How do you make your lasagna?

[RangerPooh]

I preheat the oven, open the box, and insert to cook.

My mom makes lasagna but I don’t care for it. I vaguely recall that she use to include ricotta cheese but stopped adding it ~25 years ago. Perhaps that’s when it started tasting blah.

 

[Heather07438]

Must put fresh flat leaf parsley in the sauce and ricotta, and make a nice very thick homemade sauce. Bake the lasagna slow and low, don't try to shorten the time by turning it up hot so it looks done in 10 minutes, lol.

 

[NYCgrrl]

For years I made my lasagna the same way: meatless since I felt the cheeses (ricotta, mozzarella, and fresh Parmesan) were enough protein with spinach added. For about the last 2 decades Ive made it with a Bolognese “antica” (milk added) sauce of pork, veal, and beef and oh my what was I missing all those years? Much richer so I eat less. Lidia Bastianich has a great sauce recipe as does Marcella Hazan.
I always add some freshly grated nutmeg to the ricotta mixture and try to use fresh noodles when possible.

 

[NotUrsula]

I try to limit the fat in it, so the fatty items that do go in require physical pressing to remove as much oil as possible. I make the white layer with strained large-curd cottage cheese mixed with grated skim mozzarella, coarse-ground black pepper, and a generous amount of hot Hungarian paprika. (Yes, I know, not Italian, but it really succeeds in defeating the blandness of the cheese.) I make my own sauce, a much thicker version of the Amatriciana sauce that we normally eat with pasta (we make it with a combination of beef & pork sausage all the time, guanciale is both too salty and too expensive.) Mozzarella and fresh parmigiana on top. No egg anywhere in it, and no bechamel.

I only do 3 layers, meat sauce/cheese mixture/meat sauce, with a straight sprinkle of cheese on the top to brown prettily. I like cheese pretty much only as a garnish on other foods, so there is comparatively less of it in my recipe than there is red meat sauce and pasta. It's not remotely traditional, but people do really seem to like it, so I've been doing it this way for ages.

 

[TwoMisfits]

Now that I can't have dairy and tree nuts - according to my kids, better than I ever did...

I use no boil lasagna noodles, a nice marinara jar, browned ground beef, and a homemade "bechamel" sauce with an olive oil/flour roux, rice milk, nutritional yeast, garlic, salt and pepper, and Italian herbs (this is where my prep time goes - thus, why it's no boil noodles and jarred marinara)...I layer as normal, and when it finishes cooking, the kids sprinkle mozzarella and parm on their portions (while I eat without) - it ends up a touch looser than normal lasagna and tastes, according to the kids, like "really creamy spaghetti" (which they love - apparently, they don't love ricotta, which we discovered after I made my 1st dairy-free/tree nut free lasagna)...

 

[lilmc]

I don't like ricotta or cottage cheese My cheese layers have always been 2 parts mozzarella to 1 part each Muenster and Monterrey Jack

 

[LuvOrlando]

I do mine old school, none of that one step pasta, I'm not a fan of the drier consistency but some people like it. Boil the pasta with salt and some oil so it won't stick together, place the pieces in like a snowflake for the same reason and after you drain it drape it over the sides of the pot to cool.

For sauce I love the Tuttorosso crushed but the family prefers the Whole Foods San Marzano whole cans so I did it their way Christmas Day.

About 2 cans of tomato sauce, you can cook it first or used crushed from the can in the dish and also boil another can for serving.
*mix 1 or 2 eggs, 1.5 lbs whole ricotta mixed & 1/4 - 1/3 cup parmesan cheese or parm & romano and add a few shakes of oregano and parsley
*1 cup or more shredded whole milk mozzarella
1 box of lasagne pasta that needs to be boiled

Put a layer of sauce down
Put a layer of the pasta down
Drop the mix spaced about an inch a drop apart and spread it across the pasta
sprinkle the shredded mozzarella on top
spread a thin layer of sauce, too much and you'll have soup
layer the pasta again and repeat.
You should get 3 layers of pasta down in a normal roast pan including a layer of pasta on top.
Spread some sauce on top and then sprinkle some parmesan.

