Lasagna Cups

My husbands favorite food on this planet is Lasagna. I'm fairly certain that if I allowed it he'd probably eat it morning, noon, and night day in and day out. I'm not kidding when I say I've gone to visit family for a week or weekend and before I leave I'll make up up a pan of lasanga and he'll spend the next few days eating it. This man LOVES his lasagna. So when I found this recipe on Pinterest I knew it'd be a hit.

While I was planning out meals for the next while a couple weeks ago I decided I would try this out for Valentine's Day as a special treat to the hubby. Man was he glad to see me making lasagna, even if in a different form. He's even asked me to make it again for his birthday next week! We'll have to see about that one... ;)

So without further adieu, I bring you...

 

(Not my picture or my recipe. Click on title for original.)

Lasagna Cups

Ingredients:

Sauce:

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 large onion

1/2 lb. lean ground beef, cooked and drained

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

1 small zucchini, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 6 oz. can tomato paste

1 8 oz. can tomato sauce (+ 1/2 can water to wash out can)

1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes

1 Tbsp. dried basil

1/2 Tbsp. dried oregano

1 bay leaf

1 tsp. sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

Cheese Filling:

1 10 oz. tub Philidelphia Italian Herb & Cheese cooking cream

1/3 c. grated parmesan cheese

3/4 lb. mozzarella cheese, grated and divided

1/3 c. ricotta cheese

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 egg

21 Lasagna pasta sheets

Directions:

Sauce: Heat oil over medium heat and saute onion, pepper, zucchini, and garlic until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in cooked ground beef and tomato paste until well incorporated. Stir in remaining ingredients and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to low and cook for 30 minutes or so. (The longer it cooks, the better it will taste!) This will be very thick.

Cheese Filling: Stir all ingredients together excluding half of the grated mozzarella cheese, set aside.

Pasta: Bring large pot of salted water to boil. Cook pasta sheets 2 minutes less than package directions and drain. Place pasta on greased baking sheet until you are read for assembly.

Assembly: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 jumbo muffin tins (I just did 18 regular) with squares of parchment paper. If they don't stay in on their own, that's okay - the pasta will help wihtthat. Line the edges of the muffin tins with 1 pasta sheet per cup (sheet will overlap about 2 inches). Spoon about 1/2 Tbsp. of sauce into the bottom of each cup. Next cut 9 pasta sheets into quarters and press one of these pieces of pasta into the bottom on top of the sauce. Top pasta sheet with a generous tablespoon of sauce and then a generous tablespoon of cheese filling. Repeat this pasta-sauce-cheese layerong one more time being sure to press out any air bubbles. Top these lasagna cups off with a third piece of pasta, more sauce, and the remaining mozzarella cheese. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until everything is hot and bubbly. Serve hot.

If you love lasagna, I'm sure you'll love this as much as us!

For the pin, click here!

Until next time,

Amanda