How many pots and pans

Got to laugh - given my track record today, it would take me all week to wash up! Hope it was delicious though xx

I have family coming tomorrow after work and said I'd feed them all. I'd thought lasagne but having read this whitewave, it's more likely to be spag bog!

I reckon that lasagne uses more pots than any other recipe

It used to be worse in the days we had to pre cook the pasta sheets!

Make one, freeze one!
Then there is no washing up next time (apart from the lasagne dish and the plates)

momb - yes, that was very offputting.

Because of all the pots etc I normally make the bolognaise sauce one day - sometimes we have slag Bol that day and then make the cheese sauce and assemble the lasagne the next - seems to spread the mess a bit and make it more manageable. But I agree it is one of the worst dishes for the mess it makes and washing up it produces.

Yes I find many more pots etc with vegetarian lasagne than with meat! Both very tasty though!

A friend who is half Italian reckons that all Italian cooking is nothing but hard work, mess and far too much cleaning up. She also thinks Jamie Oliver, Genaro whatsisname and all Italian TV chefs should be shot at dawn

Does anyone have a foolproof way of preventing a lasagne or any other pasta bake from getting too sloppy? I often do them without a recipe but can never get the amount of liquid right, and they often turn out like soup with bits in (if using smaller, shaped noodles)

I used never to have this problem, just chucked some pasta, a tin of tuna and a packet of strained tomatoes in a dish and baked them for 30-40 mins and it came out fine. If I put in too little liquid, the top pasta are high and dry and just bake to crunchiness - not the desired effect! - while the bottom half slops around.

jacky do you follow a recipe?

I have to - this was a JO recipe and there are a load on line. If you follow it religiously I don't think it will be too sloppy. Mine never are.

I suspect you may not get the white sauce thick enough?

whitewave I don't suppose that JO does his own washing up

I used to call my lasagnes 'una sloppy mess' but everyone said they were delicious anyway.
Haven't made one for a couple of years though.

When I make lasagne after assembling it I cook it for about half an hour so it is not too browned etc on top - then I allow it to rest - either all day or if possible overnight. This seems to make it set or gel together and when you reheat to use it can be cut into portions without slipping and sliding all over the place.
I don't tend to make pasta bake at all - I do make a pasta dish with a sauce but I am simply just putting the sauce with freshly cooked pasta so not a problem - I can adjust the liquidity of the sauce by adding more or less Créme Fraîche.