This Dill Pickle Cheddar Lasagna is filled with dill pickle soaked noodles, pickles, ricotta with fresh dill, and a creamy cheddar sauce.
Some will argue that this Dill Pickle Cheddar Lasagna isn’t true lasagna.
But I totally beg to differ.
It’s made with lasagna noodles and is therefore lasagna.
Is it Italian lasagna?
Absolutely not.
Is it tasty?
You bet.
Especially if you have a pickle obsession like my husband and I.
How much of an obsession?
Well, I’ve made Dill Pickle Cheddar Cheese Soup (which we make all the time).
Dill Pickle Cream Cheese Pull Apart Bread. Try and say that five times fast.
Cream Cheese Dill Pickle Dip and Fried Pickle and Ranch Dip.
And Dill Pickle Cheddar Mac and Cheese.
So yeah, we like us some dill pickles.
Especially with cheddar cheese.
When I went to my parents a few weeks ago my dad had me make him my mom’s lasagna.
My mom doesn’t cook anymore and he was missing it.
So I made a bunch.
But I still had leftover noodles.
Which when exhausted from traveling I just shoved the extra noodles anywhere in the cupboard.
The next time I opened up the cupboard they were there on top of the dill pickles.
Or should I say 10 jars of pickles…we have a problem.
Thought, I’ll make dill pickle lasagna and went to Google and found no recipe.
Hmmm.
That meant I had to figure it out.
The sauce and noodle combo was the hardest to figure out.
Because dill pickles and traditional red sauce don’t seem like a good mix.
Then again, I have never tried it so who knows. But it didn’t sound good to me.
So I thought, well, a bechamel sauce with cheese.
Cheddar is the best with dill pickles.
But bechamel sauce is pretty thick.
And when you use oven ready noodles they depend on the juice in the sauce to kind of finish cooking them.
So I knew that wasn’t going to happen.
That’s why I dip the noodles in dill pickle juice before layerings.
Kind of like tiramisu.
Though don’t worry…no dill pickle tiramisu in the works. 😀
Anyway, if you and your family love pickles like we do then add this to your dinner rotation!
Plus the extra dunk in the juice gives even more pickle flavor.
Since ricotta doesn’t have a ton of flavor I added a lot of fresh dill to the mix.
I’m not sure how dried dill would do in there but you can always try it.
Also, again, with a little pickle juice to give it more flavor.
Then just good ol’ cheddar cheese.
Sharp cheddar is what I used but whatever you prefer will work just fine.
I used the stacker pickles but you can use the hamburger dill pickle chips if you can’t find those.
And as always it’s a great day to order my cookbook.Â
Want More Dinner Ideas?
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Dill Pickle Cheddar Lasagna
Ingredients
- For the Cheddar Cheese Sauce:
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- For the DIll Ricotta:
- 24 oz whole milk ricotta
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup (yes, cup) chopped fresh dill
- 1/4 cup dill pickle juice
- 1/4 tsp salt
- For the Lasagna:
- 15 oven ready lasagna noodles
- 1 cup dill pickle juice
- 1 cup cheddar cheese, divided
- 20 stacker pickles (or about 80 dill pickle chips)
- 1/3 cup diced dill pickle
Instructions
- For the Cheddar Cheese Sauce:
- Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.
- Sprinkle in flour and whisk to combine.
- Cook for approximately 1 minute, whisking often.
- Add the milk and heavy cream together in a measuring cup.
- Slowly pour in about 1 cup of the milk/heavy cream while whisking constantly, until smooth.
- Slowly pour in the remaining milk/cream, while whisking constantly, until combined and smooth.
- Continue to heat over medium heat, whisking very often, until thickened to a very thick consistency.
- Remove from the heat and stir in spices and 1 1/2 cups cheese, stirring to melt and combine. Stir until completely melted and smooth.
- For the Dill Ricotta:
- Mix all the ingredients together until fully combined.
- Set aside.
- To layer the Lasagna:
- Using a 9-x-13 pan ladle a third of the cheddar cheese sauce.
- Place the 1 cup pickle juice into a shallow pan, such as a pie plate.
- Dip 5 oven ready noodles into the dill pickle juice to wet them. The cheese sauce is thick and is not juicy like traditional lasagna with a red sauce so dipping the noodles adds pickle flavor and will help soften them when they cook.
- Layer the 5 noodles in the pan. They may overlap in spots and gap in others...it's fine.
- Spread a half the ricotta fresh dill mixture in an even layer.
- Sprinkle with 1/3 cup cheddar cheese over the ricotta mixture as evenly as possible.
- Layer 10 dill pickle stackers staggering them out so that each bite will have pickle.
- Top with a third of the cheese sauce.
- Dip 5 more oven ready noodles into the dill pickle juice to wet them.
- Layer the 5 noodles on top of the pickle layer.
- Add the remaining ricotta mixture and spread evenly across the noodles.
- Sprinkle with 1/3 cup cheddar cheese over the ricotta mixture as evenly as possible.
- Layer 10 dill pickle stackers staggering them out so that each bite will have pickle.
- Dip 5 more oven ready noodles into the dill pickle juice to wet them.
- Layer the 5 noodles on top of the pickle layer.
- Top with remaining third of cheddar cheese sauce.
- Cover with foil and bake at 375F for 40 minutes.
- Remove from oven (leave oven on) and remove foil.
- Sprinkle remaining 1/3 cup cheddar cheese and the diced dill pickle pieces.
- Place back in oven and bake until cheese is melted and bubbly, about 8-10 minutes.
- Let cool for about 10 minutes and then serve.
Irene says
Very creative! I would try this with brined Kosher dills. I like those in dill pickle soup as well.
Chris David says
Great recipe and really a nice one. Will surely try this