How to Make a Simple Lasagne at Home
I call this basic recipe "Lasagna - One Two Three" for three reasons.
- It's as easy as one-two-three to make.
- It's just as easy to make three at a time so you can eat one now and freeze the other two for another time.
- It is delicious!
Lasagna is one of those dishes that I think always taste better the next day after the flavors have had a chance to meld together. In fact, I usually cook one of the lasagnas the night before I plan to serve it. And you should see my 16 month old daughter scarf it down. She loves it.
The most time consuming aspect of preparing these lasagnas besides prepping ingredients is assembly. It's much more fun to work with a friend or a spouse when putting the lasagna together. You might want to think of it as an assembly line where each of you is responsible for particular ingredients.
The Most Basic Lasagna You Can Make
This recipe is for the most basic lasagna you can make. This should be your starting point and you would add on from here. For example, this recipe calls for a basic tomato sauce. A basic tomato sauce can range from a can of Hunts Tomato Sauce to my Basic Tomato Sauce. How about a meat sauce with beef, pork, veal or a combination of all three? Or maybe you prefer a vegetarian lasagna like Spinach & Roasted Pepper Lasagna. The number of variations is endless and makes for another "clean out your fridge" recipes.
The lasagna noodles can be dried, fresh, or the no boil variety. I prefer the no boil type because it reduces the preparation time and with two kids, anything to save time and not lose quality is a bonus. If you can find fresh mozzarella cheese and can afford it, well it will only add to the flavor.
Same with the Parmesan cheese. Freshly grated is better than the processed stuff you can buy at the supermarket. As with any recipe, the better the ingredients the better the outcome, but this is a dish you can cheat a little. If you make a great sauce and can't find fresh mozzarella, don't worry about it. If you used canned sauce but have some freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano the lasagna will come out fine.
How can it not with all the wonderful ingredients that go into this dish?
You will want to find three of those square aluminum disposable pans approximately 8x8x2 inch in size. Makes storing and cleaning a breeze.
