These are the most common mistakes made when making lasagne
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I'm not really a kitchen princess, and when I make lasagna, or better said: try to make it, something always goes wrong. From a too crispy layer to the order I do wrong. These are the most common mistakes when making lasagna and how to avoid them.
How to avoid mistakes when making lasagna
1. Too wet lasagna
When you take the lasagna out of the oven, it turns out to be a wet mush. If you cook the pasta sheets yourself, make sure to dry them well before using them in the lasagna. Adding oil to the pasta water is a sin in the kitchen, but it can help. You just didn't hear that from us.
2. Too crispy lasagna
If you buy fresh lasagna sheets that don't need to be cooked anymore, make sure to cover them well with filling on all sides. No corner should be left unsauced, otherwise you'll get a crispy lasagna and you don't want that.
3. Too large pieces of vegetables
Nothing is better than a creamy lasagna, right? A common mistake when making lasagna is using pieces of vegetables and meat that are too large in the filling. The finer the vegetables and meat, the better, because only then is everything in balance.
4. Uncooked filling
Lasagna is a dish that you can't make in a flash. Although it may seem obvious, some people still forget to cook the vegetables and meat first. Putting them raw in the filling is unfortunately a bit too risky, so cook or fry the vegetables and meat first before adding them to the lasagna.
5. Sauce struggles
The sauce between the sheets also requires some precision. Try to measure how much sauce you use each time and stick to it. If you use too little sauce, you'll only taste the pasta sheets and that's a shame.
6. Too much béchamel
To be honest: béchamel sauce can make or break your lasagna, but don't overdo it. Too much béchamel sauce makes your lasagna too rich.
7. Stuck lasagna
The filling is made and the lasagna sheets are dried. And now? A common mistake is not greasing the baking dish. You can do this with some béchamel sauce, butter, or olive oil.
8. The right layers
I once started with the sheets as the first layer, thinking it would make the lasagna a bit sturdier. The result was a crispy bottom layer, which wasn't very nice. It's best to start with a layer of red sauce, white sauce, followed by the sheets and cheese. You can repeat this pattern until the dish is filled, with cheese as the last layer.
9. Burnt corners
If you use dry pasta sheets from the supermarket, it can happen that the corners burn in the oven. You can prevent this by putting enough sauce over it or adding a bit of water or milk before the dish goes into the oven.
10. Half-cooked lasagna
You get a perfect lasagna if you bake it for about 45 minutes at 200 degrees, but this also depends a bit on the number of sheets you use and the size of your baking dish. Want to prevent your lasagna from being cold on the inside but already nice and crispy on the outside? Cover the lasagna with aluminum foil halfway through baking.
11. You eat the lasagna too quickly
It's typically Dutch to eat the lasagna as soon as it comes out of the oven. A good lasagna unfortunately needs to ‘rest’ for a while; this way your perfect lasagna doesn't turn into a soupy mess. The best thing is to let the dish sit uncovered for half an hour to cool down. But actually, a lasagna is at its best the next day.
