Recipe Lasagna

I'm sure we all make ours a bit differently. Hell, I have difficulty making the same lasagna twice.

My basic lasagna layers:

1) Bechamel
2) A thick, homemade tomato sauce, usually a little chunky
3) Vegetables, cooked to get extra moisture out (I like roasted broccoli, zucchini, and mushrooms)
4) Ricotta, mixed with an egg and whizzed together with cooked, well-seasoned with oregano and basil
5) Significant amounts of mozzarella, also provolone if on hand

I typically use no-cook noodles because I try to keep the mess to a minimum. I like to mix up the layers, and some layers combine a little of the bechamel with the tomato sauce. Yum.

The weirdest lasagna I've ever made was a vegan, gluten-free lasagna using layers of mashed cauliflower as noodles and tofu instead of ricotta. It was fucking tasty!

The last lasagna I made I was sure was going to be a failure. I added cooked mushrooms to my bechamel and it got weirdly chunky. I had to smooth it out with my immersion blender, which meant the mushrooms blended into the bechamel. Also, the only pack of cooked, frozen spinach I had on hand was funky, so I had no spinach in my ricotta layer. So many things went askew in the making of this lasagna that when my husband said, "Oh, I was thinking about going to the brewpub to watch the basketball game," I threw foil on the thing and stuck it in the fridge for the next day; I called it the Lasagna Incident of 2014. Suffice it to say, this lasagna was a little light on the vegetables and mostly cheese, but it was actually really good. I was surprised.

And yes, @Martian, I made this thread all because of you.

 

@hamsterball, sometimes there are dietary needs to accommodate. That was when we were on some vegan diet my mother-in-law wanted us to try for her moral support.

 

My husband tends to complain if there are no vegetables in the lasagna, hence my feeling that the Lasagna Incident of 2014 would be a disaster. It wasn't, and that was a relief.

 

I usually roast the broccoli before including it in a lasagna; it heightens the flavor and takes care of the moisture issue.

 

I don't have a lot of time to get into more at the moment, but one of my things about lasagne is that I don't use no-boil noodles, nor do I boil them.

I ensure that the dry noodles are well saturated in sauce top and bottom, end to end, when I layer the dish. This contact with moisture is more than enough to cook the noodles when the dish is baked. The result, I have found, is firmer noodles (I'm pretty adamant on al dente when it comes to pasta in general), not to mention time/work savings in not having to boil anything beforehand.

 

Pro tip for when you don't want to boil noodles - assemble the lasagna the night before and put it in the fridge. Let it sit like that for 12-24 hours. Take out 60-90 minutes before putting it in the oven. Bake as normal.


The noodles will be soft as if they were pre-boiled. The other flavors tend to mesh better too IMO.

 

Come to think of it, I've never boiled lasagne noodles, nor have I ever used no-boil noodles. It's just how I've rolled on the lasagne.

Boiling lasagne noodles seems unnecessarily messy to me, and when I think of no-boil noodles, I think of mushy Wonder Bread–like noodles. I was never sold on the idea.

 

I actually prefer the no-boil noodles in texture. I don't like the grooves in regular lasagna noodles compared to the no-boil noodles.

 

Honestly, though, I'd use no-boil noodles before I'd boil noodles.

 

Zucchini is known as a courgette in the UK.

 

I would advise cooking these vegetables beforehand; otherwise they may add too much liquid to the lasagna. I usually roast my vegetables to add another layer of flavor.