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Making Lasagna


Marlene

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I confess. It's been a very long time since I made lasagna. I'm currently making a spagetti sauce for tonight's dinner, and my thought is to use the leftover sauce to form a base to make a lasagna.

Here's the challenge. No one, other than me likes ricotta or cottage cheese. As I recall from my former lasagna making days, both of these are necessary in building this dish.

What do you think? Can I get away without them? I could probably get away with using some ricotta, but everyone will likely run screaming from any hint of cottage cheese.

:rolleyes:

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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sure you can. just layer the alternate pasta layers with cheesy nutmeggy bechamel. Or slices of mozzarella. Or, a tip from my best friend, she uses a little plain yoghurt (full fat, Greek variety if poss), sometimes with cheese grated in.

Fi Kirkpatrick

tofu fi fie pho fum

"Your avatar shoes look like Marge Simpson's hair." - therese

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Whoa! Hold on there. :smile:Neither ricotta nor cottage cheese is required for lasagne al forno. These have become somewhat standard in the Italian-American version of the dish, along with dry rather than fresh pasta, but are certainly not required ingredients.

When I make a classic lasagne al forno I use only four ingredients

  1. Fresh lasagne (lasagna is the Italian name for the wide pasta used in lasagne al forno, not the baked dish, which is named lasagne al forno to indicate that it is baked in the oven)
  2. Ragu Bolognese
  3. Parmigiano-Reggiano
  4. Balsamella (aka, béchamel, aka "white sauce")

To vary from this I might use a regular tomato sauce along with, say, mushrooms or sausage slices. But rarely ricotta and never cottage cheese.

--

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Whoa!  Hold on there. :smile:  Neither ricotta nor cottage cheese is required for lasagne al forno.  These have become somewhat standard in the Italian-American version of the dish, along with dry rather than fresh pasta, but are certainly not required ingredients.

When I make a classic lasagne al forno I use only four ingredients

  1. Fresh lasagne (lasagna is the Italian name for the wide pasta used in lasagne al forno, not the baked dish, which is named lasagne al forno to indicate that it is baked in the oven)
  2. Ragu Bolognese
  3. Parmigiano-Reggiano
  4. Balsamella (aka, béchamel, aka "white sauce")

To vary from this I might use a regular tomato sauce along with, say, mushrooms or sausage slices.  But rarely ricotta and never cottage cheese.

Whew. Thanks Sam. Question then. Do you layer all 4 of those ingredients as normal? ragu,parmigiano, bechamel or something like that?

I think I'll skip the mushrooms thanks. Did I offend you in someway so that now you are trying to kill me? :biggrin:

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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When I make a classic lasagne al forno I use only four ingredients

Fresh lasagne (lasagna is the Italian name for the wide pasta used in lasagne al forno, not the baked dish, which is named lasagne al forno to indicate that it is baked in the oven)

Ragu Bolognese

Parmigiano-Reggiano

Balsamella (aka, béchamel, aka "white sauce")

Amen to that...

To layer:

1- thin layer of ragu

2-noodles

3-balsamella

4-Parm

Repeat till all is done.

I also top mine with grated mozzarella. Bake covered till done then uncover ofr the last 5 minutes to get the mozz colored.

Elie

E. Nassar
Houston, TX

My Blog
contact: enassar(AT)gmail(DOT)com

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Please, please, please don't use cottage cheese. :biggrin:

I would say sneak in come ricotta if you can. You could add some parsley and oregano if you wanted.

But, as a kid, my mom would always make lasagna with only mozarella, noodles and meat sauce. It's passable. Just be prepared for a cheese fest. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

As long as you use good, fresh ingredients, you can't go wrong.

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My mom's lasagne never had ricotta or cottege cheese in it...just mozzarella. We kids would always fight for the gooey slabs on the very top that had turned golden brown in the oven. :wub:

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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Whoa!  Hold on there. :smile:  Neither ricotta nor cottage cheese is required for lasagne al forno. 

