How to cook the best lasagna?

Question

I need some tip how to cook a good and quick lasagna for five people.

Answer 1

Classic Lasagne

Prep Time: 40 minutes
Start to Finish: 1 hr 45 minutes


For family gatherings, everyone enjoys this old-time favorite. Make it ahead of time and enjoy mingling with family and friends!

Ingredients:


* 16 pieces (about 16 oz.) AMERICAN BEAUTY Lasagne, uncooked
* 1 lb. ground beef
* 3 cups (about 28-oz. jar) spaghetti sauce
* 4 cups (2 lb.) ricotta cheese
* 2 cups (8 oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
* 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
* 2 eggs
* 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper


Instructions:

In large skillet, brown meat; drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce; simmer 10 minutes.
Cook pasta according to package directions; drain. Lay flat on foil to cool.
Heat oven to 350°F.
In large bowl, stir together ricotta cheese, 1-1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, eggs, parsley, salt and pepper.
Spread about 1/3 cup meat sauce on bottom of 13 x 9 x 2-inch glass baking dish. Arrange 4 pasta pieces lengthwise over sauce, overlapping edges. Spread one-third cheese mixture over pasta; spread with about 3/4 cup meat sauce.
Repeat layers TWICE, beginning and ending with pasta. Top with remaining meat sauce; sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese and additional Parmesan cheese, if desired. Cover with foil.
Bake 45 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Remove foil; bake about 10 minutes longer, or until lightly browned. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting. 10 to 12 servings.

Answer 2

Do you want the real lasagna recipe,the real italian one? well,in Italy we don't use ricotta cheese at all.
Ingredients for 4 to 6 people:

500 gr of tomato meat sauce that, over here, is called "ragù".
How to make it:
An important thing, first of all, is finding a good Italian brand of a thick tomato sauce... like Pomì, Barilla or Cirio. You can make your tomato sauce also using fresh and ripe tomatoes of course.
The first thing is always buying good ingredients.
Then, put some pork ground meat together with some ground bacon in a pot
with some olive oil and butter and let the meat become lightly brown.
Then add to it some chopped onion, celery and carrot (the quantity depends on your tastes. I like thick sauces). Let them fry and when they are browned
a bit add half a glass of red italian wine as Barolo or also white wine as
Soave (I don't know the wines you have there, here I could use some
cheaper wines than Barolo or Soave to cook because almost all wine is good
but once I was in CA and I bought a bottle of "Cooking Wine" and I had to
throw it away because it was salted water!!!). When the wine evaporated
(the fire must be low) add the sauce, 2 or 3 cloves, 1 laurel leaf and a
bit of grated nutmeg. Let it cook for half an hour (more or less) mixing
and adding bouillion cube instead of salt to make the sauce tastier. Add
the cube a little at a time and keep on taste the sauce after it melt
completely so that you know when you can stop adding it.
Taste the sauce often so that you can't make mistakes and adjust it to
your tastes.

500 gr of Béchamel Sauce
It comes in a box here (choose Italian brands if you can find it). If you
can't...
How to make it:
50gr butter
50 gr of flour
2¼ cups milk
salt to taste
½ tsp. nutmeg
some parmesan cheese

Instructions:
Melt the butter in a medium pan over low heat until foaming, then add
flour. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove the pan from the
heat and gradually stir in the milk. Return to the heat and bring to a
boil, stirring constantly until thickened. When thick, simmer for 2
minutes. Season well with salt and nutmeg. Add some grated parmesan
cheese.
Place a piece of plastic wrap on the surface of the sauce to prevent a
skin forming; set aside.

As for the Lasagne, I buy the dry ones.
You don't need to boil them in water but just need to cook them in the
oven.
Some fresh lasagna varieties require you to precook the lasagna sheets
just slightly by plunging them into boiling salted water for 1-2 minutes
to soften them. Drain well on a tea towel. Most can be used as they are;
read maker's instructions for specific times.
To assemble: Preheat oven 350F; butter the ovenproof dish well. Spread a
thin layer of the meat sauce over the base and top with a thin layer of
béchamel. If béchamel has cooled and become too thick, warm it gently to
make spreading easier. Lay lasagna sheets on top, gently pressing to push
out any air. Continue the layers, finishing with the béchamel. Sprinkle
with Parmesan and bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Set aside
15 minutes before cutting.
Enjoy!
Hope you will like the real italian lasagna!

