Reply to Do you need to boil lasagna noodles first?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you do not boil, or if you boil and leave them al dente, your noodles then make sure you have a lot of moisture in your sauce and/or cheese mixture.  The pasta sops up moisture like Bounty sops up water.  It is better to have too much moisture rather than too little.  As you cook and the lasagna looks done but you think it might by too soppy (usually not going to happen btw) then let it set for a half hour or so tightly covered on the top of the stove.  This will help any potential extra moisture get absorbed by the noodles.

If, on the other hand, you don't have enough moisture, then serve some of the sauce on the side.  If you are out of the tomato sauce then either whip up some more really quickly or make a fast béchamel sauce that you can serve on the side.  [b]It is a little "different" to have béchamel on a tomato-based lasagna[/b] but it is better than being too dry and it actually can be pretty yummy!

Luckily lasagna is one of those dishes where there is a lot of room for forgiveness so it will be pretty hard to mess up!  Hope you love your lasagna![/quote]

This is actually very common in Europe. I'm from Germany, but my Italian relatives also make it that way (not with béchamel on the side as you suggest, but as the white sauce layered with the bolognese between the noodles). I've never had lasagna with ricotta until I came to the US.

With a layering of bolognese and béchamel, you really don't need to boil the noodles. Just make sure everything is nicely submerged.[/quote]

Huh, I'm the FP and I never knew that.  I had to do it once because the lasagna was looking dry and then we found that we liked it that way.  Good to know there is some sort of precedence.  I will make it with the béchamel instead of the ricotta mixture next time and I bet we like it a lot! Thank you for sharing![/quote]

Glad you like the idea. Make sure to enrich the béchamel with some parmesan. Enjoy![/quote]

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