Because my mother had been a Depression baby, her method of cooking was to take whatever recipe from a women’s magazine that piqued her interest and pare it down to something Joe Arpaio would be glad to serve. Thus the lasagnas of my unappreciative youth were: noodles/tomato paste & hamburger/noodles/grated cheese.
The Thermidorian Reaction to this was the lasagnas of my adulthood: monstrosities created as if Howard Roark had gone to culinary instead of architecture school; Noah’s arcs of flesh from land, sea and sky; cheeses from every beast willing to be milked, vegetables all green and so fresh they were still filing last minute appeals as I chopped them. Five layers was my usual, limited only by the want of temerity in pan manufacturers.
A box of lasagna noodles has enough to make three layers in the pan I use, so that’s what I do. Happily I was raised by a Boomer and not a Depression baby.
That’s how I was taught to do it, and from what I’ve seen and had of others’ lasagna, it appears to be standard practice. Never really gave it much thought, to be honest with you.
If the bottom noodle layer gets crispy, doesn’t that make all the innards squish out when you cut into it on the plate?
Three layers in a 9 x 13 pan. No room for more (though I always seem to have extra noodles left over. I hate that! They sit in the cupboard forever.)
My cousin had three boys and would make a lasagna in a big roasting pan, using as many of the noodles and layers as would fit. She said she never had any leftovers (and her boys were stick figures as long as I’ve known them). She estimated it worked out to a double recipe, just doubled all ingredients.
The number of layers is limited by the thickness of the layers and the depth of the pan. I reach the top of my pan at three layers, so that’s how I make it.
I have six or seven distinct ingredients that are abundant enough to comprise a layer, but multiple layers of most of them. In my usual pan, it works out to about 14 layers total, plus some herbs and spices that don’t comprise full layers.
I think of a layer as being from Noodle to Noodle, but maybe not everyone is thinking the same way. I was wondering how anyone had a pan deep enough to accomidate more than 3 layers.
Oh. Again with the caveat that it’s pan-dependent, but I usually have three layers of noodles. It’s not all the same things between the noodles, though.
Mine is 2 noodle layers. My sauce is pretty chunky with chuck and italian sausage, which I don’t break up very much. I love making lasagna- I’m actually going to attempt a noodle-free lasagna this week for a gluten-intolerant friend. Thinking an eggplant layer and maybe a spinach layer.
Marinara sauce (either with meat, or vegetarian, same with all following marinara layers)
Pasta
Marinara
Ricotta
Parmesan
Pasta
Marinara
Mozzarella
Pasta
Marinara
Parmesan
Mozzarella