Lasagna Meatloaf
I love a super meaty lasagna, and Lasagna Meatloaf takes that concept to the next level! Growing up in an Italian American family, my mom’s meatloaf tasted like a big meatball, and the glaze was basically just a sweeter version of her tomato sauce. Adding lasagna noodles to the layers of a meatloaf felt like a no-brainer to me, The flavors match perfect and the pasta feels like it should be there!
The hardest part of creating this recipe was deciding if this is a lasagna meatloaf, or if it is in-fact a meatloaf lasagna. I still am unsure. Other than that, it came together really easily and was really delicious!
The idea for this recipe
Normally I write here where I came up with the idea for the recipe but I really am at a loss for where this one came from. I am guessing I saw a super meaty lasagna and probably thought it was filled with meatloaf. When I looked closer, it wasn’t. I wished it was, so I made one myself. YEA! Let’s stick with that story.
Building the Lasagna Meatloaf
I wanted this to be a free-standing meatloaf. The hope was that the noodles would help keep the structure together.
I make an Italian meatloaf mix with lots of parsley and garlic. Tomato paste and honey was my go-to instead of using ketchup. There is nothing wrong with using ketchup in my opinion, but I did not want it in this recipe! I did a beef and turkey mixture but you could also do pork, I just had turkey around.
Ingredients in my meatloaf mixture
- ground beefย 20% fat
- ground turkey –ย you could use pork if you prefer
- egg
- onion
- garlic
- fresh parsley
- tomato paste
- panko breadcrumbs
- milk
- dried Italian seasoning
- salt
- black pepper
Shape the meat to match the width of two lasagna noodles, and length of one lasagna noodle. The layers go – meat, noodle, cheese, meat, noodle, cheese, meat, noodle, cheese, meat. The cheeses were ricotta and mozzarella
Before it goes into the oven it’s already looking beautiful!
Making the meatloaf glaze
Olive oil, shallots, garlic, and tomato paste to start the sauce / glaze. Then I added crushed tomato, worcestershire, and honey.
The worcestershire sauce and honey really turn this from something more lasagna-y to something more meatloaf-y! These are important bridge ingredients that help it feel like a mashup of lasagna and meatloaf, and not just a meaty lasagna.
This was in the oven for 30 minutes at 425. Glaze it and cook another 15
So good! This is the moment I knew it was a winner. It smelled so good too!
Perfect cross section. I debated adding sauce to the layers, but I thought that would take away from the meatloaf aspect and lean it too far into lasagna territory. It also would have made it too sloppy!
A dream mashup of two comfort classics! Lasagna meatloaf in all it’s glory.
Twists on the recipe
When I make mash-ups like this, I make them catered towards what I grew up eating and what I know as “meatloaf”. I want it to taste like what YOU know as meatloaf as well. If your meatloaf recipe is drastically different from this, you should try making it with your recipe! If your meatloaf glaze recipe is drastically different than this one, you should try making this with your family recipe! That way it will taste more true to what you love, and will be a perfect mashup for you!
If you need a more classic meatloaf recipe as a starting point to turn into lasagna meatloaf, check out this one from The Wholesome Dish.
If you want more lasagna mash-ups, check out my lasagna burger, lasagna deep dish, and pierogi lasagna!
Lasagna Meatloaf
Ingredients
Meatloaf mix
- 1 pound ground beef 20% fat
- 1 pound ground turkey you could use pork if you prefer
- 1 egg
- 1 onion diced
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped
- 3 oz tomato paste
- 3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1/3 cup milk
- 2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
Build it
- 6 full lasagna noodles
- 3/4 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 cup mozzarella
Sauce
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 shallot minced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 3 oz tomato paste
- 14 oz crushed tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 cup honey
Instructions
- In a large bowl mix all the meatloaf ingredients to combine. Stir until fully mixed.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the lasagna noodles until tender but not fully cooked. They should still have a slight bite to them.
