Homemade Alfredo Sauce and awesome lasagna varieties to suit any taste!
I’m not the world’s best cook. I’m not even the world’s most mediocre cook. I can follow a recipe (sometimes) but I don’t always have the time, patience, and know-how to cook an entire meal from scratch. I often rely on boxed, bagged, or canned ingredients and my go-to meals reflect that.
The problem with this is that dietary restrictions often limit what you can buy at the store without killing yourself (or your friends) or overdosing on salt. That’s when having creative friends comes in handy.
Take, for instance, my favorite white lasagna. You might notice that the first direction is “Cook Lasagna noodles according to package.” A better cook might make their own lasagna noodles, or substitute some other homemade noodle. The ingredients lists “20 oz (2 jars) Alfredo sauce” but my dearest friend La makes her Alfredo sauce from scratch and is kind enough to share it (and some amazing substitution ideas!) with us!
GUEST FOODIE LAPISLLONG:
I will begin by advising you that I’ve rarely met an authority I felt obliged to bow to and recipes are no exception. This has burned me in the past but I learned to respect both bread & toffee for the science they are and everything else is like speed limits… somewhere between a guide and a strong suggestion.
I love Liv’s lasagna and savored every bite at her kitchen table – all while my brain burned with a million ideas of what I could do with such a simple and flexible framework.
I have taken this White Alfredo Lasagna recipe beyond third date action and tested it’s boundaries in ways that worked and a few combinations that were “okay”. I’ve doubled it easily to fill two pans, danced various ingredients through it, filled it with Quorn (vegetarian) chicken chunks, and even defiled it with breakfast sausage. Here are some guidelines for how to make this White Alfredo Lasagna recipe work for you.
- Broccoli really needs to be in smaller chunks (it should be part of a bite, not the whole bite)
- Carrots and raw mushrooms turn out better if you blanch them first
- Defrost your frozen pre-cooked ingredients
- Fully cook any meat/meat substitutes you use but let them cool slightly before adding
- You can play with the ricotta mixture to add some flavor but stick to spices; mix it ahead, seal it, and let it stand in the refrigerator for at least an hour if you use dried herbs & spices for the best flavor bloom
- You can mix it up with the sauces like using a marinara on the bottom and white sauce on top, but keep the same quantity to avoid bubbling over
- In case, like me, you physically can’t stop adding layers and extra cheese, throw some foil on a jelly roll pan and park your epic creation atop this to save your oven from sharing in your hubris
- Don’t be afraid to make it fit your or the audiences’ tastes
In my house we have two people on the spectrum, a vegetarian, one soy allergy, one inability to process veggies, and myriad dislikes; it is incredibly rare to find a dish that everyone loves and can eat that it’s cause for celebration. This is our gold standard party in a pan.
My personal favorite rendition is:
THE ABOMINATION!
I substitute the lasagna noodles with elbow macaroni in two layers with a double batch of ricotta filling in between, use one bottle of roasted garlic marinara on the bottom layer and my from-scratch Parmesan cheese sauce on the top layer. A quick, easy, flavorful cheese fest.
Note: I’ve also made an abominable snow version with 100% parm sauce; it felt a little monotonous to me since we skipped all the veggies, but my boyfriend loved it.
Now some of you may feel daunted by my offhand comment about from-scratch Parmesan cheese sauce and think that it makes me some kind of Kitchen Wizard and, while I’ll preen a second under your assumptions, that is far from the truth. I’m a trick pony and one of my favorite tricks is making sauces. They look fancy but are really pretty simple if you know the formula.
FROM-SCRATCH PARMESAN CHEESE SAUCE
(The roux version – reheats better if solo, and a roux is a good thing to learn because you can make a ton of sauces by starting with one)
- 2 Tbsp fat (this can be butter, meat drippings, olive oil, etc)
- 1 Tbsp flour
- 2 c liquid dairy
- 1/2 lb cheese (~2 c)
- 1/4 tsp Dry mustard (trust me on this)
Warm/melt the fat in the pan on medium before you add the flour. Stir it lazily to prevent sticking. You need your flour to brown and when it has, you have a roux!
Now for the hardest part; I have the patience of a two year old and if I can do this, so can you. You need to add in your liquid slowly, in stages, stirring quickly. For this small of a batch, add about a cup and stir to make a thick paste, when that is smooth and lump free, add the rest of your liquid and mix it up well. This prevents lumps from forming and persisting.
For cheese sauce, we’ll need to turn this down to low. This is when we add spices; get creative here but do not add salt. Most cheese has a high enough salt content that you almost never need it. If you feel it is missing later, once your sauce is the right volume and consistency, add it then.
When your concoction is warm, start adding your cheese by the handfuls, stirring each addition steadily until fully melted/melded, then repeat until you have the quantity and consistency you desire. If you need more sauce, add more dairy at 1/2 cup increments, followed by more cheese until you hit your mark.
Too thick? Add more liquid. Too thin? Add more cheese. Try to keep things at/under that 1/2 cup increment to avoid escalating. This does refrigerate and reheat well, though, so no worries if you get in a cheese & liquid arms race.
ROUX FREE SAUCE VARIATION
If you don’t want to go the whole roux route, you can start by warming your spiced liquid dairy in a pan, and stirring in the cheese but this is for when you’re eating it all right now or putting it in a dish with a lot of carbs. This way is quicker but just doesn’t reheat as easily without separating and requires the lowest temperature and more stirring.
I usually use heavy whipping cream and this method because I can make it in super small batches.
OTHER VARIETIES
- You can use beer & sharp cheddar instead of Parm if you are in that kind of mood.
- You can saute onions and/or finely diced peppers in your fat before adding the flour; this may require an extra Tbsp of butter.
- If you don’t want a cheese or cream sauce, use less liquid or more roux.
- Add spinach (fresh, not sauteed)
Note: Be careful with acids and citrus because they can curdle your dairy. You probably want a cookbook if you’re venturing down a lemon cream sauce path.
Now, go forth! Conquer your kitchen and wow your family in small, deceptively simple, delicious ways! I believe in you with my whole heart.
#GuestBlog #foodie
