Homemade lasagna

[skyking]

Cool beans! We are out to the beach this weekend.
When in August?

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Soaked them in water from the hot pot for a few minutes to keep it from sucking up all the sauce. I've done dry noodles a few times and had trouble with it drying out the lasagna more than I liked.

Same here. Cook the noodles until they are just pliable, then set them out on paper towels to allow them to cool down a bit. If used immediately they produce watery lasagna. Then layer sauce, ricotta mixed with eggs and spices (the eggs help to firm up the lasagna), and a sprinkling of mozarella/parmesan. Rince and repeat for four layers with a double-dose of mozarella/parm on the top layer. Bake at 375 F for an hour-fifteen then left rest for half an hour. Keep some extra sauce to drizzle over the final product.

 

[Bryophyte]

Cool beans! We are out to the beach this weekend.
When in August?

Probably last half of the month. Spouse can't get away before then.

 

[skyking]

That works better for us too.

 

[rasczak]

i think it;s the coolest thing when friend get together like that. 🙂

I've never made lasagna from scratch. anyone got good noodle recommendations?

 

[Leros]

Soaked them in water from the hot pot for a few minutes to keep it from sucking up all the sauce. I've done dry noodles a few times and had trouble with it drying out the lasagna more than I liked.

Have you tried the no-cook lasagna noodles (designed for not being cooked first)? I've had good luck with them myself.

 

[Bryophyte]

Have you tried the no-cook lasagna noodles (designed for not being cooked first)? I've had good luck with them myself.

Yeah, that's what I used this time and the last couple times. I saw/read/heard somewhere that you can soak them in hot water for a few minutes to soften them, so I gave it a try this time. I liked them pliable, but I think ultimately the issue with the noodles sucking up too much moisture will be resolved by being much more generous with the sauce. It's not like it's hard to whip up a double batch of sauce. It takes maybe a minute or two.

 

[Bryophyte]

i think it;s the coolest thing when friend get together like that. 🙂

I've never made lasagna from scratch. anyone got good noodle recommendations?

Lasagna is ridiculously easy. You layer pasta, marinara, cheeses. You can get creative with what you put in.

Mine was lasagna noodles, homemade sauce (tomatoes, tomato paste, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, herbs, and a little water processed in blender or food processor), italian sausage, mozzarella and good parmesan cheeses, ricotta with herbs and eggs, and chopped kale (large bunch of it, enough to fill a colander when chopped.) Bake for about half an hour covered with foil (350F), then another fifteen to thirty uncovered (depending on how big/thick you made it.)

 

[Fritzo]

i'm surprised. kale is usually a little bitter, would have thought it would skew the overall flavor quite a bit unless the op uses a very acidic tomato sauce.

Spinach is bitter too. Greens break down in the cooking process, and essentially their scent is what you will taste (a french chef taught me that 🙂 ).

 

[rasczak]

Lasagna is ridiculously easy. You layer pasta, marinara, cheeses. You can get creative with what you put in.

Mine was lasagna noodles, homemade sauce (tomatoes, tomato paste, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, herbs, and a little water processed in blender or food processor), italian sausage, mozzarella and good parmesan cheeses, ricotta with herbs and eggs, and chopped kale (large bunch of it, enough to fill a colander when chopped.) Bake for about half an hour covered with foil (350F), then another fifteen to thirty uncovered (depending on how big/thick you made it.)

Do you boil your noodles first? Or let the noodles bake in the oven and get soft there?

 

[Bryophyte]

Do you boil your noodles first? Or let the noodles bake in the oven and get soft there?

There are two types of noodles: regular ones you boil before using, and no-boil ones that you can use dry. I'd heard that you can soften the latter by pouring some boiling water on them while you're assembling the other ingredients, so I tried it this time. If you do this, add the noodles to the water one at a time, don't add the water to the noodles. They stick together. Still edible but hard to separate. I've done the dry noodles a couple times and you have to be really careful to add a lot more sauce to make up for the dry noodles (or at least thin your sauce a lot), and you need to make sure that no noodles stick up at all from the sauce, or they will be at best tough and leathery.