I don’t really have a recipe for it because I rarely make it the exactly the same way twice, but it seems like the longer I make it, the better it gets…until this afternoon that is.
I made the worst lasagna I ever made. I only tasted a bit, but I knew it was a flop as soon as I pulled it out of the oven. So what went wrong? Well, the last time I was at the store, I picked up a box of no-boil lasagna. I didn’t want to buy it, but that’s all they had, so I went ahead and got it. I’ll never buy it again. If they’re out of the regular kind, I’ll make my own pasta…something I’ve only done once but really enjoyed.
Anyway, sometimes advances in technology turn out to be a good thing…other times not. You would think that a pasta that doesn’t need to be boiled would be a good thing. If you’re in a hurry, it can save you time. It can also save you energy if you don’t have to turn on the stove and use energy to cook it. But in my opinion, no-boil lasagna isn’t worth buying.
I followed the instructions on the box, but the pasta texture wasn’t pleasing…it was too dried out and chewy…not al dente, but a weird kind of chewy. What’s funny though is before I pulled the lasagna out of the oven, I pulled off a little piece of a noodle and tasted it. It tasted fine. The problem is the pasta didn’t cook evenly in the oven.
The other thing I noticed is that I used the same amount of pasta sauce that I always do, but the lasagna ended up way too dry.
Perhaps my failure-of-a-lasagna was because of something I did wrong, but I honestly don’t think so because I’ve been making lasagna for so long now, and it always turns out great. So until someone point out a reason that it may have been a fault of mine and not the new-fangled no-boil lasagna, I’m going to chalk up this failure to the the no-boil lasagna.
After the lasagna came out of the oven, I added another jar of pasta sauce to the lasagna so we can at least eat it without it sticking to the roofs of our mouth! LOL! Here’s a picture of a piece after I added the sauce:
You can see that even with the extra sauce, it’s still too dry, but I think it’ll at least be edible tonight when we get home from work.
Now that I’ve shared with you my experience with no-boil lasagna, I want to tell you how to make this buffalo lasagna using regular pasta that you boil. I’ve made this particular recipe buffalo lasagna before with regular pasta, and believe me, it turned out so incredibly delicious! The only thing I did differently this time other than using the no-boil lasagna was that I added just a little bit of pesto sauce to the pasta sauce and put sliced tomatoes in my layers.
Buffalo Lasagna
Ingredients:
- 1 pkg. lasagna
- water
- salt
- olive oil
- 1 jar meatless pasta sauce (mine had mushrooms in it)
- 1 pound ground buffalo (you can substitute ground beef if you prefer)
- 3 cloves diced garlic
- feta cheese (Use as much as you like. I’ve never made a lasagna with too much cheese)
- goat cheese (Again, use as much as you like)
- Parmesan cheese
- 2 large tomatoes, sliced thinly
- basil to taste
- oregano to taste
- salt
- water
- Optional: Greek seasoning
- Optional: pesto sauce (3 tbsp)
Instructions:
- Put a large pot of water on the stove on high heat.
- While the water is on the stove, dice your garlic, and then fry it, along with the ground buffalo, in a pan with some olive oil (1-2 tbsp.) Season to taste (I used Greek seasoning, basil, and oregano.) Put it aside when done.
- Slice your tomatoes and put them aside.
- When the water boils, add the lasagna, some salt, and olive oil. Let it boil on high until the pasta is slightly firm (al dente).
- When the pasta is done, drain the water and then run cold water over the lasagna noodles.
- Grease your baking dish with a little olive oil.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- You’re now going to layer your lasagna. First you put a layer of lasagna noodles on the bottom of the oiled baking pan.
- Then spread the pasta sauce generously over the noodles. (If you want to use some pesto sauce, just mix it into the pasta sauce.)
- Sprinkle some basil and oregano on the top of the pasta sauce.
- Now generously spread the ground buffalo over the seasoned sauce.
- Next you will spread the cheese over the buffalo. If you’re using feta cheese and goat cheese crumbles, just sprinkle the cheese over the buffalo. If you’re using feta and goat cheese which is not crumbled, just slice it and put it on top of the buffalo.
- Then place tomato slices on top of the cheese.
- Finally, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
- Continue layering as you did before adding more lasagna noodles, sauce, seasonings, ground buffalo, feta and goat cheese, tomatoes, and Parmesan cheese.
- Save enough cheese so you can make the very top layer a thick layer of goat and feta cheese.
- Cover with aluminum foil and bake for about 30 minutes or so.
Lasagna can be made so many different ways, and while I do so much enjoy it with ricotta and mozzarella cheese, I think the goat and feta cheese combo is delicious as well.
