If you are making lasagne to freeze...

[littledawley]

What do you do???

Sorry to be stupid but I've never done it before. Ragu is cooking at the moment, normally I just freeze some and use it as is or make lasagne when I need it. Next week, however, DC are being looked after so I thought it would be good to have a lasagne in the freezer.

I'm assuming that I can't just assemble it and freeze as I only have dried pasta but if I cook it first, cool and freeze - do I cook it completely? How do I re-heat it? Does it need to be defrosted first???

Sorry - I've never really got to grips with freezing things!!

When you assemble it with your dried lasagne sheets, if the ragu is hot the pasta will soften a bit, it won't cook but it'll sort of get started. I would put the bechamel on top and freeze straight away (so as not to get a skin forming).

If you assembled it cold and put it into the freezer, as the ragu freezes it will go hard and crack the brittle pasta.

Alternatively you could assemble, part cook (ten mins?) and then cool down but I think unless you do something like cool it slowly under cover (foil and a teatowel?) you would get a skin on the top.

this is making me peckish.

I have one in the freezer now

I usually prepare sauces and put together the lasagne when they are still hot-ish with dried sheets. then cover with cling film and allow to cool before putting in freezer. as lexi says this actually softens the pasta pretty well

i then allow to defrost overnight in fridge and put in oven as though I had put it together fresh

I assume you could cook from frozen but it would prob take a while (have never tried this)

I hasten to add that i have no idea of food poisoning implications of this, but have done this for years and no one has suffered consequences!

I cook a massive one, use what we want and divide the rest into portions and freeze, then they can just be bunged in the microwave, job done.

Thanks all, that sounds perfect. I will assemble it hot, cover, cool and freeze.

I have frozen cooked before and microwaved but wanted a whole one this time.

Last question - do you use cheese sauce (ie including cheddar) or just straight bechamel?

well thst depends if I have any cheese in the fridge! unless you use a particularly tasty cheese I don't find it necessarily adds much to a bechamel. Full fat milk makes a difference. Gruyere makes a BIG difference... yum... !!

Have full fat, cheddar and tons of parmesan. Thanks for all the advice