Midterms are really close now. You’re studying all the time, and you’re starving. Your brain needs food immediately! You’re too hungry to concentrate!
Sounds like you need some protein fast. How does some lasagna sound? No, I’m not kidding; it doesn’t take forever.
First you need some noodles. You know those wide, flat lasagna noodles? Those. You can also use other noodles if you like- that will just turn your lasagna into a casserole, which is just as good.
Boil the noodles. Don’t forget to add salt.
The other major component of lasagna is the filling. Now, you may love meat, or you may be a vegetarian (we don’t judge either way). So, there are two different sauces you might make:
Meat: Cook some meat in a saucepan. Ground beef works best, but use whatever you like (except salami or luncheon meats. Trust me, that won’t work). The meat should be in small pieces. Add a sauce to the meat. Tomato sauce is the obvious choice, but you can add pesto sauce, or another kind. It should be thick sauce: soy is not recommended. The sauce should coat the meat, but the mixture shouldn’t be liquid-y.
Vegetarian: Use vegetables instead of meat (surprise!). A good vegetable base to use is spinach, but if you only have random veggies, they will do fine. Cook the veggies in a saucepan until they are soft, not liquid-y! Add a sauce if you want, and cheese is good if you eat it.
Obviously, you can save time by cooking the noodles and the sauce at the same time. Whatever you do, do not watch the noodles boil. It will make them take about twice as long.
Now that you have your noodles and sauce, get out a flat, deep dish and begin layering. Begin with a layer of sauce so the lasagna won’t stick, and alternate layers of noodles and sauce. The top layer should be a thin layer of sauce.
Note: If you have the time and resources, there is an excellent thing you can do at this point: take some soft cheese (cottage and ricotta cheese work very well) and intersperse layers of cheese among the layers of noodles and sauce.
When you have finished your layers, sprinkle some cheese on top. Put the dish in the oven and bake at 423K until the cheese is melted or the edges of the top noodles look crispy.
It’s done. Take it out, wait for it to cool, and eat it. Hurry up – that report won’t finish itself!
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