Easy, comforting, versatile lasagna
Who doesn't like lasagna? Stock image.
From time to time, it becomes painfully clear to me that I should have used a recipe to make a dish. But lasagna is one of those fantastic meals that can be made 101 different ways and usually turns out delicious. No wonder so many people make it for potlucks, dinner parties and ailing friends.
When it comes to lasagna, I usually go with what I’ve got on hand and/or what I’m in the mood to use. Sometimes I make my own sauce, sometimes I use a jarred sauce or a combination of the two. Sometimes I add mushrooms, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I throw in something random from the vegetable drawer. I used to use the long, ripple-edged noodles that have to be boiled in advance, but I’ve grown to love the no-boil option.
Last night, I had a nice package of grass-fed local ground beef, a package of mushrooms, half of an eggplant left over from when I made curry a few nights ago, and a jar of Wolfgang Puck tomato-basil sauce. That seemed like the beginnings of something amazing. Let there be lasagna!
I started by sauteeing some onions and adding peeled, diced eggplant and sliced mushrooms. Knowing one jar of sauce would not be enough, I added two cans of chopped tomatoes with juice to the sauteing veggies and let it all cook until the vegetables had broken down. Then, I stirred in the Wolfgang Puck. I find that you need at least six cups of sauce to make a good lasagna.
From there, all I had to do was layer: Sauce, noodles, ricotta cheese (mixed with egg, mozzarella and Parmesan), beef, sauce, noodles, and so on, ending with sauce and plenty of mozzarella cheese on top.
There’s something so satisfying about a huge, heavy pan of lasagna. It’s a dish that is impossible to make in small quantities (at least in my household). My version last night was pretty yummy, I must say, with enough eggplant flavor to taste like eggplant Parmesan and beef lasagna got together and had a delicious baby.
I’d be willing to bet that nobody reading this blog entry makes lasagna exactly the way I made it last night, just because there are so many different ways to make it. Heck, I’ll probably never make it exactly that way again myself.
How do you make lasagna? Do you like the no-boil noodles? Do you use a mixture of meat or do you prefer vegetable lasagna? Do you always make your sauce from scratch? I think we should have a multi-layered conversation about this spectacular dish.
May 21, 2012 - 10:21 AM
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I do mine with sheets of fresh pasta, and I like adding a layer of fried eggplant in the mix. I also like fresh mozzarella on top instead of bechamel. And I make a quick stovetop garlic marinara that seems to go really well. Nothing fancy.
Of course, I still have the occasional craving for my mother’s recipe, improvised in the backwoods of West Virginia, filled with cottage cheese instead of ricotta, and topped with a layer of mozzarella thicker than a bathmat.
My wife makes our lasagna, she has never used the “no-boil” pasta. Sometimes uses beef, sometimes makes it vegetarian, always makes homemade sauce. She mixes Parmesan cheese w/ cottage cheese and uses that instead of ricotta. It’s yummy! We recently had some awesome lasagna out, at Mountain View Italian Kitchen in Ironto. And Veggies to Go in Salem has great spinach lasagna!
This entry makes me think I don’t make lasagna enough!
I think I don’t use enough sauce, as I’m realizing as I read this, so I end up with the edges of the pasta being kinda crisp (I prefer no-boil noodles).
I’m not a huge fan of ricotta cheese, so while I’d prefer to skip that part and just stick with loads of mozzarella and Parmesan, my hubbie would likely protest.
I would also put crushed red pepper flakes in it for kick, and possibly roasted red peppers. Yum!
The key with the no-boil pasta is to use plenty of sauce and make sure you spread it all the way to the edges of that layer.
Jeff, do you make your own pasta or have you found a place to buy fresh pasta?
I love the crispy edges. We usually fight over them on my family!
Luanne, I make my own. I’ve got the pasta roller attachment for my KitchenAid mixer, which actually makes a perfect width sheet for lasagna (or, I cut it into wide strips for pappardelle). I use AP flour and fresh farm eggs, a touch of salt and olive oil. I’ve messed around with different types of flour, but I’ve discovered that the quality of the eggs is the biggest determining factor in the quality of the pasta.
Alternately, Barilla makes a no-boil flat noodle that seems to work quite well.
That’s the noodle I used – Barilla no-boil flat noodles.
I’ve got a pasta maker attachment on my wish list! Now I know at least one dish I can make fairly easily when I get it.
The pasta maker attachment is a definite must. The second-easiest thing to make, after lasagna noodles, is pappardelle. It is fantastic with a thick, meaty ragù.
Fresh pasta isn’t the best option for every use, but it really makes a difference in lasagna and is worth the extra effort.
Good Eats on the Food Network recommended using Italian lasagna noodles, they are thinner than the normal noodles. Do you know where I can buy them?
