Best Lasagna Just Every Other Day
I can’t remember Christmas dinner without lasagna on the table. Much of this has a lot to do with the watery sauce with macaroni and cheese floating in it, but it has always been there as well (of course, combined with the overcooked fried ribs). This lunch, the last big dinner for many families, deserves a better one. Lasagna is a very sensitive topic. People love it in their own way, and they will fight to the death for it. I’m not going to sit here and lecture you on what to do with making lasagne bolognese. Since this is a dish where lasagna probably shares the table with an expensive roast, focus your efforts on a simple and tasty marinara sauce, better ingredients, and a little trick that will help prevent lasagna soup from popping up.
A good sauce is a great start
The finished meal will be as good as the ingredients you started with. Remember, we’re only looking at three parts of the finished dish: sauce, cheese, and pasta, so your sauce game should be the focus. I’ve been using this sauce recipe for quite some time and found it to be incredibly versatile – just about everything you need a simple red sauce for is one that can be used. For a hard red sauce you will need:
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 8 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 1 28-ounce can of whole, peeled, hand-chopped tomatoes
- 1 can of 28 ounce tomato sauce
- 1 28-ounce can of tomato puree
- 1 8-ounce can (or 4-ounce tube of double concentrated) tomato paste
- 1 cup fresh basil
- 1 cup fresh parsley
- 1 cup Marsala wine
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Heat oil over medium to low heat in a heavy skillet. Add onion and sauté until translucent, then add garlic and cook until aroma appears.
Add whole peeled tomatoes and then 1/2 can of water. Bring to a boil and repeat with sauce and puree. Add the tomato paste and cook until warm, then add the rest of the ingredients. Reduce heat to a simmer for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally.
Now you don’t have to spend $ 5 on a can of whole peeled tomatoes. Sure, San Marzano is great – if that’s what it really is – but you can very well handle national brands like Hunt’s and Redpack. And, since we’re using 28 oz cans of sauce and mashed potatoes here, you can just use old plum tomatoes.
When it comes to tomato paste, double concentrates (a tube of toothpaste) are less prone to searing at the bottom of the pot. For this recipe, you’ll use the entire four-ounce tube, but be glad you did. And while we’re on the subject of pasta, pay attention to the pan itself. As the sauce decreases, you will have a ring of concentrated sauce on the edge of the pan. This super concentrated tomato product is essentially more like tomato paste. Scrape it off with a spatula and add to the sauce to add richness. It is also worth mentioning the pan in which you cook it. Since this is a longer cooking time over low heat, I prefer an enamelled Dutch oven to keep this fire in place and, most importantly, slowly spread it evenly over the pan. Stainless steel heats up faster, but you need to be finicky with the fire to keep the sauce from burning.
Don’t forget to splurge on cheese
Real quality cheese, often overlooked in favor of what’s on sale this week, is where to splurge. Good sauce is good, but good cheese alone is not enough. Mozzarella is now available in thousands of varieties, but pre-shredded cheeses can never hold a candle to the whole block you grate. My grandmother cut the piece into slices, which resulted in thick and only partially melted pieces of cheese. Not good. Rub your own and use more than you think you need. There is never too much cheese.
If you don’t plan on making mozzarella yourself , use a chunk of whole milk. Whole milk mozzarella melts into that sticky, plump taste that you remember in pizza as a kid. It also browns nicely on top, while its skinny, semi-fat cousin simply morphs into rubber strings that melt where you left them. As for the ricotta, you can easily make it yourself , but look here for the whole milk and fatty versions. Use ricotta. Do not use sour cream, let alone cottage cheese. The distracting texture and smell goes well with other dishes, but this is not the time or place. What about Parmesan? Don’t buy a pipe. Yes, on average $ 20 per pound. And yes, it’s worth it. Despite the fact that it grates well, it is not inferior to sauce and other cheeses. Real, impeccable parmesan cheese is under strict control , to the point that in 1934 the Consortium was formed to provide a strict diet even for dairy cows. You won’t find cellulose here. This is the peak cheese.
Uncooked noodles and boiled noodles: a timeless argument
I have argued many times in the past both for and against using no-boiled noodles. In all fairness, no-boiled noodles are easier to work with and produce more consistent results.
If you need to boil the noodles, do not strain them or leave them in a colander. Heat and starch work against you and the noodles stick together quickly. Put them back in the pot and pour just enough sauce to cover them and they will come off molto pronto. You sprinkle them with sauce anyway, so a good start isn’t a problem.
And heck, even if you only have noodles to boil, you don’t have to boil them. With enough hot sauce, they’ll cook enough before even in the oven and hold just as well.
Assembly is as important as ingredients
Some people like crispy crispy noodles. I’m a godless pagan who says no to this and squeezes the sauce out of my lasagna. A few spoonfuls of sauce in the bottom of the pan will make it easier to remove and unburned pasta.
Get yourself a 9×13 deep pot. While your noodles are boiling (or not) and the sauce is simmering, combine 32 ounces of ricotta with 3 cups freshly ground mozzarella, 3 large eggs, and ¾ cup grated Parmesan. Working with the sauce in the bottom of the pan, cook the following: noodles, cheese mixture, sauce, noodles. When you reach the pan’s height limit, pour the sauce over the top and cover it with a healthy layer of leftover mozzarella. Your lasagna is ready, but not ready for the oven yet.
Chill overnight
Chilling the lasagna overnight will not only allow the flavors to evolve between the heavenly trio, but it will solidify significantly and will be much easier to hit the plate without letting the tall layers slip off your $ 20 lasagna server. Both types of pasta work here, but remember to cover the top with a layer of plastic wrap and then aluminum foil so that the circulating air doesn’t dry out everything. Take the harvested lasagne out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking and let it cool and warm to room temperature. This will allow it to cook in a reasonable amount of time and will prevent heat shock to your pan. And yes, peel off the plastic wrap, but leave the foil on top to keep the pasta from drying out.
Finally cook, then wait a little more.
When you’re ready and the lasagne is hot, preheat the oven to 375 ° F. Bake for 30 minutes – or until bubbles appear – then remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes. If you want a little browning on top, feel free to tuck it under the brazier or lie down a bit from the burner. And now the most difficult thing : let him rest. There is liquid magma of hot cheese. If you’ve been resting all night, there is no aesthetic reason to let it rest longer, but there is a safety issue. Of course, there are relatives who discuss politics at the table, whose mouths we would all like to see burned to an inoperative state, but the festive meals should be full of joy; you’ve made the lasagna so great that they can’t find the words to describe it, let alone anything else.