Grrr.....as I was putting away my box of lasagna noodles I see in tiny print above the word Lasagna "No Boil". RATS!!!!! I can't exchange them, because I was given them. Only one time was I brave enough to try no boil lasagna noodles.....and it didn't turn out very good. So, on this box (Our Family) it says: Instructions For Preparation For use in your favorite recipe. Add 1/2 cup water (or milk) for every 5 pieces of dry lasagna used. Cover with tin foil before cooking and remove cover for last 10 minutes of cook time. So....okay, I usually use 3 pieces of lasagna in a row and do 3 rows. So, would I add a little less than 1 cup of water or milk. How do I add it? Do I just pour that over the top after I assemble the lasagna? Or, do I mix the liquid in with the sauce before adding the sauce?? Or, do I lay down a layer of noodles and pour on some of the liquid??? Either I am not too bright or these instructions are just not clear enough for me. The last time I followed a no boil recipe I found on youtube...but the noodles never seemed cooked enough. I vowed I'd never do a no boil lasagna again. Sigh..... :cry:
When I used no-boil noodles I didn't add any liquid! Maybe I didn't read the box or maybe mine were different. Mine turned out just fine without adding any liquid. It sounds like for your noodles you would just pour the water over the top.
I don't buy no boil noodles but I don't boil the ones I buy first. I use the regular noodles and layer them with the cheeses and sauce and add one cup of water to the dish before topping with more cheese and baking. I don't make it often but it has always turned out great with the noodles cooked like they should be.
The no boil noodles I buy don't require any extra liquid, but I do have to add extra sauce to make it to my family's likes. Maybe add the water to the sauce before layering.
I never, ever buy no-boil noodles. And I never, ever boil noodles. I just use a lot of sauce. Also, instead of using ricotta cheese I use cottage cheese (since it's a wetter). My favorite lasagna is one I make in the crockpot. You prep it the night before, then slip your insert into the crockpot and cook on low all day. YUMMY!
Thanks everyone....but I'm still not sure I really know what to do. But, I guess I'll just wing it. How interesting that some of you don't use no-boil noodles but you still don't cook the noodles. Wow....I would have never ever thought to do that. I think I'm afraid to try that. I don't use ricotta or cottage cheese. Bleh! But....my good friend told me the trick to make super good lasagna: cream cheese. So what I do is put a layer of noodles down, spread the noodles with cream cheese (this would be harder with hard uncooked noodles), spread on the sauce with meat, sprinkle with shredded mozzerella. Repeat two more times (although I don't always do a 3rd layer of mozz but usually sprinkle the top with parmesan). The cream cheese really makes a super good tasting lasagna (and I don't even like cream cheese!!).
I love to use Ricotta. I mix it with one egg and about 1/2 cup (or more) of parmesan cheese and it is really good baked in the lasagna. I use a lot of sauce too. We don't like dry lasagna. I don't think you can ever have too much mozzerella either. Shoot! Now I am getting hungry.
Great ideas. I have a box of no boil noodles too. I wasn't sure what to do with them. I made my lasagna with my regular recipe and the noodles didn't soften properly.
I use only no boil noodles and I guess I've never read the box either. lol Of course the recipe I used originally called for no boil noodles. I use an entire 28oz jar of spaghetti sauce mixed with the meat and any veggies I want. I put a small amount of that in the bottom of the baking pan and then layer on noodles, then I put more sauce mix on the noodles, put cottage cheese on that, and mozzarella on that, layer more noodles and repeat. I usually get three layers of noodles in my pan. I cover with foil and bake for about an hour. My family loves this lasagna and the noodles always turn out great.
I would boil them first even though they are called no boil. I despise the concept of not boiling noodles for a Lasagna. I think that the idea of it turning out is a SICK Prank that twisted minds play on the unsuspecting. It will never work, not in a million years, never never never. COOK YOUR NOODLES. Do not drink the NO Boil koolaid. Don't jump down the no boil rabbit hole Alice!!! Okay, so when I had just gotten married, I wanted to make Lasagna. I called my SIL because everyone liked her Lasagna (but nothing else - Should have been a clue) I get the recipe and it says not to cook the noodles. I call to verify. Just regular noodles and don't cook them. OKaaaaayyyy. So I did that, I made the thing without cooking the noodles. I take it out of the oven and try to cut it and hear "click, tunk" Way not cool. I put it in the oven longer and try again. tunk, thunk. I use the spatula to make space at the sides and add water. cover with foil and check again laterl. Tunk, tunk. I cut holes in several places inject water, lift and squirt water in otehr places between layers. Recover, check, tunk,tunk. I lower oven temp some poor as much water over this mess as possible cover and cook another hour or so with 1/2 inch or more water floating on top. TUNK TUNK I take it out adn scrap the innerds onto toast and serve. So we had a really nasty open face sandwich with cheeses, meatsauce and etc piled on top of it. The uncooked noodles were tossed. I think it was a Tues. Fast forward to Friday payday. DH was working at a rest. supply ware house. It was in an old timey building that had a large mezzanine with large stairway overlooking the equiptment and supply showroom. I was in the showroom while waiting for dh to clock out for lunch and was looking at the knives. I picked up one that had a strange off set handle and asked a salesman what it was for. At that moment, 5 people shouted down from above "Its a Lasagna Knife" and busted up laughing. OF course DH was one of them. I yelled back, "guess who wont be getting any cookies for a month" and everyone seemed to know what that meant. Its just a vicsious rumor this uncooked pasta thing, I tell you.
