Same here.
I use the no boils as the flat sheets all seem to come in no boil. The regular ones are all curly, from what I’ve been able to find, and I use flat ones for bechamel style because the curly shape isn’t as good for it. When I make my own sheets I always preboil. I tried without once and the texture was just all off and gummy. I think the pasta needs to “set” first to avoid risk of getting gummy. Out of all the versions, I do like the texture of the preboiles fresh pasta best, but I don’t have that kind of time usually.
We have a vegetarian in the house (me. It’s me. I’m a vegetarian), so I typically make veggie lasagna. I make my own marinara using canned diced tomatoes and a bunch of garlic and oregano, and because Mr. Legend has to stick to a low-sodium diet, I put in very little salt and boost the flavor with red chile powder instead. I’ve taken to not boiling the noodles and making up for the moisture by not worrying too much about squeezing all the moisture out of the spinach and broccoli. We’re ricotta fans here, and the layers go: sauce, noodles, ricotta/mozzarella/egg mixture, steamed spinach and broccoli, ending with a layer of noodles and sauce. I finish it off with a sprinkle of mozzarella on top. I’ll usually make a big pan of it and freeze individual slices to microwave for quick meals later.
This is what I do. I have one of those pasta pots with holes in the lid, and as soon as the pasta is ready, I drain it and then add cold water to the pot. It gets some of the starch off the noodles and also cools them so I can grab each one and lay them out on a kitchen towel without scalding myself. After that, it’s assembly time.
I never pre-cook dried lasagne sheets, but thinking about it, perhaps my lasagne is ‘wetter’ than others, given that I use bechamel, and like quite a wet ragu. I find if I pre-boil, the pasta goes mushy. Same if I make up the lasagne dish the day before I oven bake it. I have friends over for lasagne tonight, and will make up the dish today, despite the fact I made the ragu and the bechamel yesterday.
I don’t make my own lasagne sheets, purely because making lasagne already seems to take me hours!
I don’t think using homemade pasta in a dish like lasagne really buys you much. So many other tastes that I don’t think you’d notice anything other than a slight difference in texture. Store bought has always been fine for me.
I don’t like a really soupy lasagne, so if the bechamel version is more in that direction, I don’t think I’d like it as much as the ricotta version.
Definitely not soupy. Something like this:
That looks like about 50% pasta. Is it like that or is it a distortion in the angle of the photo?
There’s a pound of meat in there (not my picture), so the angle is making it seem like less, but, yeah, the pasta is pretty prominent. Which is why when I have the time, making spinach pasta for this dish is great. But even with store-bought sheets, they’re delicious.
This is a fair cross-section representation:
The ricotta is my favorite part. I’d be disappointed if it was just bechamel sauce.
More for me! Like I said above, I didn’t like lasagna until I had this version. The way the creamy bechamel melts lusciously into the bolognese. To. Die. For. It is one of my perfect foods.
We’re on the same page. I only make the bechamel version.
I don’t make lasagna anymore, having gone to a low carb diet for the most part. But when I did, it was a several-day affair. I’d make the bolognese 2 days ahead and the pasta dough the day before. On the day of assembly, I’d throw together the bechamel, roll out the pasta and give it a very quick boil before assembling 3 pans. Freeze 2 for later.
It was wonderful!
Me, too. What’s the point of the bechamel if it’s just absorbed into the sauce? I like tasting the cheese, and I like the distinct layers. But as always de gustibus…
Anyway, now i want to make a lasagna…
The bechamel is a distinct layer.
Hard to see that in your photo. In any case, it’s a skinny layer.
Yea, it is skinny, but the meat and bechamel (with plenty of Parmesano-Reggiano) layers alternate. Anyhow, any style of lasagna is better than no lasagna.
It’s been so long since I made my own lasagna that I was trying to remember if I precooked the noodles. I’m almost certain that I always did. Anyway, FWIW the link below is to a lasagna recipe that, if its claims are to believed, is apparently the most popular lasagna recipe in the history of the universe, or something close to that. And it says to cook the noodles first.
I might try making this sometime, with a few modifications, like using one of the good commercial pasta sauces I discovered.
ETA: For anyone else interested in making it, there is a handy “Print” button at the bottom of the page, no need to cut and paste. I printed it to a PDF file.
I’ll drink, er, eat to that!
The last 3 times I made it I used thinly sliced eggplant for most or all of the noodle layers. It was very, very good and I didn’t miss the noodles at all.