If you enjoy cooking Italian food, there's a good chance you'll want to make lasagna. In its simplest form, this dish involves layering pasta, cheese and tomato sauce. Once you are comfortable with the basic layering technique, you can add other ingredients, like a layer of fried breaded eggplant for a cross between lasagna and eggplant parmesan. If you want to add some vegetables to the dish, put in a layer of chopped bell peppers, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, asparagus or any other vegetable you like.
Instructions
1. Rub a piece of butter over the bottom and sides of your glass baking dish to keep the ingredients from sticking.
2. Place one layer of pasta across the entire bottom of the baking dish. Overlap each piece slightly.
3. Pour some of the meat tomato sauce over the layer of noodles, using an amount proportional to the number of layers you intend to make. For example, if you want to make three full layers of pasta, sauce and cheese, you would use one third of the sauce in this step. If you want to make two full layers, use half of the sauce. Add enough to fully cover the layer of pasta, spreading it into the corners of the dish with the knife or spatula.
4. Spread a full layer of cheese over the meat tomato sauce. If you are using ricotta or a similar cheese, use the knife or spatula to spread the cheese into a smooth layer. If you are using grated cheese, sprinkle it evenly over the sauce. Use approximately the same amount of ricotta as sauce; use slightly less grated cheese as its final texture will not be as smooth as ricotta and using too much could overwhelm the dish.
5. Place a layer of pasta over the cheese, then another layer of sauce over the pasta, then another layer of cheese over the sauce. Repeat this process until you have created as many layers as you desire.
6. Place one final layer of pasta over the finished product, then sprinkle it with grated cheese. Do not use ricotta on top of the lasagna regardless of whether you used it in earlier layers; instead, use grated parmesan or another grated cheese for this final sprinkle. Your lasagna is now ready to bake.
Tags: grated cheese, layer pasta, tomato sauce, want make, another layer