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Cottage Cheese Lasagna (Why I’ll Never Go Back to Ricotta)

By Michelle Marine

on Jun 12, 2026

20 Comments

If you’ve never made lasagna with cottage cheese, I’m about to make your weeknights a whole lot easier. This cottage cheese lasagna recipe gives you two 9×13 pans of lasagna plus enough leftover meat sauce for a third meal, all from one afternoon of prep.

Eat one lasagna tonight, tuck the second one in the freezer, and save that extra sauce for baked spaghetti later in the week.

I’ve been making this recipe for well over a decade, back when I was feeding four hungry kids on a rural Iowa acreage and needed dinner to stretch as far as my time did. The kids are mostly grown now, but I still make it exactly the same way. A freezer lasagna has saved us from expensive takeout more times than I can count, and now it’s also what I send home with my adult kids when they visit.

Why I Use Cottage Cheese Instead of Ricotta

• Ricotta is the traditional choice for lasagna, and I do use it occasionally. But honestly? I prefer cottage cheese, and here’s why:
• It’s saucier. Ricotta can bake up dry and grainy. Cottage cheese keeps the layers creamy and moist, which is exactly how I like my lasagna.
• It’s cheaper. Cottage cheese costs a lot less than ricotta, and when you’re making two pans at once, that adds up.
• It’s higher in protein and lower in fat. Cottage cheese is staging a comeback thanks to the high-protein crowd, and lasagna is one of the places it has always belonged. Each serving gets a nice protein boost without any protein powder weirdness.
• I’ll admit I used to tease people who put cottage cheese in lasagna. Then I tried it, and I’ve never looked back.

Ingredient Notes for Lasagna with Cottage Cheese

• Ground beef: I use 3 pounds of lean ground beef, usually from a local farmer. Because our beef is so lean, I brown the vegetables right along with the meat. If yours has more fat, cook the veggies separately so you can drain the meat first.
• Carrots and mushrooms: These are the secret veggies. Dice the carrots finely or grate them, and chop the mushrooms into tiny, unrecognizable pieces if you’re cooking for skeptics. I hid vegetables in this sauce for years and my kids never once complained about the flavor – as long as they couldn’t see anything suspicious.
• Crushed tomatoes and tomato paste: Three large cans of crushed tomatoes plus half a small can of tomato paste give the sauce body. Freeze the rest of the tomato paste for next time. If you put up your own tomatoes, home-canned crushed tomatoes or my roasted tomato sauce work beautifully here)
• Red wine: Totally optional, but a cup of red wine adds depth to the sauce. The alcohol cooks off during the long simmer.
• Cottage cheese: Two 16-ounce containers. I like 4% small curd for the creamiest texture, but use what you have. No need to drain it.
• Eggs: The eggs bind the cheese layer so it doesn’t ooze everywhere when you cut into the lasagna. You can skip them, but I don’t recommend it.
• Lasagna noodles: Regular noodles, straight from the box. No boiling. There’s enough sauce in this recipe that they’ll cook in the oven, even if the box doesn’t say no-boil.

How to Make Cottage Cheese Lasagna

The full recipe with exact amounts is in the recipe card below, but here’s a preview.

Start the sauce early. The majority of the work in this recipe is the sauce, and the secret to rich, flavorful pasta sauce is a long, lazy simmer. I usually start mine around lunchtime so it can bubble away for at least two hours. Brown the beef with the onions, garlic, carrots, and mushrooms, then add the tomatoes, wine, and seasonings and let time do the rest.

Slow cooker shortcut: If your afternoon is spoken for, prep everything the night before and let the sauce simmer in the slow cooker on low all day. Dinner practically makes itself.

Mix the cheese layer. Stir together the cottage cheese, mozzarella, eggs, and parsley.

Layer two pans at once. Sauce on the bottom of two 9×13 dishes, then cheese mixture, then uncooked noodles. Repeat until you have four layers of noodles in each pan, finish with sauce, and top with Parmesan.

Bake one, freeze one. Bake the first lasagna uncovered at 375°F for 40 minutes, then let it rest 10 minutes before cutting. Resting matters! It’s the difference between clean slices and lasagna soup. Wrap the second pan tightly and freeze it unbaked.

How to Freeze and Bake the Second Lasagna

This is where the recipe really earns its keep. Cover the unbaked second lasagna with plastic wrap, then a layer of aluminum foil, and freeze it for up to 3 months. Label it with the date and baking instructions so future you doesn’t have to think.

To bake from thawed: Move the lasagna to the fridge the night before, then bake at 375°F for 40 minutes.

To bake from frozen: No time to thaw? Bake it straight from the freezer, covered with foil, for about 60 minutes, then uncover and bake another 20 to 30 minutes until hot and bubbly in the center.

