Conclusion of the Lasagna Sagna... er, Saga

Time for the exciting conclusion to the Adventures of Lasagna Making. You’ll recall we left Terrie hunting her neighborhood’s corner stores for lasagna noodles. She regretfully decided to postpone the assembly to the next day. Let’s pick up our story there, in her own words…

Two slow-cookers full of sauce is a lot.

But wait. What would I do with those two crock pots of sauce overnight? Too large for the fridge, I couldn’t risk leaving them at room temperature that long. Out on the deck? They’d attract every cat, squirrel, and skunk for miles. And then they’d freeze. The garage? I didn’t want my sauce tasting like fuel. I simply had to finish the assembling of the three lasagna pans and get them in the freezer.

I ventured out on another walk, this time to Red Apple. I spied several boxes of lasagna noodles on their shelves. Alas, they were all the “oven ready” kind. Not what I wanted. I continued down the sidewalk to Shopper’s where an apologetic sign told me the front doors were closed and I needed to go around back. What if I walked all the way around the block only to discover they didn’t have my noodles? I’d come this far, I may as well keep going to Portage Supermarket. I could see their overhang just ahead.

When I reached the overhang, I realized it belonged to a lawyer’s office. By now, however, the supermarket really was within sight. I went in, purchased my noodles, and walked the eight blocks home. I filled my big stock pot with hot tap water and put it on the stove to heat. While I waited, I recalculated the mozzarella cheese. I pulled up Google to convert to metric again. Woops. I only had half enough cheese! I could have easily grabbed another block while buying noodles! Should I skimp on cheese and serve my family the World’s Fourth-Best Lasagna? No. It could wait another day. I turned off the burner. I squeezed the crock pots into the fridge overnight.

Early the next morning, I drove to my regular store for the additional cheese. Since I was there, I checked out their foil pans. Hey! Deep dish lasagna pans. Those would work so much better than cake pans. I bought three. The cost of my lasagnas now reached over a hundred dollars, but it would be worth it.

Assembly went smoothly, except for having WAY more sauce than I figured I should need. The total measurements of all the called-for liquids did not align with the amount the recipe was telling me to put in each layer. I recalculated everything and couldn’t find any mistakes. Should I use all the sauce and risk runny lasagna? Or go with my gut and risk having it too dry? I did the second thing and froze the extra sauce for another pasta day. Maybe we’d have to settle for the World’s Fifth-Best Lasagna.

Finally found enough noodles.

And cheese.

 

Ready for freezer ... or oven.

Once all three pans were filled and covered, I carefully laid them in the freezer, cleaned the kitchen, and barely gave them a thought until gathering day. By that time, our numbers were reduced to nine people, so we left one pan behind. My son popped the other two in his oven. Ninety minutes later, when it should have been time to remove the foil covering, they were still cold in the middle. Argh! We’d already dressed the Caesar salad. By the time those lasagnas were properly cooked, everybody was too hungry to mind the soggy salad. The lasagna proved a hit, and we filled out tummies from just one pan.

As it turned out, the same crew gathered again two days later and didn’t mind eating the second lasagna. Even if it was two days old and even if it was Christmas Day.

I’ve since bought a kitchen scale that measures in both Imperial and Metric. Lesson learned. Plus, we still have one whole pan in the freezer for another time. Who would dare complain about the World’s Sixth-Best lasagna?