Soupy Lasagne: The Cure?

[albie]

This is to solicit any advice as to how to assure a reasonably firm lasagne that stands up to portioning, as opposed to collapsing into a soupy mess at the first pressure from a knife or spatula. The irony is that reheated leftovers -- long after the guests have departed -- are usually near-perfect in this respect.

Should it be baked uncovered? Baked completely and frozen, then reheated on the day of use? Should fresh egg pasta be parboiled or should the lasagne be assembled with raw pasta?

Any suggestions would be most welcome!

[Septemberdog61]

Should it be baked uncovered? Baked completely and frozen, then reheated on the day of use? Should fresh egg pasta be parboiled or should the lasagne be assembled with raw pasta?

Any suggestions would be most welcome!

I find that baking the lasagna covered for the first 20 to 30 minutes (until it's bubbly) and then baking uncovered for the remainder works best. My lasagna is never soupy. I always let it sit out covered for another 20 minutes after baking to prevent the dreaded lasagna slide. No bake noodles do require extra sauce so if you use them I think it's just a matter of trail and error.

[Marlene]

There's a lovely discussion of lasagne here. When I made one a couple of weeks ago, I used the oven ready noodles because that's what I had in the house.

I baked it covered for the first 45 - 60 minutes and then uncovered for the rest of the time.

Once it was out of the oven, I let it stand for 15 minutes before even trying to slice into it.

Did you let yours stand?

[eunny jang]

Bake uncovered. Make sure your sauce is not too watery - and undercook your noodles by a wide margin, since they'll absorb a lot of liquid during that loong baking time. If you're doing an American-style lasagne, use whole milk cheese rather than watery skim - and try adding an egg to your ricotta.

And definitely let it stand.

[slkinsey]

Eunny hit the nail on the head. Seriously undercooked pasta (if using fresh pasta, I only blanch mine for maybe 30 seconds and then shock in ice water and blot dry) and overall dry ingredients. The sauce you use should be very dense and thick -- much thicker than what one would normally use on pasta. If you want to use ricotta and have to use the watery supermarket stuff, drain it overnight so it loses as much water as possible.

But the #1 problem that leads to soupy lasagna is using too much filling and not enough pasta. For example: if you've been doing 3 layers of pasta, try six. Since you don't have an infinitely tall baking dish, this means less filling as well -- another reason to make sure that your fillings are as dry and dense as possible, because that's where the flavor is.

[albie]

You folks are marvelous; thanks! FYI, I'm going to do a lasagne alla bolognese, with fresh spinach egg pasta and with bechamel. Do you thin I can layer the fresh pasta w/o pre-cooking it at all? it would seem to enhance its capacity to absorb from the ragu and from the bechamel. What do you think?

[eunny jang]

You folks are marvelous; thanks!  FYI, I'm going to do a lasagne alla bolognese, with fresh spinach egg pasta and with bechamel. Do you thin I can layer the fresh pasta w/o pre-cooking it at all? it would seem to enhance its capacity to absorb from the ragu and from the bechamel. What do you think?

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The spinach in the pasta will add a LOT of liquid to the overall mix. Make your dough very stiff, and squeeze your spinach extremely well.

I don't like the texture of pasta that hasn't been boiled at all, but I think it's worth a whirl.

[fiftydollars]

If using fresh pasta, do you have to blanch them? I've never thought to try not doing so although I probably should have since the pasta in my lasagnes is often a tad overcooked.

[Kevin72]

You folks are marvelous; thanks!   FYI, I'm going to do a lasagne alla bolognese, with fresh spinach egg pasta and with bechamel. Do you thin I can layer the fresh pasta w/o pre-cooking it at all? it would seem to enhance its capacity to absorb from the ragu and from the bechamel. What do you think?

←

I used to not cook my homemade noodles in a lasagna. Then I tried it one time with boiling them first and it's infinitely better (although admittedly a larger investment of your time). I can't break it down scientifically but the pre-boil "sets" the pasta and gives it a more defined presence in the final dish. The uncooked pasta is just kind of a starchy mess in the middle otherwise.

Edited November 19, 2004 by Kevin72 (log)