Simple 5-Ingredient Lasagna Recipe

What's not to love about lasagna? It's one of our favorite comfort foods, featuring layers after layers of rich sauce smothered in a blanket of cheese. Unfortunately, it's not necessarily easy to make. The long sheets of noodles require par-boiling, and layering the different components can create a bit of a mess.

That's where our 5-ingredient spinach and ravioli lasagna comes in. We created a brilliant shortcut, using cheese-filled ravioli instead of flat pasta. They make it so much easier to build the lasagna, and — as a bonus — you can use them straight out of the freezer. Since they're already filled with cheese, you won't need to add ricotta or cottage cheese to your lasagna, shortening the list of ingredients to just five.

We added beef to this recipe because it makes the dish more filling, but you can absolutely modify the recipe to use ground turkey instead. Or, skip it altogether: Leaving out the beef turns this into a 4-ingredient lasagna recipe that's vegetarian-friendly and perfect for meatless Monday.

The easiest way to make this 5-ingredient spinach and ravioli lasagna recipe is to use frozen spinach. We recommend buying a few bags and keeping them on hand in the freezer. Frozen spinach keeps for months, and it's actually healthier than fresh spinach because the freezing process preserves the nutrients (via Spoon University).

Of course, you can absolutely use fresh spinach if you prefer. You'll need to grab a pound of spinach to equal the 10-ounce bag in the recipe. Baby spinach can be cooked straight away, but you'll want to roughly chop whole leaf spinach before getting started. Then, add a tablespoon of olive oil to a large skillet and heat it over medium-high heat. Add the spinach to the pan and cook until it's wilted, about three minutes. Drain any excess liquid before adding it to the lasagna.

If you're looking to save time on this 5-ingredient spinach and ravioli lasagna recipe, you can absolutely buy a bag of pre-shredded mozzarella cheese. It's undoubtedly easier to do it this way, but we always prefer shredding the cheese ourselves. For starters, a block of mozzarella cheese is less expensive than the pre-shredded stuff at our local grocery store, so we save money by doing it ourselves. We've found that freshly shredded cheese melts better than the store-bought stuff, too.

Block cheese also doesn't have the same preservatives you'll find in store-bought shredded cheese. Most brands add anti-clumping agents like cellulose to keep the cheese from sticking together. We'd rather skip those ingredients, so we shred our mozzarella by hand.

Shredding cheese can be time-consuming with a box grater, so don't be afraid to use your food processor. You can use the shredding attachment or spray the blades with nonstick spray to keep the cheese from sticking.

Part of what makes lasagna so good is the different layers. Each layer has a unique texture, and they all come together to create the perfect bite. While you could just throw everything together and bake it in a casserole dish, this 5-ingredient spinach and ravioli lasagna is more interesting if you create those layers first.

Start by spreading a half-cup of the marinara sauce in a three-quart baking dish. This liquid barrier will help keep the ravioli from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Then, place a layer of frozen cheese ravioli on top of the sauce and top it with half of the cooked ground beef (if using), spinach, marinara sauce, and shredded mozzarella cheese. Finally, repeat the layers, finishing with the cheese on top.

This 5-ingredient spinach and ravioli lasagna is filling — especially if you added the optional ground beef! Our 25-ounce package of frozen ravioli contained 24 ravioli, so each serving will contain four cheesy ravioli. That was plenty of food for our test group, but we all agreed we could have eaten less lasagna if we had served it with a side dish. That will help you stretch the servings if you're feeding a crowd.

You can never go wrong by serving lasagna with a side salad. Try light, bright dressings like vinaigrettes, or contrast the heavy tomato sauce with a bold salad dressing like Caesar. Lasagna also pairs really well with garlic bread, and you can serve it with a variety of vegetables too. Try sauteed green beans or roasted vegetables like broccoli or Brussels sprouts.