A Christmas Eve lasagna cuts into clean squares when three things go right: the layers are thin and even, the filling is not too wet, and the pan rests long enough to set before the knife goes in. Score the grid first, cut straight down with a long knife, and lift the first square with a thin spatula. Most of the work happens on the board, well before the oven.
Lasagna suits the night before a holiday because it can be assembled a day ahead and baked when the house fills up. The trouble is the serving. A pan cut too early slumps into a red puddle, and the first square comes out in pieces. The fixes are all small, and most of them are knife work.
What to set out
For a 9 × 13-inch pan, about 12 squares:
- 1 pound ground beef, Italian sausage, or half of each
- 1 medium yellow onion and 4 cloves of garlic
- One 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes and 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
- 15 ounces whole-milk ricotta, 1 egg, and a handful of flat-leaf parsley
- 1 pound low-moisture mozzarella and about 1 cup of grated Parmesan
- 12 lasagna noodles, boiled or oven-ready
- Fresh basil for the top
Choose low-moisture mozzarella over fresh. Less water in the pan means less liquid pooling between the layers, and pooled liquid is what makes squares slide apart.
Prep on the board, in order
Work through the prep on one board so nothing is chopped twice and nothing waits on the counter.
Onion first. Halve it through the root, peel it, and cut a fine dice so it melts into the sauce rather than sitting in chunks between the noodles. Large pieces of onion lift the layers and leave gaps where a square can break. The basic cuts are in small, medium and large dice.
Garlic next. Crush, peel and mince the four cloves, then push them to a corner of the board. The method is in how to mince garlic.
Herbs. Chop the parsley fine for the ricotta and keep the basil leaves whole until the end, then tear them over the finished lasagna.
Cheese. Slice the mozzarella into thin rounds or grate it on the coarse side of a box grater. Thin, even cheese melts into a flat layer; thick slabs make humps that tear when the knife reaches them.
Cook the meat in a wide pan with the onion until no pink remains. Ground beef and pork should reach 160°F, the FDA’s safe temperature for ground meat. Add the garlic for a minute, then the tomato paste and crushed tomatoes, and simmer until the sauce is thick enough to hold a line when you drag a spoon through it. A thin sauce runs between the layers and lets the squares slide apart.
Stir the ricotta with the egg, the parsley and half the Parmesan.
Layer it thin and even
Spread a thin coat of sauce over the bottom of the pan so the first noodles do not stick. Then build four layers of noodles: noodles, a thin layer of ricotta, sauce, mozzarella. Repeat, finishing with noodles, the last of the sauce, mozzarella and Parmesan.
Two habits help the knife later. Overlap the noodles only slightly, so there are no double-thick seams to cut through. And spread each layer to the edges of the pan; a mound in the middle sinks as it bakes and pulls the squares out of shape.
To make it ahead, cover the assembled pan tightly and refrigerate it overnight. Add 15 to 20 minutes to the covered baking time when it goes into the oven cold.
Bake, then wait
Bake covered with foil at 375°F for about 45 minutes, then uncover and bake another 15 to 20 minutes, until the top is browned and bubbling at the edges. The center should read 165°F on an instant-read thermometer, the FDA’s figure for casseroles.
Then leave it alone. A Tasting Table piece on the subject reports that DeLallo recommends waiting 20 to 40 minutes before cutting, so the lasagna can cool and firm up, and names cutting too early as the likely reason the filling runs out onto the plate. On Christmas Eve, that wait is useful time: it is when the salad gets dressed and the bread goes in.
How to cut clean squares
Score the grid first. A 9 × 13 pan cut three by four gives twelve squares of about 3 by 3¼ inches. Mark the lines lightly across the top cheese with the tip of the knife before cutting anything, so every square comes out the same size.
Use a long, sharp knife and cut straight down. Saw gently through the browned top, then press straight down to the bottom of the pan. Do not drag the blade toward you; dragging pulls the layers sideways.
Wipe the blade between cuts. Keep a damp, hot towel beside the pan and wipe the knife after each line. Cheese on the blade tears the next cut. The same habit gives clean wedges in how to cut pie into even slices.
Run the knife around the edges. The corners and sides are where the cheese welds to the pan.
Sacrifice the first square, or plan it. Slide a thin, flexible spatula all the way under the bottom noodle of a corner square and lift it straight up. The first one is the hardest to get out whole; every square after it has room.
Serving from the board
The baking dish stays on a trivet. It is too hot and too large for any cutting board, and a 9 × 13 pan does not belong on a 12 × 9-inch board.
Where the board earns its place is beside the pan. For a buffet or a table with children, lift a few squares onto the board and halve them into smaller portions, which is far easier than trying to cut half-squares in the pan.
A WONAMU. bamboo cutting board has a perimeter juice groove, which keeps sauce from the cut squares on the board instead of on the tablecloth. Finish each piece with torn basil.
Leftovers
Refrigerate leftover lasagna within 2 hours of serving, as the CDC advises for cooked food. The University of Delaware Cooperative Extension’s storage guide gives 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator for cooked meat leftovers. Reheat squares to 165°F, the CDC’s figure for all leftovers.
Cold lasagna also cuts cleaner than warm, so if you want neat portions for the 26th, cut them straight from the refrigerator. More ideas for the days after are in what to do with Christmas leftovers.
When the meal is over, wash the board in hot, soapy water, rinse it, dry it with a towel and stand it on edge. Tomato sauce is easiest to remove before it dries.
The short version
Dice the onion fine, mince the garlic, slice the cheese thin, and cook the sauce until it is thick. Build thin, even layers to the edges of the pan. Bake to 165°F in the center, then rest 20 to 40 minutes.
Score a three-by-four grid, cut straight down with a long knife, wipe the blade between cuts, and lift the first square with a thin spatula. The pan stays on the trivet; the board takes the prep and the halved squares.
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WONAMU. makes a bamboo cutting board, 12 × 9 inches, bamboo, with a perimeter juice groove, in gift-ready packaging with a cotton care cloth. Available on Amazon.
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