S/O How do you make Lasagna?

Growing up in Michigan, this is the way my family always made it.  It’s how I make it also.  Although, we use tomato paste  in place of the tomato sauce.  Comfort food for me.  

Well... for me all noodles are pasta, but not all pasta is noodles.   I use the terms the same as you do, born and bred American here. But my mother was Australian so maybe it's her influence.

"Noodles" are all long thin things, usually round... But there are also long flat ones called "egg noodles", and I would always say "we're having meatballs with egg noodles for dinner". If I said "meatballs with pasta" my dh would expect some sort of shaped pasta (shells, macaroni, rotini, etc.)

Okay, so I've read through this entire thread and it seems that I am alone in my method of making lasagna...

My answer is to buy it frozen from the grocery store.  

I have made it from scratch before -- years ago in the oven, and more recently in the Instant Pot. I had to cook though and lasagna is one of those things that I call "fiddly". lol. 

But, when I did make it I never cooked the pasta ahead of time, I just lay the sheets in uncooked. In the Instant Pot I break them up a bit so they'll fit into the pans (I make two at one time), like a puzzle. 

I use the pasta Barilla recipe which includes ricotta cheese, eggs, ground beef or sausage.

I also use the pasta Barilla recipe and don't add any meat. That way everyone in my family can eat it. Also one of my favorite Italian restaurants makes their lasagna meatless.

I like mine super saucy. I can't eat dry lasagna.

My Italian aunts would lose their mind if anyone in the family used cottage cheese.
I definitely make an east coast Italian version. No meat inside. Maybe meatballs on the side but rarely.

I take it out of the freezer, slice the plastic film to vent, and bake at 375 for 55 minutes, remove the plastic and bake for 10 minutes.

I have never successfully made lasagna and gave up years ago. For DS1 birthday we went to an Italian place he discovered, telling us it was the best lasagna he ever had. He was super excited to share with us. It was really good. But we had a giggle that he was comparing it to Kirkland brand lasagna as his only reference point.

I tried frozen lasagna last time we were camping, it just does not come close to homemade!

And thanks to this thread I have now have lasagna on the menu for this weekend LOL

I really should add it to my menu - it's one of my husband's FAVORITE things - but I'm kinda eh on it - especially for just the two of us! His mom's recipe did have cottage cheese, and I just assumed that was because their small midwestern town didn't have ricotta available. My mom used to put hard boiled eggs in hers - I haven't a clue why?!?! Mine's pretty simple with just pasta, marinara (sometimes I add meat if I'm feeling proteiny) and ricotta cheese/parm cheese). Honestly I'd rather just have spaghetti and meatballs.

Ricotta, egg, seasoning.
Sauce. Mozzarella.

Lately, I’ve taken to making it in 2 glass bread pans.
The (uncooked) lasagna noodles fit really well, and
I can layer it higher.
This would be for a smaller batch (6-8 pieces).

No cottage cheese in any pasta ever.

My lasagna is homemade herbed sauce with a mix of ground beef and sausage, lasagna noodles/sheets, ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, and a cheese I can’t remember the name of at present.

There is a stove top lasagna that is homemade sauce, ground beef and/or sausage, pasta, topped with mozzarella.

Then, there is DH’s vegan lasagna that contains things like tofu and sweet potatoes and sounds absolutely repulsive, but is absolutely amazing.

PNW here, but my lasagna sounds more like the Midwest version. I don’t cook the lasagna noodles ahead of time, just make sure there’s plenty of sauce over the top that they are submerged.

I layer noodles, cottage cheese, shredded cheese then my homemade pasta sauce, which has 2 kinds of meat in it. Top the whole thing with some extra jarred pasta sauce and shredded cheese, to make sure no noodles get dried out when baking.

My husband cannot stand cottage cheese and didn’t realize it was in the lasagna he loves for many years. He pretends he doesn’t know and still eats it.

My pasta sauce is actually my husband’s grandma’s recipe. She was famous for it at family gatherings. I asked her for it many times and she never said she wouldn’t share it….. but she never shared it. She was a parental figure who basically raised my husband, so when she died years ago he was the one who had to clean out her apartment and go through everything. Going through random paperwork (she was a hoarder and kept absolutely everything), we came across the recipe hand written on some letterhead for a car repair shop:

1/2-1 lb of Ground sausage
1/2-1 lb Ground beef or turkey
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
1 can of spaghetti sauce
1/2 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
2-3 stalks of celery, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic
I packet of spaghetti seasoning

Cook the meat, add to a big pot with the rest of the ingredients and simmer an hour or so.

I volunteer for a nonprofit called Lasagna Love that started durning the pandemic. Once a month I make Lasagna for a couple of families in my community who could use a support through a meal. (Could be just had a baby, could be struggling financially).

So I make a LOT of lasagna! LOL

I use no bake noodles, and typically add some veggies mostly spinach or zucchini, (which I layer next to the pasta to make sure they are not dry. I hate cottage cheese (didn't know I was in such good company!) So I use ricotta and mozzarella, but I do add a layer of bechamel on the top.. I swear it just makes the dish.