Easy Lasagna on the Fly: Pantry Power - Dinner Tonight - Cooking

Lasagna On the Fly: Pantry Power

No Comments | Written on January 25, 2012 at 9:00 am, by Ann Hodgman

Now that we’re so deep into 2012, it amazes me that supermarkets still sell the old-fashioned kind of lasagna pasta—the kind you have to boil. The kind that takes so long and makes the cheese all wet and slithers out of your fingers onto the kitchen counter. Hasn’t everyone switched to no-boil lasagna by now?

If they haven’t, they should. No-boil lasagna noodles mean that even the most frantic cook can prepare easy lasagna on a weeknight. I always keep a couple of boxes in the pantry so that I can have lasagna ready in an hour. So wasn’t I disappointed in myself recently, when I started to assemble my ingredients and found that there was no pasta sauce in the house? (Memo: in addition to no-boil noodles, always keep a couple of jars of pasta sauce handy.) I didn’t even have any canned tomatoes, or I would have been able to make a quick sauce myself.

So I had to improvise. I grabbed the tube of tomato paste I keep in the refrigerator, stirred a big blob of it into a jar of salsa, and added 1/4 cup of white wine. Red wine or beer would have worked too.

I always layer my weeknight lasagna with my quick version of béchamel: eight ounces of cream cheese whisked into a cup of boiling vegetable stock. It looks too thin at first, but it thickens into a nice creamy layer as it bakes.

Made with salsa, my lasagna took on a sort of Mexicali personality, but that’s the great thing about lasagna: you can take it in any direction you want. Got a box of artichoke hearts—or any other vegetable—in the freezer? Thaw them, drain them well, and toss them in. Leftover cooked meats, fish, or tofu, same thing. Any kind of cheese works, of course, and cooked mushrooms or roasted red peppers are great.

Here are the basics for a greased 9-inch by 13-inch pan:

1 pound or so cooked meat, seafood, or tofu and/or 2 cups cooked vegetables, seasoned to taste

3 cups pasta sauce or salsa

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon each basil and oregano

1 cup chicken stock

8 ounces cream cheese

3 cups grated cheese (including a cup of grated Parmesan is nice)

6 to 8 no-boil lasagna noodles

Preheat the oven to 400. Stir the protein, if using, into the pasta sauce along with the garlic, basil, and oregano. Bring the stock to a boil and whisk in the cream cheese until smooth.

Cover the bottom of the pan with half the tomato sauce and a couple of handfuls of cooked protein and/or cooked vegetables. Spread a cup of the grated cheese over this mixture. Following the directions on the box, top the cheese with 3 or 4 lasagna noodles. Toss any vegetables you’re using over the noodles.

Pour the cream cheese mixture evenly over the lasagna noodles. Cover with another cup of grated cheese. Arrange the second 3 or 4 noodles over the cheese. Spoon the remaining pasta sauce mixture over the noodles as evenly as possible; then top with the remaining cheese.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until browned and bubbling. Let the pan cool for 10 minutes before serving, or it will be too gloppy to cut well.

If you can bear to, make two pans of lasagna and freeze one. I realize this isn’t as easy as people always say—but having a pre-made lasagna in the freezer will make another weeknight super-easy.

Serves 4 to 6.