Lasagna Recipes

Lasagna Tips and Tricks

Variety is the Spice of Life

• Why use ground beef and a red sauce every time you make lasagna?  For a change of pace, try one of the following twists the next time you prepare your favorite lasagna recipe:
  • Use BOCA Meatless Ground Burger instead of the browned ground beef.
  • Substitute a refrigerated Alfredo sauce or an easy-to-make homemade white sauce (béchamel) for your basic red pasta sauce.  Click here for our Vegetable Lasagna recipe using a cheesy white sauce.
  • Add a thin layer of cooked zucchini or yellow squash slices between the layers of lasagna noodles
  • Spice it up!  Add a dash of crushed red pepper, freshly ground black pepper, chili powder or ground red pepper (cayenne) to the meat sauce before layering it with the other ingredients.
• Prepare a taco-style lasagna using flour tortillas instead of noodles.  Try this recipe for Mexican Lasagna tonight.
• Go meatless! For an delicious meatless lasagna, prepare our Eggplant Lasagna
• For added flair, prepare a red-and-white lasagna by alternating layers of a traditional red pasta sauce with a white or Alfredo sauce and the remaining lasagna ingredients.

Helpful Tips

• Drain the cooked lasagna noodles, and then place them in a single layer on sheet of foil to prevent them from sticking together until you are ready to use them to assemble the recipe.
• Broken noodles?  It’s no problem.  Use the broken pieces of cooked noodles as necessary to make each layer.  Once the lasagna is baked, no one will notice!
• Most lasagna recipes can be assembled ahead of time.  Refrigerate up to 24 hours before baking as directed, increasing the baking time by 5 to 10 minutes, if necessary, until lasagna is heated through.
• Short on time? Omit the pasta cooking step and prepare your lasagna using no-cook lasagna noodles. Look for them next to the regular lasagna noodles in the dry pasta section of your grocery store.   Be sure to follow the directions on the package of the no-cook noodles for tips on how to adjust your recipe when using these convenient no-cook noodles.
• To make serving the baked lasagna easier, allow the cooked lasagna to stand for at least 10 min. before cutting into squares to serve.
• If the recipe calls for the lasagna to be covered while baking, spray the foil with cooking spray before using to cover the lasagna so the top layer of cheese won’t stick to the foil.