It'll bake around 40 minutes or so, when you serve put more cooked sauce on top and sprinkle with more parmesan.
If you are having lasagne it's a feast type dish, I don't do reduced fat because it can get really pasty and then why bother, if. you don't want cheese just make spaghetti, make a sauce and skip the cheese.

I don't like meat in it but will serve with meatballs or pork braciole, I like Giada's DeLaurentis for recipes when it comes to spices.

BTW, this is pretty much the same thing you do with baked ziti, boil the pasta them mix this together with the sauce then bake. I suppose this is the same basic mix for manicotti & stuffed shells too, even spaghetti pie. Rule of thumb is one egg per pound of ricotta, I use the same rule for ground beef and meatloaf or meatballs, or rice balls etc.

 

[Heather07438]

For about the last 2 decades Ive made it with a Bolognese “antica” (milk added) sauce of pork, veal, and beef

Yummm. Now Im craving SpagBol as the Brits like to call it.

For sauce I love the Tuttorosso crushed but the family prefers the Whole Foods San Marzano whole cans so I did it their way Christmas Day.

Yes to those cans Both are great but I always have Tuttorosso crushed in my cabinet. 4 for $5 last week at ShopRite lol.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Yummm. Now Im craving SpagBol as the Brits like to call it.

Yes to those cans Both are great but I always have Tuttorosso crushed in my cabinet. 4 for $5 last week at ShopRite lol.

Have my curbside order in for tomorrow, New Years prep, grew up with Shoprite LOL

 

[MrsPete]

I don't consider lasagna my best dish, but I have a few hints:

- In the ricotta vs. cottage cheese debate, I come down solidly on the side of ricotta. Why? Because ricotta is more solid, which makes a lasagna that will stand up better.
- Sausage instead of ground beef -- more flavorful.
- Don't cook the noodles quite all the way through -- so they won't be mushy at the end.
- Yes to spinach, but it should be chopped well.
- Parsley brings in a "bright" flavor.
- Don't go too heavy on any particular portion -- lasagna is about all those delicious layers melding together; you don't want any one portion to try to be the star. Too much meat or too much cheese can throw off the proportions.
- Lasagna always seems to be better the second day.

Once I made Valerie Bertinelli's lasagna, which used Bechamel Sauce, and it was fabulous - but a little different.
Once I made a seafood lasagna, and that was seriously disgusting.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Have my curbside order in for tomorrow, New Years prep, grew up with Shoprite LOL

 

[Heather07438]

That's funny. And it's that time of year again!!!!

 

[ronandannette]

...Once I made a seafood lasagna, and that was seriously disgusting.

Agree. I've tried both seafood and chicken "lasagna" done with white sauce in restaurants. It's just a gross pasty mess not fit for the name.

 

[mjkacmom]

I remember watching Paula Deen making a lasagna on TV, when she said if you don’t have ricotta cheese you can substitute cottage cheese DH looked like he was going to . That just isn’t done here. i take my simple homemade marinara sauce, put it in the pan, a layer of cooked lasagna noodles, ricotta mixed with an egg, salt and pepper, oregano, next layer sliced mozzafella (deli), sauce, pasta layer, ricotta layer, mozzarella, sauce... about three layers, finishing with pasta, sauce and cheese. My kids prefer a meatless lasagna, ETA, I forgot to add I mix shredded or grated pecorino Romano cheese with the ricotta.

 

[Christine]

We make a meat sauce that takes about 3 hours. That sauce also has sausage in it.

We then used regular lasagna noodles, cooked for about 3/4ths of the time. A mixture of ricotta, eggs, and various cheeses hand shredded (not purchased shredded are used) and then do the standard layering.

I think, IMO, the sauce is key. You have to have enough of it. I've tried the shortcut to making lasagna by using a lot of good quality jarred sauce that I like, but it's still never quite the same or as good. It's just got to the a lot of sauce and also not to thick of a sauce.

Personally, I think the ricotta is also a key ingredient. I've had it with cottage cheese before and I don't enjoy it at all.

