Meat Ball Lasagna

By Jane Whittaker
@janenov46

Every one here has a lasagna recipe, and I can tell you just by looking at some of them they are really darned good!
My lasagna is made with mini meatballs and chunks of Italian sausage.
Why bother to make meat balls?
The texture of the lasagna changes from flat layers to big fat chunks of meat layers in a sky high lasagna.
Make your sauce the day before for the best flavor. Using hot sauce makes the lasagna soupy.

Rating:

★★★★★ 10 votes

Comments:

144 Comments

Serves:

15 to 20

Prep:

45 Min

Cook:

3 Hr

Method:

Bake

Blue Ribbon Recipe

Notes from the Test Kitchen:
It was quite the treat to bite into a meatball to discover which flavor meatball you would get - beef or sausage. Both were very good! A great twist on regular lasagna.

We used four (4) 24 oz. jars of sauce when trying this dish out.

Ingredients

105 oz: home made marinara sauce or purchased marinara sauce. my recipe is on file as spaghetti sauce and meatballs.
2 lb: ground round
2 Tbsp: parmesean cheese, grated
1 large: egg
3/4 c: italian bread crumbs
1 lb: italian bulk sausage
1 1/2 lb: shredded mozarella cheese
24 oz: ricotta cheese
2 large: eggs
: enough lasagna noodles to cover your lasagna pan 3 times. my pan is just huge.

How to Make Meat Ball Lasagna

Step-by-Step

1Make meatballs by combining ground round, Parmesan cheese, egg and Italian bread crumbs.
2Make small meat balls just under one inch around.
3Line 2 cookie sheets with aluminum foil, spray with Pam (no cleanup). Place meat balls in a single layer, go ahead and chunk your sausage in chunks the size of the meat balls, and put them in a single layer too.
4Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, then put into your marinara sauce.
5At this point I usually put sauce and meat in my slow cooker, lined with a disposable liner, and cook on low for 8 hours. If you opted for a purchased sauce, put meatballs and sausage in your sauce, and simmer for an hour.
6Cook lasagna noodles, drain.
7Mix ricotta and eggs, set aside.
8Spray lasagna pan with Pam.
9Put a layer of just sauce in bottom of pan. Cover with layer of lasagna noodles.
10Put a layer of sauce and meatballs and sausage, put blobs of ricotta mixture randomly, sprinkle a third of mozarella.
11Repeat layer.
12Cover with a layer of lasagna noodles, and then sauce.
13Cover tightly and cook on low 325 degrees for 3 hours.
14Last 10 minutes, sprinkle remainder of mozarella.
15When you remove from the oven, allow to set for 15 minutes before you cut into it.
16One more thing. I always make my sauce and meatballs the day before. Putting hot sauce on hot noodles might result in watery lasagna. Make sure the lasagna noodles are well drained also.