Whenever I go to an Italian restaurant I’ve never been to before, I always order the same thing. It’s my favorite Italian dish, my default, the one dish I will forever judge that restaurant by.
I order the lasagna.
There is something about lasagna that is the ultimate comfort food to me. It’s warming, it’s filling, and it has literal layers of flavor. And usually lots of melty cheese. So imagine how excited I was to find an entire cookbook about Lasagna. Anna Hezel and the Editors of Taste have put together the ultimate cookbook about all things lasagna, from the classic recipes all put together to new takes on the original to amazing recipes for the individual layers. Everything you need to take your lasagna game to new levels that you may not have thought possible.
Hezel starts with the lasagnas that we all know and love from our favorite restaurants: Classic Meat Sauce & Ricotta Lasagna, Lasagna with Meatballs & Sunday Sauce, Classic Bolognese & Bechamel Lasagna as well as Creamy Mushroom Lasagna, Ethopian Lasagna, and Moussaka. And then they got creative.
Their Not Classics include mouth-watering ideas like Carbonara Lasagna, Eggplant Parm Lasagna, Italian Sub Lasagna, Red Wine-Braised Short Rib Lasagna (hello, beautiful!), Speedy Skillet Ravioli Lasagna, Spinach Artichoke Dip Lasagna, and Fried Lasagna Bites.
And as if those recipes alone aren’t worth the price of admission, they also include recipes for other baked pastas (Baked Ziti, Pastitsio, Cheesy Skillet Baked Spaghetti, More Is More Triple Cheese Mac & Cheese, and an impressive Lasagna Timpano, in the manner of the brothers in the movie Big Night). And also recipes for garlic bread, salads, garlic knots, and desserts like Tiramisu for the 21st Century and Nutellasagna. Yes, I said it. Nutellasagna.
But more important than the recipes they give us is the inspiration they offer. Lasagna contains (obviously) enough recipes for pasta to keep you cooking and eating for many happy nights. But they also spend time talking about the building blocks, showing readers the basics of the construction of the dish, so you can construct your own lasagnas with any combination of pasta, sauce, and cheese. This book is merely a starting point. The final destination is up to you, your pantry, and your imagination.
A copy of Lasagna: A Baked Pasta Cookbook was provided to me by Clarkson Potter for their Potter Previews program, with many thanks.
