I have made lasagna many times and it is either too dry or too wet..so I was wondering after going to a friends house for dinner the other night.Her lasagna was excellent.It was ooey and gooey...it had some meat sauce and mushrooms and cottage cheese and melted mozzarella on top...

So what would be the perfect amount of RIGHT ingredients...I'm not asking for recipes just tips and ideas...Certain order to layer ingredients etc..


Thanks

I've done both cottage cheese or ricotta both.

Generally we do a thin layer on the bottom of sauce and meat, then do a layer of noodles on that. Next I do meat/sauce, cottage cheese or ricotta, mozzarella, then a little Parmesan cheese. Then start over with the noddles. I know some people mix the cheeses together, but I had learned to just layer them on.

With the cottage cheese, I use a slotted spoon, so it isn't as watery.

I just made lasagna this weekend, no recipe. And I did it very much like TexasSugar.

I make my own sauce and don't make it super loose. It's got lots of meat in it. And I use ricotta not cottage cheese because it's less wet as well. I use lots of mozzarella in the layers and only put the parmesan on the top. Although this time, I used a pre-grated bag of cheese cheese that was mozz, parm and another mixed together.. Also, make sure that you let the cooked lasagna rest for at least 15 minutes so that the it settles and any liquid that was released during cooking, goes back into the product.

I use ricotta mixed with egg & seasonings, not cottage cheese, lots of extra mozzarella, a nice thick meat sauce (brown meat, then simmer in traditional sauce for a few hours).

I like ricotta instead of cottage cheese. I use egg in my ricotta, I prefer whole milk mozzarella too. In my meat sauce I use pork sausage along with ground beef. I layer meat sauce, noodles, ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan and repeat 2 more times.

Thanks Ladies..I'll give it another go soon!!!Gonna try Ricotta instead...

I mix ricotta with an egg, a good-sized handful of shredded mozzarella, and a generous 1/2 cup (ish?) of grated parmesan and dried parsley for the filling.

I layer noodles, filling, sauce (just a thin layer), more mozarella, repeat. On the very top layer, a thicker layer of mozzarella than in between, light sprinkle of more parmesan, a light sprinkle of more parsley. No meat or cottage cheese in mine and no recipe although I did measure once for my daughter .

I use ricotta mixed with an egg and parmesan (never cottage cheese). I slice mozarella instead of shred it. I normally use a combination of fresh mozarella and the dry kind. Layers go noodles, ricotta, mozarella, meat sauce, repeat. The end is always a healthy sprinkly of parmesan.

Almost forgot, I use Italian style sausage for my meat sauce.

All of these tips and suggestions are great. I think the key is to letting it rest upon removing it from the oven for a while so it sets, otherwise it will run all over the place when you try to scoop it out.

I make a great lasagna using long thin slices of zucchini as my noodles. Oh, it is so good. I may have to make this soon! Thanks for the dinner idea.

You can, but you don't have to. I have a Pampered Chef mandolin and use it to cut the slices of zucchini pretty thin lengthwise, maybe like 1/4" or so, and if I do put them in raw, then it will take just a bit longer to cook so they are nice and tender. Otherwise they'll be a bit more crisp. So depending on the texture you prefer, you can do it either way.

I am going to have to try that this week. I'm making spaghetti, so I plan to turn the left over sauce in to lasagna. Since I'm trying to cut back on calories I love the idea of having more veggies in there and no noodles.

I love the idea of thin zuchinni but hubby doesn't like zuchinni....I'll have to make myself one though...

Kiddie because I live alone, I make lasagna in mini loaf pans. I actually cook lunch for my brother too (we work together) so that size works well. Last time I made his with meat and left the meat out of mine to save some calories (figured there was enough protein for me in the cheeses). I will do the same this time, but exchange my noodles for the zucchini.