Meals · Pasta & noodle bakes

Cottage cheese lasagna

Name: Cottage cheese lasagna
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 75 min
Total time: 105 min
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 500 g 90% lean ground beef; 1 onion yellow onions, finely chopped; 4 cloves garlic, minced; 700 g crushed tomatoes; 2 tbsp tomato paste; 2 big handfuls baby spinach; 1 1/2 tsp dried basil; 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano; 1/2 tsp salt, less than usual — the cottage cheese is salted; 1 tsp black pepper; 400 g cottage cheese, small curd, blended; 1 egg egg; 1/2 cup grated parmesan; 12 sheets pasta, lasagna, no-boil; 2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

Cottage cheese where the ricotta goes and a couple of handfuls of spinach through the ragù. Midwest kitchens have built lasagna this way for generations, and it holds better in a long bake than ricotta, which goes grainy.

Time: 105 min (30 prep + 75 cook)
Servings: 8
Per serving: 446 kcal
Protein: 34 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

Ragù

500 g 90% lean ground beef500 g
1 onion yellow onions, finely chopped150 g
4 cloves garlic, minced12 g
700 g crushed tomatoes700 g
2 tbsp tomato paste30 g
2 big handfuls baby spinach300 g
1 1/2 tsp dried basil3 g
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano3 g
1/2 tsp salt, less than usual — the cottage cheese is salted3 g
1 tsp black pepper2 g

Cheese layer

400 g cottage cheese, small curd, blended400 g
1 egg egg50 g
1/2 cup grated parmesan50 g

12 sheets pasta, lasagna, no-boil250 g
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded200 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Brown the beef, add the onion until soft, then the garlic, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, herbs and pepper. Simmer 20 minutes, then stir in the spinach until it wilts and cook off any water it releases.
Blend the cottage cheese smooth and mix it with the egg and parmesan. Small curd, full fat, blended — large curd stays visible and fat-free goes watery.
Layer at 190°C (375°F): ragù, sheets, cottage cheese, mozzarella, repeating and finishing with ragù and mozzarella.
Foil on, 45 minutes; foil off, 20–25 more. Rest 20 minutes before cutting, or it slides apart.

Is this a substitution?

Not really — it is how a large part of the American Midwest has always made lasagna, and it has a technical argument on its side. Ricotta separates and turns grainy over an hour in the oven; cottage cheese holds together.

Why less salt?

Cottage cheese is salted and ricotta barely is — around three times the sodium for the same weight. Keep the seasoning where it was and the dish gets salty and, on this site's formula, scores worse for it.

Alternative

Classic lasagnathe ricotta classic43

Why this score

solidly filling

No single route carries this one — a moderate amount of protein, volume and fiber.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

31% of kcal

70% water

10 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

Nothing here converges the way engineered food does — no sugar, no savoury and no alcohol penalty.

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 3569 kcal goes into the pot, 2653 g of ingredients comes out as ~2400 g of food → 149 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 149
Protein: (31%); 11 g
Fat: (35%); 6 g
Carbohydrates: (34%); 12 g
of which sugar: 2 g
Fiber: 2 g
Sodium: 306 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

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Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.