Cottage cheese lasagna, with the ricotta question answered

Cottage cheese replaces ricotta in lasagna 1:1. Drained and mixed with egg and parmesan, it bakes into a layer that sets and slices the way ricotta does. It is also the lighter cheese and the higher-protein one: against whole-milk ricotta it takes 5 to 6 g of fat off each slice and adds 2 to 4 g of protein.

The recipe above makes eight slices from a 23 by 33 cm (9 by 13 inch) dish, at about 521 calories and 36 g of protein each by our estimate. The rest of this page is the ricotta comparison in numbers, the egg question, and what makes a cottage cheese lasagna go watery.

Can you use cottage cheese instead of ricotta in lasagna?

Yes, 1:1, and it comes out ahead on every macro. Here is one slice of the lasagna above made five ways, at 85 g of cheese a slice.

USDA’s current entry for whole-milk ricotta gives 7.5 g of protein per 100 g, against 11.1 g for full-fat cottage cheese (FoodData Central, SR Legacy 170851 and 172179). Older versions of the same table gave ricotta 11.3 g, and that figure is still repeated on nutrition sites, so you will see the two cheeses described as equal on protein. On current figures they are not.

The labels tell the same story. Across 16 US brands of full-fat cottage cheese on Open Food Facts, the median is 10.6 g of protein per 100 g. Across six brands of whole-milk ricotta it is 9 g, and Galbani’s label gives 4 g per quarter cup, about 6.5 g per 100 g. On fat, cottage cheese has less than half of ricotta’s whichever source you use.

If you like ricotta’s softer, milkier layer, half of each is a fair compromise, and the row above shows what it costs.

Brand figures were checked on 18 September 2026, with each brand’s products reduced to one median first so a brand sold in five sizes does not count five times. Contains information from Open Food Facts, available under the Open Database License.

Do you put an egg in cottage cheese for lasagna?

Yes. The egg is what turns the cheese into a layer rather than a spread: it sets in the oven and holds the curds together, so a slice keeps its shape instead of slumping onto the plate. Two eggs set the whole dish, which is a quarter of an egg a slice, about 18 calories and 1.6 g of protein.

Without egg the layer still bakes, just softer, and it weeps a little when you cut it. If you are leaving it out, drain the cottage cheese for longer and add a little more parmesan to help it hold.

Should you blend the cottage cheese?

Only if you mind the curds. Unblended, they stay as small soft lumps through the bake and show in the cut face of a slice, which is a matter of taste. Blended for a minute, the layer is smooth and reads as ricotta. Either way, drain it first, because any liquid you blend back in comes out again in the oven.

What to mix with cottage cheese for lasagna

The egg, for the set. Parmesan, for flavour and to take up some of the moisture. Half the mozzarella, so the layer has some stretch. Parsley and black pepper. A pinch of nutmeg suits it too, as it suits most soft cheese fillings.

What it does not need is salt. By USDA’s figures, full-fat cottage cheese carries nearly three times the sodium of whole-milk ricotta, 315 mg per 100 g against 110 mg, and the parmesan brings more on top.

Where the protein in a slice comes from

One slice is an eighth of the dish.

About half the protein, 19 g, comes from the cheeses and the egg. The beef brings 11 g and nearly half the fat, which is why swapping it moves the fat and leaves the protein where it was. The pasta carries only 4 g, so chickpea noodles do less here than on a plate of spaghetti, which holds nearly three times as much pasta.

The two swaps, and what each is worth

Turkey is a fat swap. Per 100 g raw, 93 percent lean turkey and 80/20 beef carry almost the same protein by USDA figures, 17.3 g against 17.5 g, and the turkey has half the fat. It gives up less fat in the pan, so there will be little or nothing to pour off. The turkey bolognese covers how to brown it so it does not turn grey.

Chickpea noodles add protein, not lightness. The figures come from Chickapea’s label, 13 g of protein per 56 g serving against about 7 g for wheat noodles by USDA values, at almost the same calories. They are also harder to find than chickpea spaghetti. On 18 September 2026 Chickapea’s own shop showed its lasagna sold out and Banza’s shop no longer listed one, though both still appeared on supermarket sites. Buy them when you see them rather than planning a dinner around them.

If it is carbohydrate you want to cut, zucchini, courgette in Britain, is the bigger lever. About 120 g of it a slice in place of the noodles takes roughly 19 g of carbohydrate and 2 g of protein off each slice. It also turns the dish wetter unless you salt and roast the slices first, so treat it as a different lasagna rather than a swap.

What goes wrong

A watery lasagna. Cottage cheese holds more water than ricotta, about 80 percent of its weight against 74 percent by USDA figures, and the oven drives it out. Drain it while the sauce cooks, simmer the sauce until it is only a little looser than a spaghetti sauce rather than soupy, and let the dish stand before you cut it. Lower-fat cottage cheese is wetter still, 81 to 83 percent water, so drain it for longer. It is a fair trade if you want it: 1% milkfat saves about 3 g of fat a slice and adds a little protein.

Hard edges. No-boil noodles cook in the liquid around them, and any corner left above the sauce bakes into something closer to a cracker. Push the top layer of sauce into the corners and keep the foil on for the first 30 minutes.

A slice that slumps. Straight from the oven the cheese layer is still loose, and it firms up as it cools. Fifteen minutes is enough. The egg is the other half of this.

Too salty. Season the sauce lightly and the cheese mixture not at all, then taste a corner of the finished dish before you reach for the salt.

Vegetarian cottage cheese lasagna

Replace the beef with 100 g of mushrooms and 40 g of spinach a slice, 800 g and 320 g for the dish. Cook the sliced mushrooms and the onion in a teaspoon of oil until the mushrooms have given up their water and started to brown, then carry on with the garlic. Wilt the spinach, squeeze it hard and stir it into the cheese mixture. A slice comes to about 411 calories, 30 g of protein and 14 g of fat by our estimate.

Parmesan made the traditional way uses animal rennet, so a strictly vegetarian version needs a vegetarian hard cheese in its place.

Is cottage cheese lasagna healthy?

It is lasagna, and a slice is a full dinner. What cottage cheese changes is the arithmetic: about 521 calories and 36 g of protein a slice as written, about 468 and 39 g with both swaps, against 565 to 574 calories with ricotta in the same dish. The biggest lever is the one no recipe card mentions. These numbers assume an eighth of the dish, and cutting it in six makes every slice a third bigger.

On a weeknight, the lasagna soup gets the same flavours into a bowl in 45 minutes, at about 479 calories and 30 g of protein.

Lasagne with cottage cheese instead of white sauce

In Britain, lasagne is more often layered with a white sauce, béchamel, than with ricotta. The cottage cheese layer takes the same place in the stack, and weight for weight it carries about three times the protein of a béchamel made with whole milk, butter and flour, with about half the fat, by USDA values. Beef mince, passata and lasagne sheets are the British names for the ingredient lines above.

Making it ahead, storing and freezing

Assemble it up to a day ahead, cover it and keep it in the fridge, then add 10 to 15 minutes to the covered bake, because it goes in cold. Leftovers keep 3 to 4 days in the fridge and 3 to 4 months in the freezer, the USDA guidance for leftovers. Reheat a slice covered until it is hot in the middle, 74C (165F). The cheese layer can loosen a little after freezing, which the sauce mostly hides.

Every figure on this page is an estimate from typical ingredient values and product labels, not a measurement. Why recipe macros are estimates explains how far they move with the brands you buy.