The Best Ground Venison Lasagna Recipe

A lasagna like no other! If you are looking for a recipe to use ground venison, this lasagna is one of my favorite ground deer recipes!

Made with ground venison, bacon, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, and parmesan cheese, this homemade lasagna is epic!

Grab your favorite casserole dish and get cooking; this Sunday, family dinner is going to have everyone asking for seconds, thirds, and fourths!

Serve your venison lasagna alongside a fresh green salad and garlic bread!

Ground Venison Recipes

Hopefully, you had a great hunting season and have plenty of frozen ground deer meat to use throughout the year.

This ground venison lasagna is loaded with ricotta and fresh mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce.

This is truly the BEST lasagna you are ever going to whip together.

Whether you are a novice in the kitchen or a master chef, this recipe is for you! Not to mention, everyone you share it with will be begging for the recipe.

Ingredients for Ground Venison Lasagna

Meat: 2 lbs of ground venison and 6 slices of bacon.

Pasta: You can't make lasagna without sheets of lasagna! I used 12 sheets of lasagna from wegmans.

Dairy and Eggs: 3 cups of shredded mozzarella, 4 oz of fresh mozzarella, ¼ cup of grated parmesan,16 oz of ricotta, 2 Eggs, and ⅓ cup of heavy cream.

Seasoning and Dry Ingredients: 1 tbsp of Italian seasoning, 1 tsp of sea salt, 2 tsp of black pepper, 2 tbsp of minced garlic, and 1 tbsp of cornstarch.

Sauce: 3 cups of tomato sauce. I used a marinara sauce, however, you can swap with your preference.

For Cooking: 2 tbsp of water.

How to Make The Best Ground Venison Lasagna

Do not get intimidated by the steps! I repeat, DO NOT get intimidated; I promise, this is an easy recipe to follow and your taste buds will be thankful that you did!

Lasagna Noodle Preparation

• You have 3 options when it comes to lasagna noodles. You can use fresh noodles like the ones I used in this recipe or you can use the oven-ready dry noodles.The other option is to take traditional dry noodles and soak them in a pan pouring over boiling water and letting the noodle sit for 20-30 minutes until tender .

Preparing the meat mixture

• In a large pan saute chopped raw bacon for 3-5 minutes until fully cooked. Next add in your ground venison and cook for about 5 minutes.
• Add, garlic and half of the salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Once the venison is almost fully cooked add in the heavy cream and cook for 2 minutes.
• Next pour in your tomato sauce and stir until well combined then mix together cornstarch and water into a slurry and stir into the mixture. Continue to stir until the sauce thickens then remove from heat and set aside to cool for 30 minutes

Preparing the ricotta filling

• In a bowl whisk together 2 eggs along with remaining salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning as well as the ricotta and parmesan cheese until smooth.

Lasagna Assembly and Cooking

• Collect your cheeses, meat mixture, ricotta filling, and lasagna noodles along with your casserole dish so you can begin to layer your lasagna in the pan.
• Begin with a thin layer of the meat mixture followed by a layer of lasagna noodles, ricotta filling, meat mixture, and fresh mozzarella. Next, begin with your second layer of noodles, ricotta, meat sauce until the pan is filled to the brim.
• Top with a thin layer of shredded parmesan and bake in the oven at 350 degrees F for 45-60 minutes until the internal temperature of the lasagna has reached 160 degrees F.
• Set oven to low broil and top the lasagna with shredded mozzarella and broil until cheese is melted and slightly golden.
• For best serving results let lasagna rest for 10-15 minutes before slicing and serving.

What is Ground Venison?

Ground venison is the same thing as ground deer! So if you are looking for the perfect ground deer recipe to add to your collection, this is it!

Not sure if you are a fan of ground deer or looking for a substitution?

You can of course make this recipe with ground beef, ground chicken, or ground turkey, but if you are looking for a more gamey venison substitution, you can use ground elk or ground lamb.

What is the Best Way to Cook Ground Venison?

There are so many different ways to cook ground venison like baking, grilling, or frying.

Something important to remember is you can cook ground venison the same way you'd cook ground beef, ground chicken, or any other ground meat.

The key when cooking meat, no matter how you cook it, is to always use a cooking or meat thermometer to ensure the meat is fully cooked.

Do you put meat first in lasagna?

When assembling the lasagna, the layers are so important.

Yes, there is a way to screw it up; so avoid doing anything weird and follow these layering steps:

• Add a thin layer of sauce to the bottom on the pan
• Add lasagna noodles over the sauce
• Drop dollops of your ricotta mixture and smooth out
• Add a layer of sauce and repeat the process until you are happy with how many layers you have.

Is 3 layers enough for lasagna?

Some will say yes and some will say no. There is no rule or "traditional" number of layers that go along with making a lasagna.

Typically, you will find about 3-4 layers. However, depending on how deep your dish is and how hearty you want your lasagna or how big of a dinner you are hosting, you can keep adding layers!

One thing I will say, don't make lasagna with less than 3 layers; 3 is really the minimum you can go with.

Storing Leftover Lasagna

To properly store leftover lasagna, grab an airtight container and pop it in the fridge for roughly 3-5 days.

If you are looking for your leftovers to last a bit longer, you can freeze the airtight container or use a heavy-duty Ziploc plastic freezer bag.

Reheating Venison Lasagna

Check out this video of my favorite way to reheat lasagna

@culinarylion

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