Lasagna without ricotta??

[SnowfallDesigns]

I grew up making lasagna with ricotta but my husband won't eat ricotta or cottage cheese so I'm searching for a recipe without either. Can I just add a variety of chesses? Any suggestions??

[siduri]

I've lived in italy for 35 years and never had lasagne with ricotta. That's how we made it in the states, but i think it's the way it's made in some small area in italy and got imported by the immigrants from there, and now everyone makes it that way in the states. But the way i've ever had it, in rome or in bologna or in tuscany is with bechamel instead of ricotta. So try that. Make a bechamel and add parmigiano to it, and replace the layer of ricotta with that, or layer both sauce and bechamel between all the layers.

[OregonYeti]

If he's ever had lasagne, it's probably had ricotta. It blends into the dish, and he might not have realized.

[SnowfallDesigns]

It's possible that he has had lasagne with ricotta before. I know he likes Stoffers and I don't think it has ricotta in it. I will have to try the bechamel.

[DC Sunshine]

I'd go the bechamel too.

I've got a cheats method - I use processed sliced packaged cheese (ok ok its a budget version) in the inside layers, sprinkle it with grated cheddar cheese and grated parmesan, sometimes a bit of Feta if I have some handy, and carry on layering. Then I save the bechamel for the top. It does actually work quite well. I have lots of dried ground oregano and paprika in the ragu, so its not a pure lasagne at all. But, the flavours are there, the family likes it - that's all you can ask for It's definitely home cooking.

[Ishbel]

British versions of lasagne do not use cheese either, only bechamel sauce.

[tacotaco]

Originally Posted by Ishbel

British versions of lasagne do not use cheese either, only bechamel sauce.

I found this out the hard way. I was vacationing and I ordered some. When I got my plate it looked so much different. It still tasted just fine though.

[MaryB]

Use fresh mozzarella, it adds a lot of creamy texture you miss with the ricotta/cottage cheese. Personally I hate the texture of ricotta (gritty) so I use cottage cheese and it melts in and disappears.

[Jason]

OK i am still a newbie to alot sauces so i have a question about the bechamel sauce. It is a like a butter sauce, or am i all wrong?

[siduri]

in bechamel you cook flour and butter letting it bubble, then off the heat add milk and whisk, then cook slowly for a while till it thickens. salt pepper and nutmeg are usually added. For lasagne you would add a couple of handfuls of grated parmigiano.

[Jason]

Ahhh ok i get it now siduri. It sound really good actually, i will have to give it a try for something, have any idea's?

[Ishbel]

How about lasagne, for a start?

[Jason]

Hahaha well the bad thing here is i have no idea how to make lasagne. I know what goes in it for the most part, but i have no idea how to set it up, or
"build" it so to speak.

[siduri]

I'm probably not the person to ask, since lasagne is not a dish i particularly like, but anyway, the idea is that you layer this flat egg pasta with tomato sauce (depending on the region of italy, you would use simple tomato sauce, with a little onion or garlic, or a real ragu with meat), parmigiano and bechamel. That's it, a layer of each all the way to fill the baking pan. Generally, any self-respecting lasagne uses freshly made pasta, which is a lot of work for a dish i'm already not crazy about, but that would be the real way. Or buy it fresh, or dried, and boil it (big problem keeping it from sticking to itself, and italians often boil one or two sheets at a time!) (If you ask me, most of the regional dishes around here are intended to keep the woman in the kitchen doing pretty mindless labor - cooking one sheet of lasagne at a time, or rolling out gnocchi, or stirring polenta).

Anyway, my cynical recipe is that.

Of course you can use the curly-edged american lasagne, which don;t stick and you can dump them all in the pot together.
It depends on the level of perfection you want. As i say, i'm not crazy about the dish anyway. Give me a simple penne all'arrabbiata any day, tomato, garlic, hot pepper and oil. And nice al dente pasta, cooked, sauced and served in one fell swoop.

[Anneke]

The best lasagna I ever had was at my Calabrese friend's house. It's very Italian as opposed to North American in that it's all about the pasta, and everything else is secondary. Lots of layers, about 10, very thin on the sauce, a light sprinkling of veal between each layer, some mozzarella and parmigiano, and not a drop of either bechamel or ricotta. When I had it the first time, I realized that I knew nothing about lasagna before this. It was an epiphany of sorts...