How To Make Lasagna

Lasagne: the Real Deal

Learn how to make classic Italian meat lasagne and then adapt it for a vegetarian twist

by Joyce Goldstein

fromFine Cooking 
Issue 82

How to cook fresh lasagne noodles

Prepare a large bowl of ice water. Slip the noodles, two or three at a time, into a big pot of boiling salted water and cook them until they’re tender and pale, 3 to 5 minutes (thinner noodles will cook more quickly). To make sure they’re done, taste a small piece. If it’s still tough, it needs a little more cooking (fresh pasta is not cooked al dente like dried pasta). Carefully scoop the noodles out with a large wire skimmer and slide them into the ice water to stop the cooking. When they’re cool, layer them between clean dish towels until you’re ready to assemble the lasagne.

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  An ice bath halts the cooking. Fresh pasta noodles can overcook easily, so have a bowl of ice water ready to cool them quickly.
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  Towels prevent sticking. Layering the noodles between towels dries them and keeps them separate. They’ll keep this way for up to 2 hours.

Layering is quick

After all the lasagne components are prepared and the noodles are cooked, the final assembly is fast and gratifying. Start by clearing a good-size space on the counter to lay out all the components.

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  If one noodle doesn’t cover the whole dish, cut a second noodle to fit, overlapping it slightly with the previous noodle.
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  Spread the ragù over each layer of noodles, followed by the cream sauce and a sprinkle of Parmigiano.

Bake, refrigerate, or freeze

You can bake your assembled lasagne right away or refrigerate it for later. It will keep for at least a day in the fridge. Alternatively, you can freeze it for up to four months (make sure you wrap the dish tightly with plastic). Thaw the lasagne in the fridge and bring it to room temperature before baking.

I can’t say I make lasagne every week (I admit it’s a bit of a production), but when my family requests it, I’m a pushover. For us, it’s both a homey comfort food and a special occasion meal, perfect for a birthday party or a celebration with friends. It takes a little planning on my part—organizing the shopping, making fresh pasta, preparing the filling, and then setting aside a block of time to assemble the final dish—but the results are well worth the time spent in the kitchen. My beef and pork ragù lasagne is soft, rich, and oozing with deep flavors, and everyone always hopes there will be leftovers to take home.

Three essential components

My technique for making meat lasagne follows the classic northern-Italian approach, which relies on fresh egg pasta, homemade meat sauce, and besciamella (Italian for cream sauce).

Fresh egg pasta makes all the difference. Homemade lasagne noodles are thinner and more delicate than any store-bought pasta, and I like how they almost “float” and meld with the sauces. If you’ve never made your own pasta before, I encourage you to give it a try—it’s not as hard as you might think. I enjoy the meditative ritual of making the dough and folding and rolling silky sheets of pasta through my hand-cranked machine. But if time is short, you can buy fresh pasta sheets at a good pasta shop or use good-quality dried noodles instead. The results will still be excellent, if a little less ethereal.

Homemade ragù ensures satisfyingly rich lasagne. I make a beef and pork ragù that’s very close to the classic long-simmering Bolognese sauce. Although ground meat is convenient, I prefer to dice boneless chuck and pork shoulder myself because it gives the sauce a rustic feel, and I prefer its texture.

Besciamella keeps it soft and smooth. I soften the ragù’s density with homemade cream sauce, which adds richness and helps give lasagne a smooth, creamy texture. I don’t use ricotta or mozzarella in my meat lasagne because I find that the besciamella provides all the richness I need yet keeps the lasagne light.

Sometimes I go vegetarian, replacing the meat sauce with a spinach and ricotta filling. And, because this combination is rather mild, I add a flavorful tomato sauce that’s relatively quick to make. It provides both sweetness and an acidic element that brings the dish together.

Spread out the cooking

Start to finish, my lasagne takes five or six hours to put together, but you don’t have to do it all at once. I make the ragù up to four days ahead and refrigerate it in an airtight container. In fact, I often prepare a double batch and freeze half for a pasta supper. I make the pasta noodles one day, and the next day I cook the noodles, make the cream sauce (while I wait for the pasta water to boil), and assemble the lasagne, which doesn’t take more than 30 minutes. Once it’s assembled, you can bake the dish right away, refrigerate it overnight, or freeze it.

Ref: http://www.finecooking.com/articles/lasagne-the-real-deal.aspx?pg=2

Cow Story

Cow Story :

Once up a time there were three cows. Daddy cow (also known as a bull), Mummy cow and Baby cow. They lived in a field beside another field that was used as a car park.

The cows did not do very much, all they did was eat grass and chew the cud.

“I’m bored,” Baby cow said one day.

“Here the farmer has left the gate open,” Mummy cow said.

The three cows looked at each other. They could go into the next field that was full of cars.

“Shhh,” said Daddy cow (also known as a bull). “Let’s go in and see what’s what. There’s nobody about.”

The three cows wandered into the neighboring field and looked about. There were lots of cars. They had seen people get in and out of them and drive them about.

“I want a shot.” Baby cow said.

“OK son,” said Daddy cow (also known as a bull), “You go and see if you can get in one.”

Baby cow walked around the car-park, he tried the handles of all the cars until he found one that opened. He used his hoof to open the door and crawled into the driver’s seat.

“Hey look I’m driving a car,” he said as he turned the wheel. “Look.”

“Very good son,” Mummy cow said. “I bet I can get right round the car-park without touching the ground.