That is not a completely true statement. It depends on what region you are from. It is true to say that Tuscan lasagne al forno does not require ricotta.

If you want to make a vegetarian lasagna that does not require ricotta, then you could make lasagne col pesto.

Here is a recipe:

Lasagne col Pesto

Edited by Swisskaese (log)
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Never heard of cottage cheese in lasagne, even the Italian American kind. I'd suspect it was a suggested substitute for people who can't get ricotta.

Sounds like a poor substitute, at that.

All things being equal, I prefer the Neapolitan style of lasagna al forno that calls for ricotta, but there really is nothing wrong with the Tuscan style with besciamella. (What's with the "balsamella" spelling?)

Edited by Pan (log)

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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Question then.  Do you layer all 4 of those ingredients as normal?  ragu,parmigiano, bechamel or something like that?

I think I'll skip the mushrooms thanks.  Did I offend you in someway so that now you are trying to kill me? :biggrin:

You don't like mushrooms?! :shock:

My typical method is to start with a small layer of ragu (and you can easily convert a non-meat tomato sauce to a "ragu" by dropping in some crumbled sausage), then a layer of pasta, sprinkle on some ragu, a little balsamella, a little parmigiano, repeat to the top of the baking dish. It's important, I think, to be stingy with the non-pasta ingredients. Just a few blobs here and there for every layer, as though you were topping an artisinal pizza.

--

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All things being equal, I prefer the Neapolitan style of lasagna al forno that calls for ricotta, but there really is nothing wrong with the Tuscan style with besciamella. (What's with the "balsamella" spelling?)

Just so we're clear, now that two people have made reference to Tuscany, the most famous style of lasagne al forno, and the one upon which my technique is based, is lasagne alla Bolognese -- Bologna being in Emilia- Romagna, not Toscana.

"Balsamella" is just another word for "besciamella." Maybe it's dialect? For some reason I am more used to hearing balsamella than besciamella.

I should point out, while I'm at it, that Italian-American lasagne al forno with dry pasta and ricotta can be really good.

--

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Just so we're clear, now that two people have made reference to Tuscany, the most famous style of lasagne al forno, and the one upon which my technique is based, is lasagne alla Bolognese -- Bologna being in Emilia- Romagna, not Toscana.

You're absolutely right. The reason I think of it as Tuscan is that I've had it in Tuscany and have yet to visit Bologna, but the Tuscans themselves acknowledge it as Bolognese.

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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my uncle is allergic to dairy products (not lactose intolerant, but actually allergic) and my poor aunt likes her dairy, so she sometimes has problems when cooking. since my uncle can't have cheese or dairy products of any kind, she has to get creative with lasagna. she's tried substituting tofu or eggplant :blink: for the ricotta to help soak up the sauce, but lasagna just doesn't taste right to me without any cheese.

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I made some lasagna once with really thin pasta (I rolled it to the thinest setting on my machine), pesto in the layers, and besciamella on top. I think it was from a Chez Panisse book, but in any case it was good and had no mushrooms or ricotta.

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I remember the bad 'ol days when ricotta was not available, and we did use cottage cheese (this was in the Midwest, in the 70's). While Mom would make her lasagne with the whole, bouncy, nasty curds, I always pureed it and mixed it with parm and herbs. Somewhat passable, if you didn't have a clue about ricotta. Fortunately, times have changed, and ricotta is widely available. I even managed to convert Mom.

“"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"

"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"

"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully.

"It's the same thing," he said.”

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"Balsamella" is just another word for "besciamella."  Maybe it's dialect?  For some reason I am more used to hearing balsamella than besciamella.

Balsamella is one of Artusi's neologisms. He wanted to avoid using the French terms in his famous cookbook La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiare bene and so he came up with all these nice Italianized versions of classical terms, like crespelle for crepes and balsamella.

Il Forno: eating, drinking, baking... mostly side effect free. Italian food from an Italian kitchen.
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I have n many occasions used small curd low-fat cottage cheese mixed 50/50 with low fat ricotta in my famous Irish-American lasagna. I'm basically a culinary heathen so authenticity is not an issue but at the time I was making it fat grams were a concern.

