Dry lasagne sheets! Why do they confound me?!

[CapriceDeDieux]

I just want to start by saying, I am a pretty competant cook, nothing special, but fine, and I can make a nice lasgne, honest. I have one issue though which is the dried lasagne sheets. They are always too leathery if I put them in dry, so I have tended to soak them in boiling water before contructing the whole dish, so basically they are soft/part cooked.

My problem is how to do this efficiently? I have a total brain block about this They always get stuck together in a saucepan, I have tried laying them out in a baking dish and using oil, but if you have to cook 6 or more I need multiple dishes, which is a pain in a small kitchen. There must be a magic way of doing this that doesn't involve me peeling and them breaking when they have fused together. I just want 6 sheets of par cooked lasagne ready to go in the dish.

Please don't say use fresh, this a quick,cheap dish for week nights. Surely someone's Nonna can solve this! What am I missing? I feel like an utter idiot and it's going to be really really obvious.

I use mine dry and have never had leathery pasta and it is firm when cut

Yep this. I found this out by accident on one of the few times I was sufficiently organised to make a lasagne for cooking later…

My friend preps and refrigerates the day before. Then puts in the oven the next day. Hers is sublime

I put them side by side in a frying pan of simmering water for a minute or so while I oil the dish (for the first layer, I always start with pasta), or add ragu and bechamel, it is a little production line. I use 6 layers of pasta. Then stand for a while after cooking.

I soak them in cold water for about 30 -45 ish minutes before I need them. Boiling water always makes them stick together

I make quite a wet ragu and thinner white sauce and use the pasta dry.

ragu/pasta/sauce/cheese x2 then bake long and slow about 180 for 45 - 60 mins turning the oven down if needed or popping a sheet over to stop the top catching

when I was at work is use to make and cook one day and reheat the next day, I would do something simple for dinner that night like jackets or something in the slow cooker to eat whilst the lasagna baked.