Ina Garten's been generous to us over these last few years. She taught us how to treat ourselves to and that we should turn to in times of uncertainty. Now Garten's got another brilliant tip, this time to cut down on the time-intensive process of making lasagna.
In her turkey lasagna recipe (via the ), Garten provides a small tip that has altered our relationship with lasagna in all its forms: Skip pre-boiling your noodles. Instead, let them soak in hot tap water for 20 minutes while you prep the dish's other components. No waiting for the pot to boil, no halting the cooking process before baking, and no pulling yourself away from prepping the sauce and an army of cheeses to test for the right level of pasta doneness.
Simply drain the noodles when your timer goes off, assemble each layer, and throw the lasagna in the oven until the sauce is bubbling. Thanks to heat of the oven and the moisture from the dish's ingredients, your lasagna noodles will come out toothsome and with the structural integrity necessary to hold together after you slice and serve the dish — and it will all come together in much less time than you're used to. How soaking your lasagna noodles saves time Many store-bought lasagna noodles are dry pasta, which means they need to be rehydrated, typically in boiling water.
That process is known as diffusion, and for pasta with a standard thickness, that happens in roughly 10 minutes. Traditionally, lasagna recipes call for par-boiling noodles, which only take.
