I agree with using sprayed foil with coveringcany tomato product. I like my lasagne rathed stiff, so it stands up, so I underboil the ripple noodles or pasta sheets. I slice my mozz, combine ricotta and non-fat cottage cheese and use fresh shredded parm. Always fresh chiffonade basil sprinkled on top at service.
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Another thought here: if your lasagna is too dry you can always pour extra sauce over it when you serve it.
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This is particularly true if you are using domestic parmesan cheese and ANYthing pre-shredded or grated. I also think it’s well worth it to spring for the pricier whole-milk mozz in the plastic blister-type pack (like this). It’s much more flavorful. Unless you have a really hot oven, fresh mozz is usually too wet. I’m sure making your own ricotta would kick things up a notch, too.
TLDR: use the good stuff, it’s more flavorful.
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Yah, what? Parmiggiano Reggiano has amazing flavor, especially aged parm. Mozzarella – GOOD mozzarella also has flavor, if fairly mild (unless it’s buffalo mozzarella, which has a nice tang added to the milkiness). I’ll agree on ricotta. That stuff’s just filler IMO.
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Ricotta… agreed. But as others have said, you need to find a new parm and moz.
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If you’re not tasting Parm, you might try Romano/pecorino. It has more authority.
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I don’t profess to have any expertise, just a lot of practice. I’ve been volunteering with an organization that feeds lasagnas to people in need, so I’ve cooked and delivered about 20 in the past 9 months. First off, I agree with the people that said this is a dish that just won’t be that tasty without much salt. But if you’re going to go for it… there’s no real magic.
It’s just layers of some type of sauce (any white sauce, or any vegetable puree should do you just fine to avoid tomato), some noodles, any other ingredient like veg or meat, and cheese. You could go a bit easier on cheese to lower the salt. Fresh cheeses are always lower in salt than aged cheeses, because aged removes the water - thus a higher salt ratio. You could try low sodium mozz, fresh mozz, or frankly even thin tofu slices with just a little sprinkling of parm on top to simulate the mouthfeel of mozz. As far as layers - as many as your pan will hold. I can usually get 3 layers of lasagna. I always use dried noodles, never cook them first. If your sauce is liquid enough, and you make sure you put something wet under and over each noodle, it will cook through. Arguably, it will even make a firmer textured dish without getting soggy noodles. I also always use cottage cheese, because I can find it in much larger containers than I can ricotta. The added moisture also helps cook the noodles. Cook it at 350 or 375 for 20-30 min covered (buttered/pam’d foil), then another 15-20 uncovered. If you do have a sprinkling of cheese on top, you can broil it for 3 min at the end to crunch up the top. You’re a good neighbor, and I’m sure your efforts are appreciated.
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