# How to Make Lasagna

By Jeanne Pignon

Topic: Food & Drink

[Open the interactive Jig](https://ask.jig.com/j/jsmNEFWZkXun)

## Guide

### 1. A Tower of Thin Layers

Lasagna is a baked stack of flat pasta, sauce and cheese, built like the floors of a building\. Let's make one together and see why every step matters\.

In Italian, one flat pasta sheet is a lasagna\. Several sheets are lasagne\.

### 2. Warm the Oven, Pick a Pan

First, heat the oven to 375 °F \(190 °C\), so it is hot when the dish goes in\. A deep pan about 9 by 13 inches \(23 by 33 cm\) makes enough for 8 to 10 people\.

Ask a grown\-up to work the hot oven\.

### 3. Make Three Fillings

A meaty tomato sauce simmers in the pot\. Ricotta, a soft and crumbly fresh cheese, is mixed with an egg and grated Parmesan\. Mozzarella is grated so it melts evenly\.

The first lasagne had no tomatoes\. Tomatoes only reached Europe after 1492\.

### 4. Boil the Noodles Until Bendy

Dry lasagna noodles are stiff, like the flat one sticking straight out\. Boil them only until they bend and droop\. They finish cooking in the oven as they soak up sauce\.

No\-boil noodles skip this step, but they need extra sauce\.

### 5. Build the Layers

A thin layer of sauce goes first, so nothing sticks\. Then come noodles, ricotta, sauce and mozzarella, three times over\. Last, one more layer of noodles, sauce and plenty of cheese seals the top\.

That makes four layers of noodles in all\.

### 6. Cover and Bake

Foil traps steam, which softens the noodles and keeps the top from drying out\. After 30 to 45 minutes the foil comes off for 10 to 15 more, and the cheese turns golden and bubbly\.

The middle is cooked when it reaches 165 °F \(74 °C\)\.

### 7. Let It Rest

Straight from the oven, the inside is hot and runny\. Resting for 10 to 15 minutes lets the cheese and sauce firm up as they cool, so each slice keeps its layers\.

### 8. Cut and Serve

Cut a square with a sharp knife and lift it out with a spatula\. Look at its side: you can count every layer you built\.

In Bologna, lasagne is made with green spinach pasta, meat ragù and a creamy white béchamel sauce\.