Nicole
Who doesn’t love a good lasagna? In the colder months, a mess of pasta, melty cheese, and warm sauce hits the spot in a way that very few dishes can. For a lot of home cooks, the project of cooking up a lasagna can seem like a heavy lift for a Thursday night, but most lasagnas can be made in advance and frozen for whenever you’re ready to throw them in the oven. Don’t forget the broiler at the end — a lasagna is not truly complete without a layer of bubbling, golden cheese and crispy pasta corners.
Classic Lasagne alla Bolognese
Giuliano Hazan, The Kitchn
Not to get all “Italians mad at food,” but in my opinion, there can only be one Lasagna Queen: the classic lasagne alla Bolognese. We make it every Christmas, or, really, whenever we simply haven’t had it in a while. By “we” I mean “my mom,” because let’s be honest: Lasagna is always better when someone else makes it for you. That said, if you’re trekking out on your own lasagna journey, don’t be intimidated. Giuliano Hazan’s recipe pretty much sums it up, with pasta, sauce, bechamel, Parmesan, done. If you’re feeling fancy, divvy up the meat for the Bolognese between beef, pork, and veal. You can make the sauce in advance, like we do, or even make the whole dang lasagna in advance and pop it in the freezer for future heating and eating. And finally, for the lazy (it’s me, I am The Lazy), swap in no-boil lasagne sheets and save yourself the time and energy you’d spend making fresh pasta. You’ll need it. — Stefania Orrù, supervising producer
Polenta Lasagna With Spinach and Herby Ricotta
Melissa Clark, NYT Cooking
Multi-step recipes are perfect for winter. When the icy wind cuts through my drafty apartment, I don’t mind any small project that keeps me by the warm oven, especially if it yields a hearty, cheesy dinner and soul-satisfying leftovers for a few days. For this polenta lasagna, Melissa Clark calls for cooking the polenta on the stove with butter, spinach, and Parmesan, then spreading it out on a sheet and baking it (with more Parm), then layering slabs in a baking dish with a basil-ricotta mix, mozzarella, and marinara sauce. All those steps fade into memory when you reach the final result, which is consistently gratifying, as the polenta’s sweet corn flavors meld with the tomato-y, herby, cheesy lasagna. And it’s warm too. — Nick Mancall-Bitel, editorial associate
Matzo Lasagna
Melissa Clark, NYT Cooking
When asked if I had a lasagna recipe for this roundup, my answer was, no, of course not, who “has” a lasagna recipe? Doesn’t everyone just layer a bunch of stuff they like in the general cheese-and-tomato paradigm in a baking dish and cook the thing until it stops leaking? Alarmed by this question, I vowed to find and cook a lasagna recipe,
