Why was the lasagna i ate last night ****?

Lasagna is very easy to make but it is also something that can very easily be completely bleah!

The first thing is cooking the sheets. Some sheets you have to blanch in boiling water. If you just use them straight out the packet they don't cook and stay hard. With easy cook lasagna you use the sheets as they come. If you blanch in boiling water then the sheet goes completely limp. You want the sheet to retain bit of texture. Lasagna ready meals (that is frozen stuff) often get this wrong which is why I don't use them.

The meat sauce must have some flavour. The meal is meant to be the contrast between the bland firm sheets and the tasty sloppy meat sauce. So loads of tomato, industrial quantities of basil and don't stint the garlic. Salt and pepper are needed and then give the sauce time to meld together.

You paint the sheets with a white sauce. A good creamy white sauce made from full fat milk and butter pays dividends. Some people put cheese in there but I think that is a mistake. Or maybe just a little bit of cheese.

Then there is fat. You want the meat sauce to put out a bit of oil so that bits of the sheets round the edges are effectively fried and crispy. This is a cheap meal so spending loads of money on premium no fat ground beef is a waste. And it won't taste as good as the cheaper stuff.

The cheese on top should be as strong as you can get. You want the strong contrast. Parmesan is traditional but I like some ferocious cheddar as well. If you use a mild cheese you might just as well not bother.

Then when it is all put together, give it time. An hour in a low oven is good. Two hours is not too long. Get the cheese on top really bubbling.

These are a few ideas where things could have gone wrong. Of course if you had bought frozen lasagna or vacuum packed ready made then I'm afraid the answer is even simpler. Lasagna takes about half an hour to make from scratch. That is half an hour of your time. It then takes another 2,3 or even 4 hours sat on the stove whilst you are doing something else. It really isn't worth it to use a packet when it is so easy to do it yourself.

If you refrigerated immediately when you notice your error, use it within the next 48 hrs. and reheat it to an internal temperature of at least 180 degrees F. By leaving it out out at room temperature over night, you've shortened it's shelf life. It doesn't go bad immediately but won't be safe for as long a period of time.