I have never heard of Italian lasagna noodles or seen them in the store, but then again I have not been looking specifically for them. Google searches only turn up a Trader Joe’s brand because the name is “Italian Lasagna Noodles.”
I liked the no-boil flat noodles precisely because they were thinner and more tender than the thicker, ripply-edged noodles I’ve used in the past. Some people say you can use regular lasagna noodles and not boil them first if you use enough sauce, but personally I would not risk the waste if it doesn’t work out. Here is a rather interesting thread about lasagna noodles on Chowhound: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/333809
There’s an interesting article in the current Cook’s Illustrated magazine about making your own noodles without a pasta machine (i.e. by hand). Lots of science about what various ingredients do to make the dough easier to handle versus the “bite” after the finished product is cooked…
Lindsey…could you perhaps enlighten us about ricotta and cottage cheeses? I’ve never heard of cottage cheese being used in a cooked dish before…
I always use the regular lasagna noodles, but do not boil them. It’s never been an issue for me. I do, as Lindsey mentioned, make sure I am generous with the sauce, but that is mostly because I love the sauce. Just cover all the noodles.
With the amount of time you’re cooking the lasagna, and the amount of liquid in the sauce, it works out just fine.
My mom becomes apoplectic whenever I make lasagna when she is over, because she refuses to believe it can be done without cooking the pasta first. Somehow she manages to eat it and still compliment me, though. Then she immediately says – ‘You should still cook the noodles!’
Moms, gotta love them to death…
Oh yeah, another Mom anecdote. She always used cottage cheese in her lasagna, which I loved. Now that I’m an adult and pretend I’m sophisticated, I use ricotta. Her response to that is to snarl her face and look at me quizzically, as if I’m defiling some sacred Italian tradition. I just chuckle and think what the little old grandmas in Sicily or Napoli would think of her cottage cheese recipe.
I wonder if the cottage cheese inclusion is a southern thing, or just an American thing? Does anyone know of folks from ‘up North’ that use cottage cheese in their lasagna? I’m betting it is a bastardization born in the South. Why, I don’t know, that’s just my guess.
Reading the comments on Chowhound reminded me of something. I tend to be loose and free with my ‘recipes’ so I don’t always mention every detail, as I ‘go with the flow’ when I cook.
While I use regular pasta not cooked prior to the lasagna making, I cover my lasagna with foil until the last ten minutes of cooking, when I top it with mozzarella. I don’t know if everyone else does that or not, but that might be what makes my ‘non-cooked’ noodles work fine. They absorb the pasta sauce, not water. Anyway, just thought I’d mention that…
I’m going to look into that cottage cheese vs. ricotta issue and report back. Now I’m interested in the origin of that, too. I wonder if it had anything to do with people thinking cottage cheese would be healthier.
Crooked Road, your story about your mom cracks me up. Also, I’m glad you mentioned covering the lasagna for most of the cooking time. The directions on the no-boil noodle box said to cover tightly with foil for 50-60 minutes, then uncover and brown the cheese. Of course, that made the cheese stick to the foil and I had to (HAD to, you know) scrape it off with a fork and eat it so it wouldn’t go to waste. Next time I won’t put much cheese on top, if at all, and wait until after removing the foil. But I’m sure the covering helps keep the moisture inside.
One other tip I picked up on that Chowhound board is to make the lasagna ahead of time, like the night before, and let it sit. That’s probably a good idea regardless of how you make the dish but they say it helps with unboiled noodles.
Honestly, I’m never going back to traditional noodles. They are a pain in the *** to cook and lay out on wax paper and work with, in my opinion, compared to no-boil. And they are no better. My next move is to fresh pasta!
Any time I’ve ever tried to boil the noodles ahead, they’ve ripped and stuck to one another and I end up patching them together in the pan, which then annoys the heck out of me. LOVE no-boil lasagna.
I use ricotta in my lasagna, but I have another layered spaghetti dish I do that calls for cottage cheese mixed with sour cream, and it tastes good…a little wetter than lasagna filling is usually.
The idea to make the lasagna the night before helps it stiffen and be more solid, which I like.
A couple of thoughts here. Someone could probably write a funny and entertaining book about how they ‘disavowed’ their mom’s testaments about certain cooking ‘rules’.
Other thought – just for the record, are there any companies that produce better, more unassuming, perfectly designed products than Anchor Hocking and Corning?
I mean, from measuring cups to casserole dishes to mixing bowls, nothing is ‘fancy’, but it all works so perfectly and so flawlessly that is boggles the mind, if you think about it. Pyrex? It is the BOMB! Corningware? Anchor Hocking? Everything speaks of being sturdy, reliable, and indestructible. All at reasonable prices.
If you jump off the page and add Lodge cast iron to that combination, you’ve just got to say – ‘God Bless America’ and be done with it.
I should clarify that the tip was to assemble the lasagna, then let it sit overnight, then cook. Not sure if I was clear on that.
