The Mistake That Prevents Lasagna From Cooking Evenly

Home cooks across the globe have made lasagna with degrees of success, but many (perhaps even you) have stumbled when it comes to appropriately layering the pasta sheets to ensure an even bake. As luck would have it, we garnered exclusive advice from chefs Scott Tacinelli and Angie Rito, co-owners of Don Angie, the celebrated Italian-American restaurant in NYC's West Village that serves a romantic lasagna entree for two.

The duo will be serving a representative taste of their restaurant on Tuesday, October 29, at City Harvest's BID 2024: CHTV! at The Glasshouse, a premier event designed to raise funds to feed New Yorkers in need. According to the acclaimed couple, layering pieces of pasta directly over one another is a lasagna-building faux pas. "Instead, trim lasagna sheets as necessary to ensure even, single-sheet layers," they recommend. This will prevent the stacked pasta from being too weighty and creating an undesirable texture.

Thick, tangy tomato sauce loaded with ground meat layered between ruffled sheets of tender pasta and ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan cheeses ... a square of lasagna is multi-flavored bliss for your taste buds, and an age-old recipe emblematic of all we adore about Italian food. But if you overlap the pasta when building your homemade lasagna, the sheets will absorb more moisture, making them stick together and leading to an unpleasantly gummy bite.

There are steps you can take to ensure a successful result and avoid mistakes everyone makes when cooking lasagna. For example, properly setting up your workstation in preparation of assembly, making a consistent sauce, and using fresh pasta — or at the very least, slightly undercooking your dried pasta. Just remember the sage words of Scott Tacinelli and Angie Rito about avoiding overlapping sheets of pasta and creating well-balanced layers, and you'll be on your way to a perfectly baked lasagna.