Made the lasagna without the lasagna

[Brainfogtothemax]

What to do?

Just prepped for dinner, did all the mince with tomatoes, onion etc and made the cheese sauce, boiled some potatoes and went to get the lasagna sheets and don’t have any.
Not feeling 100% so cba going to the shops, how can I make it into a proper meal? I have some pasta I could use instead, but what about the potatoes? Save them for tomorrow 🤷🏻‍♀️

Have any Italians died from this thread yet?

Ive heard of all these things, I would support all of these things, Im not rigid about what goes in what

Guess what, big shocker for you.... recipes and concepts and food combos can change over time, over families, over generations, over continents, its all MADE UP. Yes, there isnt a food god where every recipe is set in stone

As I said, if it wasnt for the new world and the Chinese, Italians wouldnt even be eating lasagne in the first place.

Because you have nothing in it that creates the actual flavour. The sofrito, the wine, the herbs, the seasoning - just bland and depressing.

I’m guessing if you invite friends round for dinner they often suggest a takeaway or a restaurant instead?

Try looking at some actual lasagna recipes so you see what’s wrong with yours?

It’s called a mince pie. Mash up the potatoes and put over mince.

Genius!

I made homemade garlic bread once ... forgot to add the garlic butter I had made 🤭 Sliced potato's sound nice

There is quite a lot of variation, some families use no wine, some use white, some use red, some use livers, some use milk in the base sauce, some use beef only, some use pork and beef, some use pancetta.

The best lasagne I ever had in Italy was none of the above anyway, it was green pesto, with bechamel. Served with roasted radicchio. In a small family local place, I didnt even order it, they just brought it out when I asked if they did anything without meat in it.

I lust after it to this day. Its from the coast.

lasagne and chips is normal? My first thought was that it is weird but I have lasagne and garlic bread. I don’t suppose pasta and bread is massively less weird than pasta and potatoes.

I'd argue that the more often you reheat some things the better they are!

Wine/pork/beef doesn’t amount to major variation though, which is my point.

This has been a lovely thread with some brilliant comments and some very good-natured responses from the OP, but (predictably) the "lacking any ounce of humour" contingent have come along to turn it into the usual snipe fest.

Maybe read the whole thread and see how fucking miserable you sound.

I would just like to point out that the whole history of cooking is the glorious changing, tweaking and melding together of different dishes to produce something that you and your family love. That's really all that matters. I make a long-simmered pork and beef bolognese with a proper soffrito, my husband makes a bolognese of beef mince browned and then stewed briefly in Marcella Hazan's tomato-onion sauce, delicious but nothing like a bolognese. Guess which one our kid prefers!

Also, I would totally eat a pile of mash with bechamel-drizzled mince on top. Or for that matter with no bechamel-drizzled mince on top.

this thread has made me smile! Surprised people saying no cheese in the sauce, ok a variation on traditional which is top the sauce on each layer with Parmesan I tend to mix my cheese in - but it’s predominantly bechamel and I add in Parmesan, cheddar and sometimes emmental and try and ensure it’s not too cheesy (not macaroni cheese sauce) then I’ll add more cheese to the top. For sofrito I would always add peppers into the mix and sometimes if I haven’t celery I have to skip it unless I go back to shop. So it would be carrot, onion, red or sweet pepper (like to add more veggies in particularly as kids refuse peppers) and it adds some sweetness and I definitely think the sofrito adds so much more to a ragu. I also add garlic! Then I add pork and beef mince and herbs plus tomatoes and puree.

if I didn’t have sheets and couldn’t be arsed to go out I’d have probably layered with another type of pasta - they’re all pasta at the end of the day - an in Italy once I had something that was more macaroni tubes layered with ragu and bechamel and was lovely.

the potatoes could have been used as layers - people sometimes use for mousakka instead of aubergines so don’t see the issue to do the same here?

it wouldn’t be my go to to have boiled potatoes on the side, I don’t like chips on the side either so have garlic bread and salad or veg. But again it’s fine it’s not like buttery potatoes are a crazy flavour element - would be a lot less weird than adding something like a side of pineapple. Potato goes with mince, and also cheese so I don’t see the issue - each to their own I guess? I have more issues when a person adds ketchup on top of roast potatoes on a roast dinner - now that is odd!

A fellow boiled spud hater. I think it's the texture and the memory of school dinners. Not much of a mash fan either unless it's had lots of additions and grilled on top to add a bit of texture.
I sometimes boil baby spuds before crushing them, adding butter and olive oil, plenty of seasoning then roasting until crisp. Ie no longer a boiled spud.

I made a quick bechamel to have over filled pasta for lunch OP, as yours has got cheese too I wouldn't think twice about chucking it over the potatoes.

Having potatoes with lasagne though is an abomination - why would you do double carbs and no vegetables?? You might get chips with lasagne in places like Wetherspoons - but that's just because potatoes are really cheap compared to lasagne/vegetables and some people/kids like chips with everything. Next time be reasonable and have broccoli and peas or something.

i always used to make shepherds pie with tin of tomatoes,
ie a bolognaise sauce with mash on top,
but i was an innocent vegetarian, dh complained

Absolutely!

This really made me laugh!

Make it into bolognaise shepherds pie

Thank you, this thread has cheered me right up!

I love it when an OP posts something totally insane and then carries on as it’s it’s perfectly normal. See also Balnonz and the woman who was complaining there would no longer be a spare bedroom in the holiday accommodation.

Me too, so many of the comments here had me laughing out loud...this is one of the funniest threads I've read in a long time!

I would slice the potatoes over the mince in a dish and pour the sauce over.

Another one just here to say this thread has brightened my day after a difficult evening getting my toddlers to bed 😅 literally sitting here holding one of them while silently belly laughing!!!

i bought British basil this week. Would always serve a salad with lasange, not so much a pasta bake as would normally have more veg in it.

Look I get they can be little shits sometimes but cooking them really is beyond the pale!