What's up with my lasagna?

Question

I've been told by professionals and "grandma types" that I'm a great cook. I love to cook and bake and started when I was a little girl.
I have no problems with the fresh herbs, spices, and cheeses I put into my lasagna and I make my sauce from scratch, but where am I going wrong? What happens is the lasagna sometimes is in a sea of sauce (consisting of cheese and marinara). I've tried putting very little sauce and cuttng back on cheese - somewhat.
Is it too much cheese? I mix ricotta with an egg and fresh herbs and then I layer it on to cover the layer under it. I sprinkle with mozzarella (fresh) and freshly grated Parmasan and Romano (not too much).
Maybe it's too much sauce. I make tiny meatballs and use less sauce than I would for spaghetti or whatever.
I bake and then let rest a bit. This is driving me nuts.
Can some old-world cook out there help? I do everything from scratch except the noodles.

I am using a puree - not canned tomato sauce

Answer 1

I am like you, I want my lasagna to be made homemade with fresh ingredients. I have learn, by experience, to make my lasagna the day before. After being refrigerated overnight, the noodles absorb most of the liquid and make the dish more stable and the flavor even better.

I always bake two, cool both, put one in the fridge for the next day, and the other in the freezer for a rainy day.

Answer 2

Hi.. my best friend is Italian and her mom makes it all the time. I have been eating her lasagna for many years now and never once was it watery. I tried it once and it was a disaster. It was not a sea... but an ocean of sauce and cheese. So her mom told me the following:
- She keeps her lasagna undisturbed for atleast 8 hours before serving. She warms it up in oven before serving.
- She makes her sauce from scratch. But she adds a little all purpose flour to the sauce and simmers it for an hour atleast without covering and stirs it often.
- She cooks the noodle only half way through.
- To the ricotta, she adds egg yolks to thicken it while cooking.
- If making lasagna with spinach she cooks the spinach and puts it in muslin cloth and ties it. She then keeps it in a strainer and puts a weight on it. This she does a day before she will be using the spinach.

Though my lasagna has improved a lot, I cannot make anything close to hers. I hope this will help you as it did me.

Answer 3

Two ways to cure the problem. If you've had this happen several times, your sauce recipe is too moist. First you can try NOT cooking the lasagna noodles, it sounds weird but it's a true short cut for working with slippery noodles! Trust me on this. If you don't want to do that try simmering your sauce at least two hours on low to medium stirring it now and again to prevent sticking, or substitute tomatoe puree for the tomatoe sauce. Thicker sauce will not need to be absorbed into the noodles. Do one or the other not both or you'll end up with burned lasagna :-( Always let it set for about half an hour uncovered in the oven with the heat off before serving.

Answer 4

I got this recipe from the net but I modified it with using fresh lasgna sheet pasta instead of the ones u need to cook. And if you're not a big fan of cheese or salty, you might want to cut down the mozerella cheese. And after you finished baking it, take it out of the oven and let it sit for around 15 minutes to make it firm instead of watery.

Lasagna with Meat Sauce

INGREDIENTS:
8 ounces fresh lasagna noodles
2 tablespoons salt for cooking water
1 tablespoon olive oil
16 ounces low fat ricotta cheese
8 ounces sliced Mozzarella cheese
Sauce , below
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
.
Sauce:
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound ground chuck or round
1 large can (28 ounces) tomatoes
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
2 teaspoons salt
pinch cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1 bay leaf
2 cups water

PREPARATION:
1. Start sauce about 30 to 45 minutes in advance.
2. Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until onions are soft; add ground beef and brown. Pour off excess fat.
3. Soak fresh pasta in water for 2 minutes. Then arrange noodles in a shallow 2 1/2-quart baking dish. Make 3 layers each of noodles, ricotta cheese, Mozzarella cheese, meat sauce, and Parmesan cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 325° for 45 minutes.

Answer 5

I didn't believe this would work until I tried it, so, go for it.

Prepare all the ingredients for your lasagna as you normally would, except the pasta. Leave the pasta uncooked. That's right, stiff as a board. Layer in your ingredients as you normally would, meat, sauce, cheeses, toppings, all of it. Cover with a plastic wrap.

Place the "finished", covered lasagna in your fridge for at least 24 hours, 48 is better. After time is up place your lasagna in a preheated oven, 400 on a middle rack is fine, and bake for about 30 - 45 minutes, or until heated through, which depends on the thickness of your lasagna and on your particular oven .

Your dry pasta will have absorbed as much sauce as it can in the time is was "marinating" in your fridge, including the extra liquids you (and me too, sometimes) have a problem with.

I can't think of any pasta recipes that this method won't work for. Be sure to cook your meat, if you include it in your recipe, before layering it into your lasagna.

Answer 6

Are you fully cooking the noodles before you assemble the Lasagna. If so, you might try not cooking the noodles first, or only cooking them part way, so that the noodles can absorb the liquid. If you are putting in fresh vegetables, it might also be that the vegetables are giving off water when they cook. Spinach and mushrooms would do this. If so, cook and drain the vegetables before you put them in the Lasagna.

Answer 7

I always mix the ricotta with cottage cheese, but u need to drain the cottage cheese of excess liquid. Then, I like to mix frozen spinach in with the cheese mix also. If you like spinach, that is... of course, it's always better the next day and less liquid-y. but there's no other way to make lasagna than from scratch! Yumm!!!

Answer 8

You don't need to put less sause or cheese in it. Your problem is that the sause might be a little to watery. When you cook, water comes out of whatever your cooking already, so making your sause look the right amount of water might be a little too much. Basically, try to cut down on the water in the sause.

Hope it helps!

Answer 9

Stop using ricotta cheese, and begin using cottage cheese. Also thicken your sauce before you add it to the lasagna.

Answer 10

just a tip... Rachael Ray says to use cheese ravioli instead of pasta and cheese separately, it saves a step and looked great when she did it, also saved time spreading the noodles and cheese separately, because the cheese is already there IN the pasta [ravioli shaped, but who cares what shape the pasta is].... just spread them out in each layer. I only use Dreamfields Pasta because regular has too many carbs, it's just extra coating of fiber on it, but real semolina and tastes exactly the same. Dreamfields HAS lasagna noodles now too.