Grandma's Tomato Lasagna with Meatballs

Certainly! Grandma’s tomato lasagna with meatballs is a hearty and rich dish, perfect for a family lunch. Here is how to prepare this delicious dish:

Ingredients

  • 500 g of fresh lasagna sheets
  • 700 g of tomato pulp or tomato puree
  • 300 g of ground beef
  • 100 g of ground pork
  • 1 egg
  • 50 g of grated Parmesan cheese
  • 50 g of stale bread
  • Milk, as needed to soften the bread
  • 1 small onion
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • A bunch of fresh basil
  • 100 g of mozzarella or fiordilatte
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt and pepper
  • Nutmeg, to taste
  • Butter, as needed for the baking dish

Preparation

  1. Start by preparing the meatballs. Soak the stale bread in milk until it becomes soft. Squeeze it out and mix it in a bowl with the ground beef and pork, the egg, a pinch of salt, pepper, nutmeg, and half of the grated Parmesan. Form small meatballs and set them aside.

  2. Cut the mozzarella into cubes and finely chop the onion and garlic.

  3. In a large skillet, sauté the chopped onion and garlic in extra virgin olive oil until they become translucent. Add the meatballs and brown them evenly.

  4. Pour the tomato pulp into the skillet with the meatballs, add salt and pepper and cook over medium-low heat for about 20-30 minutes, until the sauce thickens and the meatballs are cooked. At the end of cooking, add some hand-torn basil leaves.

  5. Prepare a buttered baking dish and start assembling the lasagna. Put a first layer of sauce and meatballs on the bottom, then cover with a layer of lasagna sheets and sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan.

  6. Repeat the layers (sauce with meatballs, lasagna sheets, mozzarella, Parmesan) until you run out of ingredients, finishing with a layer of sauce and a generous sprinkle of Parmesan.

  7. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 °C for about 30-40 minutes or until the lasagna surface is golden and crispy.

  8. Remove from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Curiosity

Lasagna is a very ancient dish, whose origins are lost in the mists of time. The version with meatballs is a rather substantial variant that combines the classic Italian comfort food of lasagna with the dish loved by both adults and kids, which are meatballs.

Enjoy your meal!

Grandma's Tomato Lasagna with Meatballs