Lasagna

Made with No-Cook Noodles

I didn’t bake Lasagna for at least 4 years! I don’t know why, but I just didn’t. We both love lasagna but I guess that with only two people at the table it is a bit too much. So, I got a smaller Pyrex pan and made one. I bought No-cook lasagna noodles to make it a bit easier but then made meat sauce and béchamel sauce from scratch. For meat sauce I used ground veal because that’s what I had in freezer. I also used my own frozen tomato sauce and four-cheeses shredded cheese mix. It turned out really well and I am glad that there are leftovers! As a bonus, I ended up with a lot of meat sauce that we had next day with spaghettini.

One note: If you use no-cook noodles make the sauce little bit thinner because the noodles need it. They will soak it up like a sponge and are much better then noodles cooked in plain, salted water. I will never use regular dry pasta again but I will use fresh pasta, of course. Also, for diet’s sake I had only one layer of cheese – on the top – instead my usual 3 layers and we didn’t miss it one bit.

Recipe is quite simple. For 9-1/2” X 6” X 2” deep baking pan you will need:

9 no-boil 2” wide lasagna noodles

1/2 cup thin tomato sauce

1-1/2 cups meat sauce of your choice mixed with 1/2 cup thin tomato sauce

2 cups Béchamel sauce

1-1/2 cups shredded melting cheese (Mozzarella, Provolone, Swiss etc.)

Preheat oven to 350 °F.

Butter or spray the bottom and sides of baking pan with cooking oil.

Put down thin layer of tomato sauce then noodles. Layer of meat sauce topped with Béchamel sauce. Repeat with noodle/meat sauce/Béchamel sauce and again noodle/meat sauce/Béchamel sauce and topped with cheese.

Cover loosely with aluminum foil making sure it doesn’t touch the cheese and bake on middle rack in oven for 45 minutes.

Remove foil and bake another 20 – 30 minutes or till sauce is bubbling and cheese is golden brown.

Let rest for 10 minutes and serve with lettuce salad and garlic bread.