I made egglplant rollatini last winter and tried adding some tofu to this same cottage cheese/ricotta mixture. I used the tofu I happened to have on hand and it was not a success due to the firm texture (but was edible). I've been advised that one can make a pretty decent vegan lasagna by using the silken variety of tofu.

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my uncle is allergic to dairy products (not lactose intolerant, but actually allergic) and my poor aunt likes her dairy, so she sometimes has problems when cooking. since my uncle can't have cheese or dairy products of any kind, she has to get creative with lasagna. she's tried substituting tofu or eggplant  :blink: for the ricotta to help soak up the sauce, but lasagna just doesn't taste right to me without any cheese.

Okay, this might sound revolting, but back in my "cooking for a vegan household" days, (don't ask) I made a pretty good version of lasagne with tofu -- crumble up soft tofu, then sautee it in olive oil with some chopped onion and a tbsp or so of miso to get that cheesy taste. Also works well on a pizza. I mean, if one eats dairy mozarella is king, obviously, but as a substitute it really wasn't that bad. The macrobiotics wanting to get rid of the tomato, now that's where I drew the line.

Bolognese lasagne is a lot flatter than the american version. I personally love both, though they are somewhat different animals.

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I remember the bad 'ol days when ricotta was not available, and we did use cottage cheese (this was in the Midwest, in the 70's). While Mom would make her lasagne with the whole, bouncy, nasty curds, I always pureed it and mixed it with parm and herbs. Somewhat passable, if you didn't have a clue about ricotta. Fortunately, times have changed, and ricotta is widely available. I even managed to convert Mom.

Lala, when we first moved to the midwest last year I got served my very first lasagne made with kraft cheese singles. Slight culture shock, to say the least...

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If one wants to be fastidious about semantics, the word “lasagna” refers only to the pasta that’s cut in wide ribbons. In Italy, the recipes which contain this pasta are called lasagna plus another word that signifies the specific dish. For example, the classic lasagna which alternates layers of tomato ragú with cream sauce topped with grated cheese is properly referred to as lasagne pasticcate; when made with a dried-mushroom sauce, it's called lasagne con sugo di funghi secchi. Another, featuring beef & mushrooms, is known as lasagne casalinga, and very good it is, too. Commercially-made noodles come plain or curly, white or green, but they are among the most basic of pasta dishes to prepare.

One summer, during the five years I worked at a resort, the kitchen served an eggplant-mushroom-&-zucchini lasagna, baked with fresh spinach pasta sheets and filled with a whole-milk mozzarella & Parmesan filling. I suppose buffalo mozzarella would be authentically superior?

I’ve made various types of lasagne dishes (always using fresh pasta) – including a 16th-century style containing sole fillets, béchamel sauce, and Gruyère; and Lasagna Northumbria (lobster!); and, yes, a dessert lasagna – an authentic old Italian version of noodle kugel beloved by East Europeans.

As clearly indicated by a couple of astute contributors (above), Lasagne al forno Bolognese contains all the things prized by the residents of Bologna: rich meat sauce, creamy besciamella, porcini mushrooms, mozzarella, and Parmesan. If you want to prepare a strictly cheese-free dish, I can recommend Lasagne con Sugo di Funghi Secchi – for which you’ll need to prepare either pasta gialla or pasta di herbe (or use imported, dried sheet noodles); a porcini/sugugo di pomodoro sauce; as well as the béchamel.

Buon Appetito A Te!

"Dinner is theater. Ah, but dessert is the fireworks!" ~ Paul Bocuse

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It might also be good with another crumbly cheese that resists melting a bit, how would the ones you cook for feel about Queso Blanco or Farmer's Cheese?

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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It might also be good with another crumbly cheese that resists melting a bit, how would the ones you cook for feel about Queso Blanco or Farmer's Cheese?

Either of these would be fine. :smile:

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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