you know it! Thanks for stopping by, Steven 🙂
I made this mini lasagna using
these adorable ramekins and it
was so good, I will forever be
greatful!!! Thank you so very much!
Yaaaaay! Thank you for letting me know, Neida!!!
Can it all be assembled in a ramekin and then cooked via microwave at time of eating it. Want to make some of these for my daughter in college and she would cook them in microwave while at hockey practice
Hi, Kim! That is an excellent question. I’m guessing you can as long as all the ingredients are precooked beforehand. Put a damp paper towel over the ramekin while it cooks so the pasta sauce doesn’t splatter all over the microwave. I would also zap the lasagna in short spurts. Please note I’ve never used this cooking method for this recipe so I’m not 100% sure if it will work, but if you use a microwave-safe ramekin it should be OK!