“How are you going to do that?” Daddy cow (also known as a bull) asked.

“By jumping from one car to another.” Mummy cow replied.

“OK, I’ll time you.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“By counting.”

Mummy cow walked over to the nearest car. “Ready,” she shouted.

“On your marks, get set, GO.” Then Mummy cow jumped onto the first car and then leaving hoof prints on the bonnet jumped onto the next car leaving a nice cloven-hoofed imprint. She managed to get onto the fifth car before falling onto the ground.”

“That was fun,” she said. “how did I do?”

“Three.” Replied Daddy cow (also known as a bull).

“Three is that all?”

“Well yes, I don’t know what comes after three, so that’s all you managed.” “Right your turn?” I’ll count for you.

So Daddy cow (also known as a bull) jumped onto the first car leaving an even bigger hoof print to the one already there and started jumping from one car to the next.

“Hey look this puts some lights on,” Baby cow said as he found the lights. Then he found the windscreen wipers. “What are these for?”

“They’re in case your windscreen gets muddy.” Mummy cow said, forgetting about her counting. “Look I’ll put some mud on them for you.” She then proceeded to kick some mud onto the front of the car. The wipers started to squeak and bend as they struggled to wipe away the mud until they broke.

“Hey, you’re supposed to be timing me.” Daddy cow (also known as a bull) shouted as he slipped off a car.

“Three,” Mummy cow shouted. “So it’s a draw.”

“Hey look someone is coming.” Baby cow shouted.

“Quick scarper, back into our field,” Daddy cow (also known as a bull) bellowed. The three cows then ran back into their field. Mummy cow caught the gate with a hoof and pulled it shut just as some people walked back into the car park.

The three cows looked at each other and watched as the people walked up and down and scratched their heads. One or two of them looked at the cows and pointed at them and then pointed to the hoof prints on the cars.

The three cows just looked back chewing their cud as cows do.

“Moo,” said Mummy cow.

“Moo,” replied Baby cow.


Ref: http://www.english-for-students.com/cow-story.html

EXERCISE 32-36

Exercise 32: Enough
In the following sentence. choose the correct form in parantheses

1. There were not enough people to have the meeting
2. Allen has learned France enough to study in France next year.
3. Do you have enough time to walk now?
4. She drove fast enough to win the race.
5. Mike will graduate from law school soon enough to join his father’s firm.
6. We arrived early enough to have some coffee before class began.
7. It has rained hard enough to flood the low-lying areas.
8. You should type slowly enough that you will not make an erro.
9. He has just enough flour to bake that loaf of bread.
10. There are enough books for each student to have one.

Exercise 33: Because/Because of

1. Supply either because or because of as appropriate. 
2. It was difficult to deliver the letter because the sender had written the wrong address on the envelope. 
3. We decided to leave early because the party was boring 
4. Rescue attempts were temporarily halted because of the bad weather. 
5. They visited their friends often because they enjoyed their company 
6. Paul cannot go to the football game because of his grades. 
7. Marcella was awarded a scholarship because of her superior scholastic ability. 
8. Nobody ventured outdoors because of the hurricane warnings. 
9. We plan to spend our vacation in the mountains because the air is purer there. 
10. We have to drive around the bay because the bridge was destroyed in the strom. 
11. The chickens have died because of the intense heat. 

Exercise 34: so/such
Following the formulas, use either so or such in these sentences as appropriate.

1. The sun shone so brightly that maria had to put on her sunglasses.
2. Dean was such a powerpul swimmer that he always won the races.
3. There were so few students registered that the class was cancelled.
4. We had so wonderful memories of that place that we decided to return.
5. We had so good a time at the party that we hated to leave.
6. The benefit was so great a success that the promoters decided to repeat it.
7. It was such a nice day that we decided to go to the beach.
8. Jane looked so sick that the nurse told her to go home.
9. Those were so difficult assignments that we spent two weeks finishing them.
10. Ray called at such an early hour that we weren’t a wake yet.
11. The book looked so interesting that he decided to read it.
12. He worked so carefully that it took him a long time to complete the project.
13. We stayed in the sun for such a long time that we became sunburned.
14. There were so many people on the bus that we decided to walk.
15. The program was so entertaining that nobody wanted to miss it.

Exercise 35 : Passive Voice
1. Somebody calls the president every day.
Answer : The president is called (by somebody) every day.
2. John is calling the other members.
Answer : The other members are being called by John.
3. Somebody will call Mr.Watson tonight.
Answer : Mr. Watson will be called (by somebody) tonight.
4. The fire has caused considerable damage
Answer : Considerable damage has been caused by the fire.
5. The teacher should buy the supplies for this class.
Answer : The supplies for this class should be bought by the teacher.


Exercise 36 : Causative Verbs

1. The teacher made Juan leave the room.
2. Toshiko had her car repaired by a mechanic
3. Ellen got Marvin to type her paper.
4. I made Jane call her friend on the telephone.
5. We got our house painted last week.
6. Dr.Byrd is having the students write a composition.
7. The policemen made the suspect lie on the ground.
8. Mark got his transcripts sent to the university.
9. Maria is getting her hair cut tomorrow.
10. We will have to get the Dean to sign this form.
11. The teacher let Al leave the classroom.
12. Maria got Ed to wash the pipettes.
13. She always has her car fixed by the same mechanic.
14. Gene got his book published by a subsidy publisher.
15. We have to help Janet find her keys