No Boil Lasagna Noodles

[gulfporter]

I've never eaten them or used them and looking for tips, suggestions and warnings.  

 

We will be care-giving my 91 year old FIL for the coming week.  It's challenging, yet rewarding (his regular caregiver takes the week off, so she won't burn out).  

 

Instead of our normal routine of one meal out per day, we're cooking 3 squares a day (at 91 he has a very healthy appetite).  

 

We're having 8 people over towards the end of our stay, to celebrate his 91st birthday.  We are thinking of making a casserole and Martha Stewart's Spinach Lasagna with a bechamal sauce will please him and our vegetarian niece.  The recipe calls for no-boil lasagna noodles, so this isn't a substitution.  Because his BD will be busy and crowded, I wouldn't mind giving up the boiling of lasagna noodles, but am wondering if the time-saving will still produce a decent white lasagna.

[Darienne]

I am curious about this one also.  I've seen them but never tried them. 

[gfweb]

I use them exclusively. Besides convenience, they make a better lasagna. They are thinner and hold the layers better.

 

I use the Barilla brand.

 

The only trick to working with them is having enough liquid in the dish. How much is enough? I make sure a sauce of some sort is about 3/4 the way up the pan and that there is a wet sauce on top  eg tomato sauce covered with mozzarella.

 

There is a typo on the Barilla box lately...says cook for 30 min or something. Too short. 50-60 min with the last 5-10 uncovered

[ElsieD]

I use these whenever we don't feel like making our own pasta. I use the Barilla brand which is an egg pasta imported from Italy. Here it comes in a 500 gram package. I like this brand because the sheets are thinner than most other brands and that, plus the egg content results in what seems to me to be a more tender pasta. They work beautifully.

[ElsieD]

I use them exclusively. Besides convenience, they make a better lasagna. They are thinner and hold the layers better.

 

I use the Barilla brand.

 

The only trick to working with them is having enough liquid in the dish. How much is enough? I make sure a sauce of some sort is about 3/4 the way up the pan and that there is a wet sauce on top  eg tomato sauce covered with mozzarella.

 

There is a typo on the Barilla box lately...says cook for 30 min or something. Too short. 50-60 min with the last 5-10 uncovered

[rotuts]

Ive  used this for a long time, esp for lasagna.

 

I use Ronzoni.

 

the Test Kitchen had a show along long time ago featuring these for their Lasagna.

 

Ive made it that way since.  Its an Award Winner, as I make the awards

 

good meat lasagna is so complex I doubt I would know the difference between these, other no-boil, and Artisian.

 

you just make sure the sauce is a little wet so the noodles rehydrate as the cook in the Yummy Goodness.

 

if you soak these , you can do spirals, cannoli etc

 

the Test Kitchen recommended Ronzoni at the time, but they may have moved to Barilla 

 

( something under the table ? )  the barilla are more expensive and had an odd number and the size if different.

 

give Ronzoni or any other a shot.

 

for me they allow Lasagna  " to get made "  boiling noodles, draining the first etc is a Rate Limit-er for me

 

no boil  no fuss.

[rotuts]

wow  Big Barilla Crowd here.

 

after I finish my current supply of Ronzoni Ill consider giving them a try

[Deryn]

Barilla here too.

Since you are using a recipe designed for use with no-boil noodles, gulfporter, the liquid proportion and timing 'should' be right for it already.

[Darienne]

Hmmm....I have a container of all-purpose tomato sauce in the freezer as we speak and I shall look for no-cook Barilla lasagna noodles in my favorite Moab grocery store.  Time for lasagna!

 

(DH makes the tomato sauce in this household and holds off on the ingredients which would make it suitable for only one dish.  Into the freezer it goes in containers.  The only problem there is to keep him from filling the entire freezer at one go.  Thus it gets defrosted and turned into spaghetti sauce, lasagna sauce, Mexican meatball sauce, Moussaka sauce, etc....yes, I know it make be 'tacky' but it keeps us going.)

[David Hensley]

I've used several brands of "no-boil" sheets, and generally liked them all.

That being said, I was unhappy with most of my results, primarily because I hate a wet lasagna. Most of the recipes I tried seemed to call for an excessive amount of moisture, which the pasta didn't fully absorb. I did, however, find a good trick to fix it.

I found that a soak in hot water, for just 10-15mins will pre-hydrate the pasta, just enough, so that your other ingredients don't need to be overly wet. I find that the soaking saves not only time, but hassle, as well. My result has been consistent, and I no longer need to have lasagna skating all over my plate while I chase it vainly with a fork...

[Tri2Cook]

I usually just toss regular lasagna noodles in a container of cold water in the morning. When they soften a bit, I drain them and throw them in the fridge until I need them. They work just as well as the no-boil noodles but are more substantial, which I like.

[Darienne]

Tri2Cook, I think I like this better.  Good for you.

