I made lasagna last night, (recipe and pics up soon) and I have a little trick that I must share. It really makes the whole dish a lot easier to work with and the noodles are cooked to perfection.
It is so simple. Before, when I would make lasagna, I would boil the noodles and try to make sure the were al dente, but I am not a chef, so I never really knew. So when I would go to build my lasagna layers, they would always break in my hand and be a huge mess. Not to mention burning my hand while trying to put it together.
I learned about this trick and it is seriously awesome. Take the lasagna noodles that you are going to use, and place them into a dish and fill with hot water. As hot as you can get it. Don’t put too many noodles in the dish because if they get stuck together, they won’t soften. I put 12 noodles into one shallow dish and the other 12 noodles in another dish. Once the hot water cooled, I would drain and refill with hot water 2 more times until the noodles are soft, but workable. This is the first thing I did, so they could sit while I cooked the meat and sauce.
By the time I was done with the rest of the ingredients, the noodles were soft and did not break when I was building my lasagna. Don’t worry that they are not cooked all the way through, they will cook completely in the oven, and you won’t have overcooked noodles! It has worked every time!
*Bonus Tip:
I never knew why you needed to put sauce in the pan before you put your noodles, well I figured it out last night, the noodles will get stuck on the pan. Not fun to clean off. I am sure you all already knew this, but I had to learn the hard way.
So clever!
clever!
yes very good idea.