Making lasagne in advance - help please!

[clare8888]

Hi everyone, I'm trying to be organised and spend some of the time before the baby comes making and freezing meals in advance so we'll have a bit of a hand when we have other things on our minds! I want to make a load of lasagne portions, I've got a stack of foil containers that are freezable and ovenable. My question is - do I have to bake the lasagne first then divide it up and freeze it or can I just make the component parts and assemble in the foil containers to bake straight from frozen? Also would it help if I used fresh pasta lasagne sheets rather than dried?

Thanks, Clare x

I bake then freeze, dried is fine.

I just layer the lasagne into the freezer dish and freeze it unbaked.

I use the dried lasagne sheets, and don't bother to cook them first. The time the lasagne sits cooling seems to give it a chance to absorb some of the liquid and start softening.

However, I always defrost before baking as they come out of the freezer a bit like a brick and can be hard to heat right through the middle without the edges burning.

Having said that.... I do sometimes freeze a portion of baked lasagne for my DD (and I reheat in the microwave from frozen), so it does work either way.

Very forgiving stuff lasagne.

How funny, I'm in the middle of doing the exact same thing today - very proud I am too of my selection of foil containers

Am using Delia's highly OTT recipe which calls for 4hr cooking of ragu. Oh the joys of maternity leave!

You can definitely bake it then freeze it - I would reheat in the oven though rather than micro so you get nice cheesy crispiness on top.

OK have just re-read and see that you want to assemble then freeze and just bake when defrosted, yes definitely works and this is what I am doing anyway so not sure what my previous post was on about... this is why you shouldn't MN and cook at same time

Thanks, for all your replies, I'm all set for a day of being a domestic goddess!