Garth Brooks’ favorite breakfast lasagna is a spectacular way to start off your weekend. Pasta layered with bacon, sausage, spinach, pimentos, eggs, lots of cheese–but no tomato sauce. If you aren’t in the mood for pasta for breakfast, we hear it makes a superb dinner, too.
Adapted from Trisha Yearwood | Trisha’s Kitchen | Mariner Books, 2021
My favorite thing about breakfast is that you can enjoy it any time of day. The restaurants who advertise “Breakfast all day!”—those are my people. And that’s no matter if you like savory dishes like quiches and casseroles or sweet ones like cinnamon rolls.
The cool thing about this concoction is that you can make it your own using your favorite breakfast meats, greens, and different kinds of veggies and cheeses.–Trisha Yearwood
☞ Contents
Breakfast Lasagna FAQs
What is center-cut bacon?
Essentially, center-cut bacon is just regular bacon with the fatty ends cut off. Honestly–you’re often paying the same price for less bacon. Regular bacon is longer with the fat still on the ends. Center-cut bacon comes from the same section of the pig; it’s just a shorter cut.
You can, obviously, sub in regular bacon. Feel free to snip off that little extra bit of fat, although, when cooked and drained, you’ll lose quite a bit of that fat anyway.
Can I make this ahead of time?
This is best served as soon as it’s cooked however, to save yourself some time in the morning, go ahead and prepare the filling so that when you get up, you just need to assemble the lasagna and pop it in the oven.
What should I serve with this?
This breakfast lasagna is rich and filling, so a bowl of fruit and a carafe of coffee is really all you need for a full meal.
Garth Brooks’ Favorite Breakfast Lasagna
Ingredients
- Non-stick cooking spray
- 12 ounces center-cut bacon
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound store-bought or homemade bulk sausage
- 1 shallot peeled and diced
- 1 package (10 ounce) frozen chopped spinach thawed and drained
- 1 jar (4 ounce) diced pimentos drained
- 4 cups grated Cheddar cheese
- 1 1/2 cups grated Gruyère cheese
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 cups whole milk
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 9 oven-ready lasagna noodles
- 6 large eggs whisked
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray a 9-by-13 inch (23-by-33 cm) baking dish with cooking spray.
- Using kitchen shears, cut bacon into small pieces, dropping them into a medium saucepan or skillet. Cook over medium heat until crispy, 5 to 7 minutes. Drain on a paper towel, and reserve 1/4 cup (60 ml) of the drippings in the saucepan or skillet.
- In a medium skillet over medium heat, warm the oil. Add sausage and cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until browned, 7 to 8 minutes. Remove sausage with a slotted spoon and transfer to a medium bowl.
- Add the shallots to the skillet with the sausage drippings and cook until softened a bit, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the spinach and pimentos and cook until heated through, 2 to 3 minutes more. Add sausage and bacon to the spinach mixture and toss to combine.
- In a large bowl, mix the Cheddar and Gruyère. Return the saucepan with the bacon drippings to medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook, whisking, until slightly browned, about 2 minutes. Add the milk and continue whisking until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.
- Remove saucepan from heat and add 3 cups of the grated cheeses. Stir until the cheese has melted, 1 to 2 minutes. Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
- Spread 3/4 cup (180 ml) of the cheese sauce over the bottom of the prepared pan. Layer 3 noodles over the sauce. Top with one-third of the bacon sausage mixture, one-quarter of the remaining grated cheeses, and one-third (about a heaping 1/2 cup (125 ml)) of the cheese sauce. Repeat the layers two more times, making sure all the top noodles are covered with sauce.
- Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper to the whisked eggs and pour over the lasagna. Top with the remaining grated cheeses.
- Bake until the cheese is golden brown and bubbling and the eggs are set, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest for at least 15 minutes before serving.
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Recipe Testers’ Reviews
Breakfast lasagna? With noodles? Yes, please! This recipe for Garth Brooks’ favorite breakfast lasagna intrigued me since I love all things breakfast (except pancakes).
I had to make a few very small changes to the recipe in that I did not have pimentos and whole milk and also substituted maple bacon for the bacon. So I substituted 2% milk for the whole milk and left the pimentos out. All and all, I don’t think it made much difference.
I think it would make 8 very generous servings. I didn’t serve it with any sides; however, if I was making this up for others, I would serve a bowl of cut fresh fruit with it to lighten up the dish. It’s a very hearty breakfast dish that I wouldn’t typically make except on a day for a group gathering or winter morning.
Originally published October 23, 2021
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If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #LeitesCulinaria. We'd love to see your creations on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Debbie Gigliotti
Reading over this breakfast lasagna recipe reminded me how the holidays and family gatherings are just around the corner. Bacon, sausage, lots of cheese, a winner for sure!
I suggest you prepare the filling the night before. The next day, after an hour to bake and rest, you have wonderful breakfast lasagna. Doing it in two stages means you don’t have to be up with the chickens to prepare breakfast and time to enjoy your morning coffee with your guests while it bakes. I served with a bowl of chopped oranges and hot coffee.