Regarding cottage cheese vs. ricotta, that seems to be a common lasagna debate. I have not been able to determine anything about the origin of using cottage cheese, but it does sound like it’s an American thing (not sure about Southern). Italians say it’s sacrilege.
Cottage cheese might taste saltier or tangier to some people than ricotta. The third option is bechamel, which Jeff mentioned earlier in this thread.
I think the distaste many have for cottage cheese is a textural thing. Personally, I love it but I’ve never used it in lasagna. I wonder what would happen if you mashed or pureed it so the consistency is more like ricotta. But it probably cooks down some anyway.
Here’s a link to a thread about this on Serious Eats. It reminds me how much it annoys me when people look down on others for the way they choose to make things. Let ‘em cook however the heck they want!
http://www.seriouseats.com/talk/2010/01/ricotta-vs-cottage-cheese.html
Maybe I stumbled upon a clue to the origin of cottage cheese in lasagna. Perhaps it is not ‘Southern’ so much as it is ‘Rural’ in origin. Perhaps the unavailability of ricotta or other ‘Italian’ cheeses caused people to use cottage cheese as an inexpensive substitute.
I mean, it’s not like the Piggly Wiggly would have artisan cheeses available. Know what I mean?
Lindsey, on the clarification of cooking the lasagna, I was also discussing ‘premaking’ it the night before, letting it set and absorb, before cooking it the night you intended to serve it.
I love a lot of sauce in my lasagna, but I like a ‘sturdy’ lasagna, one that is not runny. I want it to hold shape, almost like a cake. I’d think that letting it set overnight would enhance that texture.
Oh yeah, as for the consistency of cooked cottage cheese in lasagna? Once cooked, it has virtually none of the texture of uncooked cottage cheese. It is far creamier than uncooked cottage cheese. No clumps or anything at all. It actually works pretty well. You can still visually discern the ‘clumps’, but in tasting, they melt away. So much to the point that if you do not like cottage cheese, you can eat it in a cooked dish and you are fine with it.
Seems like I’m obsessing about lasagna, I know, but one more posit. Goat cheese is a good substitute for the ricotta or cottage cheese. Really creamy, and really good texture.
I would not be surprised if your cottage cheese theory is correct.
Yeah, lasagna needs to stay in a square when it is served. I hate it when it slides apart – FAIL!
I think I’m going to try cottage cheese next time. I’ll just hope my husband isn’t reading this.
Put out some vanilla scented candles before you serve dinner, Lindsey, men are always suckers for them.
He’ll never know the cottage cheese is in there…
Using cottage cheese isn’t just a Southern thing. My mom is from the Midwest and she makes it with cottage cheese as well. I think it’s more an availability/familiarity issue.
Interesting, Dave.
Here’s something random I did not know: Ricotta is made with whey. Some believe it was invented as a way (whey? har har) to use the byproduct of cheesemaking in Italy.
I think it’s simply an availability thing. Growing up in a state mostly populated by people of German heritage, even 30 years ago, most people had never even heard of ricotta cheese and never saw it carried in stores or made by dairies. Look through most older church cookbooks (love those!) in the Heartland and you won’t find any recipes including ricotta cheese, unless perhaps its from an area where Italian immigrants settled.
I think NebGal has it right – it is a ‘heartland’ thing, where ricotta as not available, and cottage cheese was a cheap substitute. It is probably as I suggested before – something that was not inexpensive and was not available in many locations in rural America.
I do use Ricotta when I make lasagna, but I use cottage cheese when I make a milk noodle pudding. Common in Jewish kitchens, noodle pudding can be made with cottage cheese, cream cheese, sour cream left-over ricotta, tofu. Add the cinnamon, sugar, raisins, eggs and butter and you can’t go wrong.
I’ve got some old cookbooks from the 70′s, most of them sponsored by various churches, and they are pretty interesting. It’s funny the difference in the dishes from then until now. The most ethnic dishes might be something of German derivation then. Absolutely nothing Asian or Latin. Not even Cajun or Creole dishes. I think the only ‘Italian’ dish I found was for Baked Spaghetti.
There was a recipe for Watergate Salad, which must have been popular for about three years in the early 70′s. Why it got that name is a mystery.
Of course, the local demographic was probably much more homogenous at that time. If you’d check a cookbook from Chicago or NYC or wherever, it would be different. It’s really pretty amazing how food trends have changed in this area in the last 40 years. Although, that is a long time, I guess. I must be getting old, yikes!
I use small curd cottage cheese, first I freeze it and
it comes out looking like ricotta cheese. I really don’t see much difference especially as I put in drain frozen spinach and cheese. This wasnt intentional. I had a dated tub of cottage cheese and froze it. when it thawed out the texture had changed to ricotta like. So I was pretty happy. Not sure it large cured would do this or not. But I was very happy and have started doing this when I make lasagna.