 

[Owlpost23]

Sometimes I use ricotta, sometimes cottage cheese, but my best tip is to put a thick layer of spicy tomato sauce on the bottom of the pan and then add the no-cook oven ready noodles. The spiciness adds really great flavour to the noodles as it cooks, but it doesn’t make the lasagna taste spicy once it’s done. I use Hunts pick red pepper tomato sauce, but probably any spicy sauce would work.

I like the spicy sauce idea.

 

[NYCgrrl]

I remember watching Paula Deen making a lasagna on TV, when she said if you don’t have ricotta cheese you can substitute cottage cheese DH looked like he was going to . That just isn’t done here. i take my simple homemade marinara sauce, put it in the pan, a layer of cooked lasagna noodles, ricotta mixed with an egg, salt and pepper, oregano, next layer sliced mozzafella (deli), sauce, pasta layer, ricotta layer, mozzarella, sauce... about three layers, finishing with pasta, sauce and cheese. My kids prefer a meatless lasagna, ETA, I forgot to add I mix shredded or grated pecorino Romano cheese with the ricotta.

I suspect that would be the reaction of the average person in the NE. I grew up within walking distance of the Bronx’s version of Little Italy (it began right around the corner from my junior high school) so ricotta was a norm and readily available. Still if I found myself in an place where it was hard to come by cottage cheese could make a decent substitute, doctored up a bit (added lemon zest?) .
The first time I served a lasagna with meat sauce one of my kids thought I had lost my mind. Until he ate some and told his then wife to get the recipe. Poor she.

 

[LovesTimone]

I love reading how different everyone makes it... Great thread...

Okay here it goes.

I like the lasagna sheets that you don't have to boil... just easier... easy peasy...

I make the red sauce the day before, because it just taste better the next day...

Red Sauce with meat...
80/20 ground chuck - sometimes I add in sausage, not every-time..
Mushrooms
Onions
Garlic
Garlic salt and pepper
I saute everything together,

Then add in 2 cans of flavored tomatoes which I have pulsed in the food processor... to chunky...
I let them heat up with the meat mixture

Up next - a jar of whatever store bought ... and then add it to the meat mixture, and canned tomatoes... letting it heat up again..

Once everything is heated up,

I add in
White Wine
Sugar

Then let is simmer for a couple of hours... I keep tasting it, to check for salt, and acidity - and adjust as needed... turn off and let cool completely...then into the fridge to marry everything together over night

Next day, take it out, and on the stove it goes to simmer...

Filling mixture - this can be done the day head as well.. I don't recommend freezing this mixture..

I mix the Ricotta, Mozzarella, into a bowl, with 1 egg to bind it all together... I mix the cheese's up alot, Provolone, Swiss, Colby jack, Sharp Cheddar is a nice addition...
Then add in some parsley,
Salt and Pepper

I try to at least be able to stick in back in the fridge for a couple of hours to give it a chance to marry everything together... Tip for the cheese mixture, put several spoons and spatulas in the freezer, it make spreading the mixture sooo much easier...

Then I have a lasagna pan - from pampered chef that I have had for years and years..

Layering -

Sauce - on the bottom then

Lasagna sheet
Cheese mixture
Sauce

Lasagna sheet
Cheese mixture
Sauce

Lasagna sheet
Cheese mixture
Sauce

On top of the sauce, I add - just shredded mozzarella... and some finely grated parmesan... my family's want the whole thing cover in Cheese...

Into the over at 350 - 45 minutes to an hour, - cheese bubbling and starting to brown... is what I am looking for...

Let the lasagna rest before cutting into it... or filling will run, and you won't get clean slice's...

 

[hertamaniac]

In a crock pot.

Green peppers, diced onions and pressed garlic in each layer along with fat free cottage cheese. Also, Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese with basil in each layer with pasta sauce and uncooked noodles. Cook on high for 2.5 hours, covered, and then remove the cover for another 1/2 hour to make it more crusty.

 

[Mysterian]

My chef, Stouffer, makes a fantastic lasagna.