- Lay two of the noodle snext to each other on a sheet pan lined with parchment so that the ruffles overlap in the center. Remove them from the pan but keep an eye on where they were so you can use that as a guide. preheat oven to 425
- put 1/4 of the meat down on the pan where the noodles were. Place the two noodles back on top and use your hands to shape the meat into a rectangle under the noodles.
- Spread 1/3 of the ricotta onto the noodles, then sprinkle on some cheese.
- Repeat with the next 1/4 of meat, then noodles and cheeses. Then one more time, and then the remaining meat on top. It should be meat on the top and bottom with 3 layers of pasta and 4 layers of meat.
- Shape the loaf a bit with your hands to make a nice rectangular box. Put into the oven for 30 minutes.
- Right when the loaf goes into the oven, put the olive oil on in a frying pan and add the shallots. Cook 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute. Add in the tomato paste and cook, mashing and mixing the paste, for 3-5 minutes until fragrant.
- Add in the can of tomatoes, the worcestershire, and the honey and stir to combine. Heavily simmer for the remaining 20 minutes or so time the loaf has to cook.
- Remove the loaf and spread the sauce on top evenly so it drips down the sides a bit. Return to the oven for about 15 more minutes until fully cooked.
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes before slicing and serving with extra sauce.
Any reason this cannot be made 1 day ahead and refrigerated until cooking?
should be fine!
Can you use a meatloaf pan instead of a sheet pan?
you could, I wanted it to stand free and look like a meatloaf so that is why I did it this way.
This looks deeeelish!!
Can it be made with the no-cook lasagna noodles??
This recipe probably wouldn’t work cause you need extra liquid in recipes with no-cook, that being said, I am not super familiar with them, so I can’t tell you for sure
Would this work with lasagna noodles that do not require pre-cooking?
I don’t think it would because there isn’t enough moisture to soften them, but I am not sure!
Could you pre soak ready to bake lasagna noodles so that they already have the required moisture needed to bake up properly?
I suppose, but real lasagna noodles taste so much better and if you are doing the step of soaking them, how is it much different than boiling them?
This looks delicious and my husband can’t wait for me to make it. I am diabetic. Can I leave out the honey?
You can definitely leave out the honey! I cook with honey a lot and often use it in place of sugar. The reason for it in this recipe, is because normally the meatloaf glaze has ketchup in it which has a lot of sugar. I replaced the ketchup with tomato paste, honey, and worcestershire sauce. Leaving out the honey might cause the glaze to feel less “glaze-y” but it will still taste great
The raw meat must produce a lot of grease say?
The sauce/glaze was way too sweet. It would be better with some kind of regular pasta sauce, even an Alfredo. So, more like lasagna and less like awful ketchup-drenched meat loaf.
Thanks for the feedback! The whole point for the sweeter glaze is so that it tastes like a cross between lasagna and meatloaf. I mention in the post that I made it this way specifically for this reason but that if you prefer it to taste more like lasagna you could use regular sauce.
What size shallot do you use? I have 2, DRASTICALLY different sizes!
It won’t make a huge difference, depends how “shalloty” you want it haha. If you are worried, use three quarters of the larger one.
I made this exactly as the recipe said and it was so very good!!
I can’t put my finger on it, as the concept looks great, but it just did not come together well for me. The only change I made to the actual meatloaf was to use Italian sausage and beef. I have used this combo before in plain meatloaves so I know that was not the issue. Hubby said it was bitter. He is much more sensitive to this, but it just didn’t taste good to me, the meatloaf and lasagna lover. I cut the honey down in the sauce (needing to limit carbs), so the issues we had with the sauce are not the recipe’s fault, although it did taste fine simmering on the stove. I’m thinking it was the worcestershire sauce, which I probably should have left out with the honey. Even when I ate some leftovers and took it apart, I could not finger the poor taste as one part, it just seemed to be overall. I think I may use the concept again (great concept), but just use my own “recipes” for lasagna and meatloaf.
This was really interesting. Mine came out much thicker, because I had a hard time getting the meat to spread as thin as you did. I’ll modify the seasonings and sauce a little next time so it’s not as sweet, and I’ll probably the parchment on a rack inside the pan so the grease can drain off. This was fun and inventive!