Lasagna - the good, the bad, the helpful hints!

Cooking Discussions Recipes
41

@Desert-Dan not to state the obvious, but there are 2 major “schools” of lasagna – béchamel and ricotta (which also tend to align as Italian-Italian vs Italian-American).

Here’s a nice article about lasagna bolognese (Marcella Hazan’s is a lovely version of it) using fresh pasta – you could replace the tomato bolognese with a white mushroom bolognese, or a vegetable ragu without tomatoes.

Ricotta lasagna is sturdier, and dried noodles are great in it (either no-boil or pre-boil). If you want to control the salt, ricotta is easy to make at home (it’s just curdling milk and straining).

(1) What kind of shredded cheese do you use
Grated parm or pecorino in the béchamel version, whole milk mozzarella in the ricotta version.

(2) Do you mix an egg in with the ricotta cheese?
No – when I make vegetable lasagna it’s for vegetarians who don’t eat eggs. You can add a bit of cornstarch to help it firm up if you want.

(3) What vegetables do you use?
For the ricotta version, diced onion, bell peppers, mushrooms, and well-drained frozen spinach mixed with the sauce.
For vegetarian béchamel lasagna, a variety of mushrooms (like the SK one @linguafood posted).
Another idea is to add layers of long-sliced zucchini or squash or eggplant instead of diced. Roast first so the liquid doesn’t make your lasagna soggy (since you can’t salt in this case).

(4) How many layers are in a traditional vegetable lasagna?
As many as you want. I like more vs less. You can get more fresh pasta layers in a pan than dried, but make sure you have enough of the other layer components.

(5) Any helpful tips or tricks?
One of the nicest vegetable lasagnas I’ve eaten is also the quickest – a friend microwaves all the vegetables instead of sautéing or roasting, which I was shocked by, but I had already eaten and loved the end product before I knew the shortcut!
Roasted red peppers can stand in for tomatoes (though a white lasagna is perfectly lovely). I love the idea of butternut squash too, but I’d roast it to intensify.
If you skip the parm and cut back cheese in general for salt, you can use nutritional yeast and/or cashew paste in the béchamel (soak cashews, drain and puree).
Lasagna roll-ups are easier to assemble, portion, and freeze than a big tray.

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42

As @Saregama suggests, lasagna is an open ended request, suggesting endless variations.
One tomato free version we’ve recently resurrected can be very simply assembled from jarred ingredients, like this. Using pre-cooked pasta sheets, this dish is easily put together and is absolutely delicious.
Make a cream sauce, add hefty splat of jarred artichoke puree. Grease a baking dish, add smear of sauce, then layer dry pasta sheets with the sauce, shower of parmesan until ingredients are used up. Finish with shower of parmesan. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.
Screen Shot 2022-08-30 at 6.16.56 PM
Screen Shot 2022-08-30 at 6.17.07 PM

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43

Ooh - like an artichoke dip in lasagna form! Yum!

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44

For reference, in terms of sodium for Parmesan (a frequent flyer in white lasagna):

1 T./5g - 76 mg
1 oz./28.4g (roughly 4-5 T.) - 433mg
1 cup/100 g - 1,529mg

45

Some 40 years ago we hosted a large family lunch. I made two enormous lasagnas, one classic tomato and bechemel, the other a “hand-did” version of this one. Mid service, an older relative approached me and said, “Next time, save your effort and just make two tomato.” Then someone started spreading the word about the artichoke version. WHOOOFFF! Gone. People almost fighting over scraps. This is seriously good.

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46

How many jars worth of the puree do you use? The nutritional information on the brand you linked has 250mg of sodium per 2 T. of puree. The OP is trying to make a lasagna with low/no sodium for his neighbor.

47

For a 9" x 9" pan, maybe 6 tablespoons? By your calculations, 750mg for 9 portions? 83mg/portion?
More for addition of parmesan.

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48

I think the problem some of us are running into here is that everything, or almost everything tastes better with salt.

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49

This is usually absolutely true. But some years back, I went essentially salt free. And within a few weeks, I couldn’t handle any observable salt. I would gag on a potato chip;. And after a couple of years, drifted back into “normal” use. I now liberally salt my morning oat meal…before dousing it with heavy cream.

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50

This is 100% TRUE!!

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51

overnight is even better.

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52

I’m sorry to hear about the lasagna disappointment, especially with how time consuming they are to make.

  1. I don’t use any cheese in my bechamel, I only use cheese when layering. And I just eyeball the amount to what looks right (generous in my case).

  2. I don’t use a ricotta mix in a lasagna at all. I first heard about this when reading American recipes for lasagna actually so don’t know if that’s a regional thing but I only use bechamel and red sauce.

  3. I don’t do vegetable lasagnas at all so I can only help with the bechamel questions really. There aren’t even any vegetables in my meat sauce. I also don’t get many layers as my sauces are on the thick side but they are very tasty layers.

  4. My best tip is to ensure the lasagna sheets are fully covered with sauce or they will go crispy. I also like to add freshly grated nutmeg in my bechamel and bacon in my meat sauce.

I hope your next attempt turns out delicious! I’m looking forward to seeing it.

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53

I think that your problem was the low/no salt dietary restriction. Lasagna needs plenty of salty cheese and every component needs to be well seasoned.

I have made Alice Waters’ spinach lasagna several times. It was delicious. You could omit the tomato sauce and add extra vegetables. Mushrooms would work well.

For a non-tomato sauce lasagna, I recommend Alice Waters’ pesto lasagna. It perfumes the house while you are cooking it and is irresistibly delicious.

Despite Alice Waters’ insistence that homemade lasagna noodles are the best, I use store bought.

For an Italian/American red sauce classic lasagna, Alison Roman’s hits the spot. It is easy to make (although a bit time consuming) and it tastes fantastic.

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54

Pesto is a great idea! But what to replace the parm with as it is too salty?

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55

I think that your problem was the low/no salt dietary restriction. Lasagna needs plenty of salty cheese and every component needs to be well seasoned.

I have made Alice Waters’ spinach lasagna. It was delicious. You could omit the tomato sauce and add extra vegetables. Mushrooms would work well.
“"
For a non-tomato sauce lasagna, I recommend

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56

Saving this idea! Do you ever add mushrooms, spinach, etc?

57

^^^^This. Don’t force it - it might be why it’s not turning out well.

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58

I’ve kept it pretty classic but there’s no reason not to. Or chicken or, retro, tuna.

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59

My opinion only. I mske a vegrtarian lasagna with spinach and a lot of gsrlic moxed in eith the ricotta (no cottsge cheese for this boy). All of the traditional cheesrs in lasagna are very bland. Parm, mozzarella and ricotta pretty much have no flavor on their own. In s regulsr lasagna i add a lot of black pepper & rosemary to the cheese and i use romano rather than parm. If i were making a lasagna with othrr veggies id keep the veggies in a separate layer with some thivk bechamel flavored with appropriate herbs

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60

Agree with all your advice here.