A is a hearty, crowd-pleasing, one-dish meal. It can be made quickly, with the help of some store-bought ingredients, or turned into a day-long labor of love, using only homemade components. If you enjoy making lasagna from scratch and taking the time to prepare each layer to perfection, there are some ways you can make this dish even better, with chef-approved ingredient swaps.
In my nearly two decades as a professional chef, I have made countless lasagnas. It's one of the dishes I most frequently serve for large groups because it's a universal favorite. That said, I've encountered a number of different dietary restrictions, unique preferences, and difficulties in obtaining certain ingredients that have forced me to flex my creative muscles and come up with lasagna component alternatives.
These distinct challenges have often proven to be opportunities in disguise for discovering ways in which I can make a tastier and more interesting lasagna. I am here to share these revelations with you to help transform your lasagna into something transcendent. 1.
Swap the ricotta cheese with cottage cheese While not every recipe for lasagna adds a layer of ricotta toward the bottom of the dish, mine does. I love the creaminess it adds in juxtaposition to the acidic tomato sauce and the umami-rich ground meat. Ricotta, which literally translates to "recooked" in Italian, is a type of dairy product that is made by reheating the whey which is left behind during the cheesemaking process.
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