This is too funny. I was just challenged to a Lasagne bake-off dinner party!

R

richard-in-cincy

Well-known member
And this person has not tasted my lasagne, nor has she been to a dinner party at my house!

Silly mortal. Doomed to defeat.

This will be sweet.

--sfx--: Diabolical laughter

 
Once I made a batch of wedding soup and it was compared to my MIL's

My soup used imported Italian pasta, home-made meatballs, homemade chicken broth, fresh spinach that had been carefully trimmed and topped with fresh parmesan cheese, served with a hot loaf of crusty Italian bread.

MILs used canned broth, 99c pasta, home-made meatballs, frozen spinach and jarred parmesan cheese. No bread.

My MILs version won hands down. It's what everyone was used to and what everyone expected. Will your guests be Richard Uninitiated as well?

 
Fun tip I learned when I went to the superbowl party. The host made a HUGE pan of it. He said that

he used noodles for a local italian store, but instead of boiling first and layering, (Which for the volume, would have been a few batches in the normal large soup pot). He cut them to size, w/ proper number of layers, and then I gather added alot of boiling water? and may have baked to get the desired texture / size. He said he saw it on foodnetwork. Once cooked, he removed the water and did the proper layering the filling.

I did not quite grab the method, but did understand the concept if you are making a huge amount.

 
Try again: You're getting yanked! A Lasagna bake-off party is . . .

just an excuse to eat mass quantities of lasagna without having to cook it all! And if someone is a guest and does not cook ANY lasagna, well, they are really lucky!

Still, it sounds good to me. . .

 
I had a speechless moment when my boys declared they liked Kraft Mac 'n Cheese better...

...than homemade.

The homemade stuff gets raves and requests everywhere else. My boys grew up on it. Then they went to a friend's house and had the boxed stuff. They loved it.

Go figure. I thought I'd raised 'em better than that!

Michael

 
Richard,, I would caution you the same way as Marilyn, they might like the ordinary one best

especially when dealing with a comfort food. That's why Bobby Flay loses so many throwdowns. I'd just hate for your diabolical laughter to be premature smileys/wink.gif

But we'll all know yours was superior. Do you roll out your own pasta?

 
Just saw a brownie segment on ATK. When tasters on the street tasted box & homemade, many chose box

Probably what they were used to having. Makes me wonder about the quality of the homemade!

 
Heck, I like Kraft Mac'n Cheese better than my own! I think it's their unique chemical blend.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Kraft recipe contained half of the periodic table.

 
Some more info

This will just be the two of us making lasagna. We'll be using identical aluminum pans so no one will be tipped off with whose pan is who. It will be a post recital celebration.

I have been making lasagna since I was a teenager. In the old swap when there was the big discussion by Ruth, I incorporated some of her techniques into my existing methods and have continued to evolve and grow my approach to this dish. It's a totally over the top 4-day affair now that starts with large chunks of beef and pork roasts that are the basis of my sauce.

I make my own noodle dough and hand crank them out on my Italian pasta roller. That makes a huge difference. I've yet to serve this and not have stupified silence after the first bite to those that are used to those cardboard noodles, especially the nobakes.

Everyone that's tasted my lasagna has pretty much proclaimed it the best they've ever had.

I have no fear. smileys/wink.gif

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top