My lasagna has layers of pasta, ricotta, mozzarella, and meat sauce (repeated). I don’t have strong feelings about the order. I typically spray the bottom of the pan with shortening spray to ease cleanup, but even without, the bottom layer of noodles want to slide around as I put ricotta on top. It occurred to me yesterday that a thin layer of ricotta would hold them in place by cohesion, and so I tried that, successfully. I was not in the room to clean the pan, alas, so don’t know if that was a problem.
I just thought I’d put the question out there to see how other builders approach this structural issue.
I don’t use oil under my noodles; just a very, very thin layer of sauce. Like: just enough to cover the pan with a 1 micron thick layer of sauce, or as close as I can get to that.
Also, are you just using straight ricotta cheese? I blend mine with mozzerella, romano, parmesan, fontina, swiss, garlic, basil , etc. the act of blending, along with a few drops of water helps make it easier to spread on the noodles by making it into a paste. The water is then absorbed by the noodles and/or boils off.
I put sauce on the bottom.
I also recently had the idea that if you put the ricotta in a pastry bag (or a ziplock bag masquerading as a pastry bag) you can just pipe it out onto the lasagna and not have to worry about spreading it. Because it never spreads well. Even when it’s a ricotta mix, it doesn’t spread.
Sauce in the pan first. Dried noodles are slippery after cooking so I use sheets of fresh pasta when I can. They only need to be immersed in hot water for a couple of minutes and they won’t be slick like that.
I don’t pre-cook the pasta, so the board-like pieces stay put. Plus sauce goes in first. Once it’s assembled, I pour about 3/4 cup of water over the whole thing, cover with foil, and bake. Perfect every time.
My problem has been ripping the noodles, not keeping them in place. But I’m also in the “sauce first” camp. If i make lasagna again i want to try this dry noodle method.
I should say, my husband dislikes lasagna, and no one living here lives it. So i haven’t made it since my son (who loved it) moved out. And i haven’t made it often. But i had all sorts of construction difficulties, it and “noodles sliding out of place on the bottom” was never one of them.
I solved the “spreading ricotta” problem by dropping it from my hand, effectively “sprinkling” it around, except i “sprinkled” an even covering of little clumps.
My noodles also stuck to reach other, and to themselves. Not the first layer, but the subsequent ones. Probably the first piece was cooked okay and the others overcooked by the time I got to them. Or something. I must have drained the pot?
Anyway, definitely giving the uncooked noodle variant a try should i do this again.
For what it’s worth, I do them in small batches during assembly. Start first layer, do all but last component, throw in next noodles, finish prior layer, remove noodles and continue. You don’t want them sitting in the water while you work.
That may be connected to your technique of ending up with little clumps of ricotta (or cheese mixture) versus a complete layer with no gaps.
If the noodles in any layer are fully covered by whatever before the next layer of noodles goes on, they can’t touch. And if they can’t touch, they can’t stick.
No, you misunderstand. They stick to each other when i try to place them. As a result, they rip, and it takes a long time to place them.
Once placed, they are fine. And the finished product is also fine. I’ve never had the layers stick to each other. And i achieve very even layers with the sprinkle-cheese method.
In my experience, assembling lasagna is an enormous pita. I’ve never understood people who find it easy.
That makes sense. How long do your cook them? Because i have visions of spending ages watching pasta cook. But if they don’t actually need much cooking that would be a far better technique than mine. I guess you fish the pasta out, and keep the pot of hot water?
