Lasagna Florentine to be precise since everyone here has a different meat process.
Oven ready noodles.
First Level: Homemade tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, parmasan cheese. Both cheeses the commodity brand so here will be the first improvement.
Second Level: Bechamel sauce. This is what elevated it! Never did a lasagna with it before. Freshly made of course and very thick which worked out perfectly. Fresh raw spinach. Ricotta cheese.
Third and fourth are repeats.
Top with the tomato sauce. Baked at 375 for 45 minute then topped with the mozz & parm blend. 10 more minutes until the cheese starts to brown at the edges.
Did not do the restaurant touch of taking the lasagna piece and as the last step topping with sauce and cheese and broiling individual servings. Maybe next time.
I’m a regular lasagne-maker, probably every two weeks. I haven’t tried a spinach one, but did make one with a meat sauce using minced chicken and chorizo, with some roasted butternut squash in there, most recently. A great success, with the chicken (thigh) mince lending greater structural integrity than chicken pieces.
Me - I LOVE the homemade lasagna my wife makes - just layers of noodles, seasoned meat/shrooms, ricotta mix, parm. My wife often will order lasagna when we eat at an Italian restaurant. To my taste buds, it is often good, but not as good as what we have at home. So for me, “restaurant quality” is not desired, and I NEVER order it out.
Congrats on your success in making a lasagna to your preferred taste!
I don’t make them often, but when I do, I make at least 3 at a time to freeze a couple for later.
Like @Cervaise, I’m a fan of the béchamel versions. I make everything from scratch, including bolognese sauce and noodles. The recipe I prefer is from a Very Authentic Northern Italian cookbook and it refers to the béchamel as… béchamel. Parmesan cheese is sprinkled on, but not into, the béchamel.
No ricotta in my lasagnas, though I love ricotta otherwise and won’t say no to someone else’s lasagna that uses it. I’ve made chicken and spinach versions, too. They’re all good!
It’s a lot of work and thus a rare treat. But oh, they are lovely when I go to the trouble.
I totally agree. I’ve had decent pasta in a restaurant before. I’ve never had “good” pasta in a restaurant. In fact, I thought I hated pasta until I learned how to make it properly.
I always mix 1# frozen chopped spinach and 3 eggs with 2# ricotta. I never follow the same recipe with the cheese and meat but I did start using the jarred pasta sauce and am happy with it.