Answer 3

1)Easy and very good....

2 cups cottage cheese
2 cups shredded mozzeralla cheese
2 whole eggs
garlic salt to taste
onion powder or onion salt to taste
1lb brown hanmburger
1 jar of you favorite prego spegitti sauce
9 uncooked lasagna noodles

mix the cottage cheese, mozeralla cheese, eggs, and desired amount of onion power and garlic sault in bowl....also mix meat and spagitti sauce..

in a 13x9 in cake pan start out by speading 1/3 of meat sauce over botton of pan....place a layer of 3 uncooked lasagna noodles over that....then layer 1/2 of the cheese mixture over the noodles followed by 1/3 of the meat sauce. Then place three more noodles. Follow by the last of the cheese mixture and 3 more noodles. Spread the last of the meat sauce over the top followed by shredded matzerella cheese.

Pour 1/4 cup water around the edge of the pan and cover with aluminum foil....bake in a 350 deg. over for 45-60 min or until noodles are done. Uncover and let stand 5 min. The cut and eat.....


A good side dish is green beans in chedder cheese sause. and garlic bread of course.





Start with a large pan --

Saute some sweet (or hot if you like it spicy) italian sausage in a pan, breaking it up into little peices as it cooks. If you can't find the ground type, get the links and take the skins off.

Add 1 onion (any kind) finely chopped, 1 bell pepper (any color) finely chopped, an 8 oz package of sliced mushrooms - baby portabellos are good, but white will work.

Add 1 large can of pureed tomatoes or tomato sauce. 1 small can of tomatoe paste, and 1 regular can of diced tomatoes (petite dice is best) or 2 finely diced fresh tomatoes.

Chop about 6 cloves of fresh garlic, if you don't have fresh, get some prechopped and add about 2 rounded tablespoons. Add 1 teaspoon each - basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme. If you don't have these, pick up an italian spice blend, and add about 2 tablespoons, to start, add more if you need more flavor. Add a pinch of red pepper flakes -

Add about 1/4 of either red or white wine or red wine vinegar. And now, don't laugh or leave this out - 1 tablespoon of either honey or white sugar. Trust me on this, take a taste before and then taste afterwards. It won't taste sweet, it help knock out some of the acidity of all the tomatoes.

Sauce done - let simmer on low for at least 30 minutes. Add more wine if it gets too thick during cooking.

cook lasagne as per package recommendations

Layer sauce (start with some in the bottom of the pan), noodles and cheeses. You do need some rocotta and either use mozzarella, provolone or parmasean.

This is how I layer

sauce, noodles, sauce, provolone cheese, noodles, sauce, rocotta cheese with some mozzarella also, noodles, sauce, provolone cheese, noodles, sauce and then top with cheese

Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hr 15 min.


besides lasagne, the only thing I would serve is garlic bread and a nice simple romano lettuce salad with italian dressing, and a glass of red wine.

Let me know if you use this and how it turns out. Sounds much more complicated than it really is.

Answer 4

it's all in the sauce if you have a bad sauce then it's not going to be a good lasagna. i only recommend making the sauce. finely dice up some celery, carrots, and onion. (you can also add mushrooms and spinach at this time and whatever sort of meat you want i use tofu) saute for about 10 min then add garlic, saute for another 2 min. then add 2 28oz cans of diced tomato, some basil, rosemary, and oregano. oh and some salt and pepper and a pinch of sugar for the tomato to taste. let it cook for oh no less then 15 min. while that's doing it's thing mix 2 eggs, 1 pint of ricotta, 1lb of mozzarella, and 1/2 cup of parmesan. use the no boil noodles and layer it as a little sauce, noodles, sauce ,cheese, noodles, sauce cheese,...etc..when you get to the top sprinkle additional parmesan. bake at 375 for about 35 min or until it looks as done as you want it.

Answer 5

this is really good if you work and don't have a lot of time. Freezer queen or Stouffer's lasagna, buy an extra pack of mozarella to sprinkle on top.

Answer 6

cook it in a crock pot, use no cook noodles. Layer it cook it for about 5-6 hours on high . Yummy.

Answer 7

Irena's recipe is Great! That's how I do it, but use no boil noodles and don't pour the water on the edge, and in will come out thicker and won't fall apart as easy......

Answer 8

I think my Mom's is absolutely the best! Unfortunately do not have recipe though!

Answer 9

what she said.. but add pepperoni.. its great..