Lasagna is one of the best comfort foods! I love to use both red and white sauce and stuff it full of wild game under a cheesy top.
This is a bit of a haul here, but it's truly worth the work to enjoy a comforting classic, especially on a cold winter's day. And - make it easy on yourself by making two pans and freezing one! It's not much work to double it and you will thank yourself later.
I have seriously upped my game when it comes to making more at once. It really just makes sense - and then you have a full freezer for those busy chore days or if you have an emergency. It also allows you to be generous when friends are having a rough go since you can just grab a meal and take it over.
I highly recommend making two of this lasagna at once. It's also truly easy to make big batches of taco meat - it's always better to freeze meal-ready meats instead of raw. Twice baked potatoes will use up your potatoes from the root cellar, and fried rice is a crowd pleaser.
Why You Need This Recipe
- A from-scratch, just like mama used to make family favourite.
- Use what ya got. From the meat to the cheese to the pasta, it's all easy to substitute.
- Gluten free! Yup, it doesn't have to be complicated to make a delicious gluten-free meal.
Key Ingredients
Meat - sausage adds a great flavour here but you can use any ground meat that's on hand. Just make sure and add seasoning if you are using plain meat instead of sausage.
Marinara - We can our own pasta sauce when tomatoes are plentiful, so that's what I use here.
White sauce - Two sauces for more fun!
Cheese - I prefer to mix up my cheese rather than just straight mozzarella. Use what's in your fridge.
Pasta - Tinkyada is our favourite pasta brand. They are made from brown rice and don't upset our tummies. I do recommend regular lasagna noodles and not the "no boil" type for this one.
How to Make Wild Game Lasagna
***See recipe card below for precise measurements and instructions.***
Step 1: Brown the meat and season if necessary. Add to a large bowl to combine with the marinara sauce and set aside.
Step 2: Make your béchamel - or just white sauce in my house! A roux gets milk and cream cheese to make a creamy sauce.
Step 3: Cook your noodles according to the package, shaving off a minute or two so they don't fall apart.
Step 4: Let's layer! In a greased pan, do half meat sauce, half cheese, half the noodles.
Step 5: Next up is the white sauce, rest of the red sauce, remaining noodles, and remaining cheese.
Step 5: You can either bake now or chill it off for later OR even freeze it! See below for more on that.
Tips and Tricks
This is super delicious if you use some sausage you have, but don't let lack of sausage stop you from making it. Lasagna is so forgiving that I find game meat adds no change in final product - unlike something like burgers or a roast that you need to change things up a bit. So if you’ve got moose, venison, elk bear, use away!
I also differ from the average cheeses because I think mozzarella is pretty boring! Feel free to just use mozzarella, but if you have some odds and ends in your cheese drawer, anything that melts is welcome here!
We do can our own pasta sauce, but you are free to use whatever jar you prefer (Rao's has clean ingredients, and even Aldi has a sugar-free option with basic ingredients). You can also make a quickie sauce:
- 2 cups tomato paste
- 2 cups water
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon dried basil
- ¼ cup dried onion flakes
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons salt
FAQs
Yup - use gluten-free flour in your roux and gluten-free noodles and you are good to go! Just make sure if using a jarred sauce that it doesn't contain gluten. Same goes for any prepackaged sausage you might use as gluten is sometimes in the seasoning.
Absolutely! You can bake this off right after assembling, or you can chill it in the fridge a few hours first if you need to. Remember you might need a few extra minutes if cooking from cold. You can also chill completely in the fridge, then wrap well before stashing in the freezer.
Freeze your lasagna in a metal pan and you can do my cheater method. I pop the frozen lasagna in a cold oven and let it heat up low until mostly thawed, then crank up the heat. Otherwise, thaw overnight in the fridge. Then bake covered before removing foil. You want to make sure the center is warm (stick a finger in and check, I won't tell) before uncovering to brown the cheese.
Just remember to only wrap your lasagna in oven-safe materials like foil so you aren't melting plastic wrap onto your hard work! Also, never use a glass baking dish in a COLD oven.
Photos by Dante from Shire by the Sea
More Wild Game Recipes
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Venison Lasagna
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground venison meat or sausage
- 2 teaspoons seasoned salt if using unseasoned meat
- 4 cups marinara sauce
- ¼ cup butter
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour or GF 1:1 blend
- 2 cups milk
- 4 oz cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2-3 cups grated cheese such as mozzarella, cheddar, asiago...
- 8 lasagna noodles prepared according to box directions
Instructions
- In a frying pan, brown your meat. Add seasoned salt if using plain meat rather than sausage.
- While it's browning, measure your marinara into a bowl that will also fit the cooked meat. When it's done, dump the meat into the sauce. If there is more than a few tablespoons of fat I would drain some off first.
- In a small to medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat, melt butter, then whisk in flour. Add milk and cook, whisking occasionally until bubbly and thickened. Remove from heat and add cream cheese and salt.
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Grease a 9x13 pan.
- In your pan, spread out half your meat sauce, followed by a scant half of your grated cheese.
- Layer half the noodles. Spend out the creamy sauce on top of the noodles, and then top with your remaining noodles. Spread the rest of your meat sauce out then top with your remaining cheese.
- Cover and chill until ready to use if you're not eating right away, up to 3 days. If you want to freeze it, chill completely then wrap well and freeze.
- Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes, until bubbly and browned. Let rest 10 minutes before serving.
To Cook From Frozen
- I suggest thawing it in the fridge 24 hours, and then baking it. It will probably need a few more minutes. Or my rebel way is I put the frozen pan covered in foil in a cold oven and start the oven off lower and once it's more thawed, uncover and crank the heat to brown it. Do not use a glass pan in a cold oven.
Notes
- Use any meat - bear, elk, moose, cow. Seriously, this is super adaptable to any ground red meat. Especially if you are new to wild game, the flavour is covered up by sauce and cheese so it's a great way to use it.
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