Leftover baked lasagna keeps in the fridge for 4 days and reheats well in the microwave or a 350°F oven.

What to Do with the Leftover Sauce: Easy Baked Spaghetti

You should have roughly 4 cups of meat sauce left after assembling both lasagnas. Freeze it in a labeled container, and when you’re ready for meal number three, turn it into baked spaghetti:

1. Cook 12 ounces of spaghetti until just shy of al dente and drain.
2. Toss the spaghetti with the thawed sauce and spread it in a greased 9×13 dish.
3. Top with 1 to 2 cups of shredded mozzarella.
4. Bake at 375°F for 20 to 25 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the edges are bubbling.

Or skip the oven and serve the sauce over plain spaghetti. If your family loves pasta night as much as mine does, my spaghetti and meatballs recipe is another favorite around here.

More Freezer-Friendly Family Dinners

Quick, Easy & Freezer Friendly Parmesan Garlic Chicken

Shepherd’s Pie Twice Baked Potatoes

Oven Baked Freezer Sandwiches

Make Ahead Lasagna Recipe with Cottage Cheese & Secret Veggies

By: Michelle Marine

Make this rich homemade pasta sauce with secret veggies and then turn it into two lasagnas and of baked spaghetti. Eat one meal the day you make it and add two meals to your freezer for not much more effort than you would have spent on dinner prep alone!

Prep: 45 minutes mins

Cook: 3 hours hrs

Total: 3 hours hrs 40 minutes mins

Servings: 24

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Ingredients 

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For the sauce

• ▢ 3 lbs lean ground beef
• ▢ 2 large onions, finely diced
• ▢ 6 cloves garlic, crushed
• ▢ 2 cups carrots, finely diced or grated if you need to hide it from picky eaters
• ▢ 6 ounces fresh mushrooms, chopped in minuscule (unrecognizable) pieces if you have picky eaters
• ▢ 3 – 28 ounce cans crushed tomatoes
• ▢ 1/2 – 6 ounce can tomato paste
• ▢ 1 cup red wine, optional
• ▢ 4 TBS Italian seasoning
• ▢ 1 TBS salt
• ▢ 1 tsp pepper

For the lasagna

• ▢ 16 ounces shredded mozzarella, 2 – 8 ounce bricks
• ▢ 2 – 16 ounce cottage cheese
• ▢ 4 eggs
• ▢ 1 tsp dried parsley
• ▢ 1 1/2 – 12 ounce boxes of lasagna
• ▢ 1/2 cup shredded Parmigiano Reggiano

Instructions 

To make the sauce

• Over medium heat, brown all of the ground beef. My meat is really lean so I always cook the veggies along with it as it browns. If your hamburger is not as lean, you may want to saute the veggies separately from the meat so you can drain off any fat before adding the sauteed veggies.
• When the meat has finished cooking, add the tomatoes, wine, and seasonings. Bring sauce to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer.
• After the sauce has simmered for at least an hour, taste the sauce and add any additional seasoning you may need.
• Continue simmering for at least another hour, if you have time, longer if you want.

Assemble the lasagna

• Preheat oven to 375.
• Mix cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese, eggs, and parsley. You can skip the eggs if you want, but they help bind the cheese and keep it from oozing out all over your pasta when you serve it.
• Spread 2 cups sauce over the bottom of two 9×13 oven & freezer safe dishes. Add 2 cups cheese mixture, then cover with 3 or 4 lasagna noodles, depending on the size of noodles that you use. No need to cook the noodles ahead of time, even if they say no boil. There’s enough sauce in this recipe that they cook up just fine.
• Repeat until you have added four layers of noodles and end with 2 final cups of sauce. Then finish with 1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese, more if you’d like. More cheese is always good, right?
• Bake lasagna uncovered for 40 minutes. Then let rest 10 minutes before cutting.
• Do not bake the second lasagna. Instead cover it with plastic wrap and then aluminum foil and freeze. To prepare it, remove from freezer and let thaw. Then bake at 375 for 40 minutes. Or, if you don’t have time to thaw it ahead of time, you can bake it from a frozen state, but it will take at least an additional 30 minutes to bake.
• You should also have a sufficient amount of prepared sauce left over as well. Place it in a freezer safe container and freeze it too.

Nutrition

Calories: 185kcal, Carbohydrates: 6g, Protein: 19g, Fat: 9g, Saturated Fat: 4g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.5g, Monounsaturated Fat: 3g, Trans Fat: 0.2g, Cholesterol: 79mg, Sodium: 516mg, Potassium: 343mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 2g, Vitamin A: 2001IU, Vitamin C: 2mg, Calcium: 155mg, Iron: 2mg

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