Giada De Laurentiis Warns to Never Do THIS While Cooking Lasagna
When you think about making lasagna, a pretty clear set of steps may come to mind: Boil the noodles, cook your beef, and assemble layers of sauce and cheese. And, of course, you can get creative, like mixing in mushrooms or filling it with tender butternut squash. But Giada De Laurentiis says no matter what kind of lasagna you’re cooking up, it’s important not to make this one mistake.
“The problem really is when people don’t season each layer,” De Laurentiis said in an interview with Bon Appetit. “A lot of the time, it’s watery, drenched in red sauce, and filled with ricotta that doesn’t have any flavor to it,” she said.
According to De Laurentiis, this step doesn’t have to be complicated, either. Based on her classic Italian lasagna recipe, all you need to do is season the ricotta with salt and pepper. And if you want to take it a step further, you can continue to customize this filling. For a bit of spice, try adding red chili flakes or Calabrian chili paste. Or, for a fun twist, mix in a few scoops of pesto to the ricotta.
And that’s not the Food Network star’s only tip for making lasagna: De Laurentiis released a sheet-pan lasagna recipe that went viral a few years ago. The hack involves baking this pasta on a cookie sheet instead of a deep pan to maximize the amount of caramelized, cheesy bites and crispy edges.
Even minor tweaks can make a big difference in classic recipes. If you’ve been making lasagna without seasoning the ricotta, try it next time — you’ll notice the improvement.
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