[Tri2Cook]

I was unhappy with most of my results, primarily because I hate a wet lasagna.

[gfweb]

The no boil lasagna that I make is by no means wet or, God-forbid, casserole-like.  

[Tri2Cook]

The no boil lasagna that I make is by no means wet or, God-forbid, casserole-like.  

[Lisa Shock]

I haven't liked the no boil noodles. Times that I have just used them with my regular ingredients (my family is from the far North, we do things differently) they haven't cooked fully. When I adjusted things and made sure that wet foods were on the noodles, they were kind of 'meh' -too thin to be able to taste much. I tried Barilla, and a more expensive brand that was wavy. I think on at least one occasion, at home, the lasagna was too saucy for me and I actually made some spaghetti and served the lasagna on top of it to get the ratio right. (oh yeah, every frozen lasagna I have ever tried was way, way too saucy)

 

I like to be able to taste my pasta, and, IMO it should taste of pasta not the sauce or whatever. So, overall, I fall into the camp of preferring hydration with just salted water. And, I like thicker noodles.

 

Doing things like THIS just upsets me.

[ElsieD]

The no boil lasagna that I make is by no means wet or, God-forbid, casserole-like.

Ditto.

[Kim Shook]

I almost always use egg roll wrappers in place of fresh pasta sheets - in lasagna, manicotti, etc.  I like the no-boil noodles just fine, but I can get the thickness that I want by layering the wrappers.  I just love the texture which, to me, is more like fresh pasta.

[quiet1]

I usually just toss regular lasagna noodles in a container of cold water in the morning. When they soften a bit, I drain them and throw them in the fridge until I need them. They work just as well as the no-boil noodles but are more substantial, which I like.

My mom's lasagna recipe uses regular noodles without any pre-soaking or cooking. Just add a little extra water to the sauce (I think like 1/4-1/2 cup? I just eyeball it) and cover tightly for the first 30-40 minutes so the noodles have time to cook in the liquid before it bakes off. Then uncover, top with final cheese layer (shredded cheese - easiest just to do it after uncovering or it tries to stick to the foil/lid) and cook until browned and bubbly.

End result has always been nicely cooked noodles and a lasagna that behaves itself on the plate - actual visible layers, doesn't try to slide apart when you try to get a bite. I hate slippery soggy lasagna. (Eta: not saying people who do use no cook noodles get wet lasagnes! Just describing what my mom's recipe ends up as. I was so very confused when I first ordered lasagna after moving to England and got what looked to me like a pile of soggy noodles in a confused puddle of pasta and bechamel sauces. Yuck. I have since had a good version of that type, but I had to get over the shock to my system before being brave enough to try again. )

Edited January 13, 2015 by quiet1 (log)

[scubadoo97]

I've used Barilla no boil and have even used regular Barilla lasagna noodles. They both work without boiling if you add a little extra water to the sauce and it doesn't take much. Cooked covered removing the foil at the end to crisp up the top. I should add I don't like over saucy but the noodles are cooked

[gulfporter]

Here's my review of no-boil lasagna noodles.  

 

I used Barilla since that was the only brand available where I shopped.  I made a spinach lasagna with a bechamel sauce; after removing from oven I let it sit for 20 minutes before cutting and the squares came out beautifully neat and 'clean'...they held together without any slippin' or slidin' on the plates.  I used a deep pan and I made four layers of noodles, sauce, cheese and spinach.  

 

The no-boil noodles were a real time saver and they had a mouth feel closer to fresh pasta than the standard dry lasagna sheets which always struck me as a bit too thick. 

[Jmahl]

If you make your own fresh pasta to make lasagna you don't have to boil it first.

[Darienne]

I tried the putting the uncooked (but not no-boil) noodles in straight from the package with the extra liquid.  My only problem is that it took FOREVER for the noodles to cook through...about an hour before I dared to leave the aluminum foil off to finish the dish.  When it was done, it was perfect. 

 

Don't know what I did wrong.  It's not my oven...and perhaps my ingredients were too cold and I should have allowed for that right off the bat.  Fortunately we were not expecting to eat the lasagna right away, so all was well.

 

Thanks. I'll do it again.  Hate fussing with coiled lasagna noodles.  ...or maybe I'll do the soak in cold water trick...

[rotuts]

Its my understanding, if you took Reg. Noodles, and soaked them in Hot Water

 

for a bit

 

the bit part is not clear to me as I have not done this 

 

you then use the as No-Boil

 

just saying.

 

 

Darienne

 

think about it.

Edited January 18, 2015 by rotuts (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

It's a pain but the best results I've achieved are by blanching the normal store-bought lasagna noodles briefly in boiling water, then cold shocking in an ice bath.

 

Almost always my lasagna turns out like tomato soup.  A fact of which I am not proud.  From time to time I have used homemade noodles however that does not save me from soupiness.