Lasagne - those who start with the pasta layer

[Bowlersarm]

I'm in the middle of making lasagne to take to a friends for supper party tonight.

I've never started with a pasta layer before but many MNers seem to recommend it. I may slightly concede that my layering of meat,sauce,pasta x 3 is sometimes a little sloppy...

So, I am making two to take, one I'll do my old way and one I want to start with a pasta layer. But then what is the order of layers after the initial pasta one?

I'll take a poll after tonight as to which is the preferred lasagne

Help appreciated as about an hour to lasagne compilation!

Firstly wipe the dish with oil on kitchen roll to stop it sticking. Then I do pasta, meat sauce, cheese sauce, repeat 4 more times, end with cheese sauce and top with grated cheese. I dunk the pasta sheets in simmering water for a minute (in a big frying pan) before using them.

Thanks, Mistletoes!

Why do you dunk the pasta sheets?

It seems a lot less fuss to start with the meat layer. My layers are:

Ragu
A little bit of bechamel
Uncooked lasagne sheets
Repeat
Cover the whole of the top with the rest of the bechamel
Grate Parmesan all over the top

If the ragu/bechamel layers aren't too thick, it all holds together perfectly well.

That's what I normally do, Mimsy, but three layers rather than two, but I remember a thread which I've tried to search but couldn't find, where posters were swearing blind the absolute best method was pasta on the bottom to hold it all together, making it easier to serve and less sloppy.

It's only a case of doing it in a different order, I'd still dunk if the pasta was not going at the bottom, it's easy to do and makes certain it will cook right through, entirely optional though.

I think the number of layers has more to do with the stability on serving than whether you put pasta or ragu first, mine is definitely more solid with five layers instead of three.

Interesting thought about the number of layers.

They are made now. Interestingly the one using my old method looks bigger . Theyre for all the kids at the supper party we are going to tonight, about 10 I think aged 10-16, so I won't have first hand experience of eating them, but will try and see at least whether the presentation is different.

Thanks for your help.

Leaving it to rest for a while after it comes out of the oven will improve it's serving consistency....as long as the meat/tomato layer hasn't been too sloppy.