Despite my being mostly Italian, I had not until very recently, made a lasagna on my own. I’m not a big fan of ground meat or ricotta cheese . Then there is the whole business of having to find GF lasagna noodles. But as with lots of things, Whole Foods came to the rescue and I was able to find a steady supplier of said GF lasagna noodles and decided to have a lasagna experiment!
I made up this recipe as I went along with a half plan (I decided on the protein, can’t go wrong with bacon!), half whatever was left over in my fridge (spinach, mushrooms, onion, garlic).
I oven-baked the bacon for 35 minutes at 400 degrees while I was prepping the vegetables, cheese mixture, and the noodles so that I could incorporate it in strips instead of crumpled throughout.
Be sure to add olive oil to the noodle water so that they don’t stick together. I also took the extra precaution of adding the noodles one at a time as well as gently stirring with tongs so as to keep the fragile GF noodles as intact as possible.
I then mixed the TJ parmesan and romano cheese blend with some cubed fontina and an egg.
I cooked the noodles about two minutes short of being fully cooked as they will continue to do so in the oven. I also suggest using tongs as they make the process of layering much easier and have the added benefit of not burning your hands on hot noodles.
Another element to be aware of with the GF noodles is that they tend to stick together and therefore break when you start to handle them. The first layer went fine and the noodles were whole, but the longer they stayed in the colander the more difficult they were to deal with. Next time I plan on laying them out on a parchment lined baking sheet so they maintain their structural integrity.
I layered all of the different ingredients and ended with a noodle layer. Then I covered the pan with foil and baked it at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Then I added some of the remaining parm & romano blend and baked it uncovered for an additional 15 minutes.
Next time I’d like to try freezing some lasagna for weeks when I’m too busy to cook!
What meals do you like to freeze?
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