I have no idea how we’re counting layers. I lay down the noodle layer, top with a cheese mixture, top with meat/sauce, then another level of noodle, then repeat with cheese then meat. How many layers is that?
So is this six layers? Or Is the stuff between noodles a layer?
Apparently we’re counting layers by noodles only, so that would be 2.
Usually three layers, if we’re counting layers by the noodles.
Does it actually count as lasagne if there’s less than three layers of noodles? Isn’t that like making a club sandwich with only two slices of bread?
Can I be the first to say: noodles? What? You use noodles as layers? What is this new devilry?
From top to bottom:
mozzarella
sauce
pasta
mozzarella
cheese/egg mixture
pasta
sauce
mozzarella
cheese/egg mixture
pasta
sauce
mozzarella
cheese/egg mixture
pasta
sauce
I don’t cook the pasta, but after it’s all assembled, I pour about 3/4 cup of water over the whole thing, then seal a lid of foil over it and bake.
YUM!!
Aside from making sure no lawyers get in my lasagna, I don’t use fully cooked noodles. I prefer sheets of fresh pasta, but with either fresh or dried, I put them in the lasagna pan and pour boiling water over them. It just takes a minute for fresh pasta, two or three for dried, then I take the noodle out, rinse the pan, and start the assembly.
The exception is some of dried pasta, usually what I get from the restaurant supply, which tends to grow a lot while cooking, that might take 6-7 minutes before it’s fully saturated, and almost totally cooked.
When I’m lazy, I don’t precook (I usually make fresh spinach pasta for lasagna), but for me the issue isn’t cooking, it’s the texture. When I don’t precook, the layers kind of meld into each other, absorbing the liquid from layers above and below, but when I do precook, there is clearly separation between the pasta and the layers it’s sitting on. (Which, actually, I do prefer.)
I’ve solved that problem by cooking them all, making my cheese layers and marinara sauce extra generous and then, after the main lasagna is assembled, making a mini-lasagna or two in small, one-serving sized casserole dishes. I pop them in the freezer and then have a nice lunch for one of those days when I don’t know what to serve.
I get four layers in my pyrex cake pan which appears to be a little larger than standard. No shortcuts. Everything must be Grade A and time-consuming. I figure if I’m going to make something that takes time I’m going to do it right.
I just put olive oil in the bottom of the pan but the bottom layer doesn’t get crispy in my recipe. The top edges are crispy like we like them.
It’s an American usage, they call all kinds of pasta “noodles.” My American husband laughed the first time I referred to “pasta sheets.”
At first I read the title as “How many lawyers in your lasagna?” :eek:
Suggestion from a professional cook: Use a sheet of plastic film (like Saran Wrap) between the foil and the top of the lasagna. Tomato sauce can eat aluminum foil, resulting in dissolved aluminum in your lasagna. When I’m making lasagna at work I actually put two layers of plastic film over the pan before the foil.
And you don’t end up with melted plastic in the lasagna? 
Nope. The plastic doesn’t “melt” in a “drippy” way, it just shrinks up if it gets too hot; I think it would require a temperature higher than what’s typically used for baking to actually liquify the stuff (I bake lasagna at 350° F). The air space between the plastic and the foil will also help keep it from getting hot enough to actually melt. But even if you do get a bit of plastic in the food, it’s still safer than ingesting dissolved aluminum.
I should add a caveat that I’m talking about the plastic cling wrap we use in foodservice, which may be a bit more heavy-duty than the stuff you can get at the grocery store, though it’s probably the same kind of plastic.
A baker told me about this. It works with regular grocery store wrap just as well. But it is easier if you have the wide roll food service film.
At least 8 since I like red tomato , basil and capers at the bottom half, and cream cheese and spinach at the upper.