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Makes 6 to 8 servings 1x
Time 45 minutes with prepared sauces and pasta (or up to several hours start-to-finish)
1. Prepare or reheat the meat sauce and keep it warm. When you’re ready to assemble the lasagne, bring at least 5 quarts water to a boil in a large pot and salt it. Grease a 13- x 9-inch baking pan with the butter or oil. If you’re using homemade fresh pasta, roll it out to 13 inches long. You will need to cut the noodles so that they fit reasonably snugly into the pan.
2. Cook the noodles a few at a time; keep them underdone (if they’re fresh, this means about a minute; about 3 minutes for dried noodles that are pliable but still white at the center). Drain carefully in a colander, then lay flat on clean kitchen towels. Prepare the béchamel sauce if you have not done so already. Heat the oven to 400°F if you’ll be baking the lasagne right away.
3. Spread about 1/2 cup meat sauce over the bottom of the pan and add a layer of noodles, touching but not overlapping. Trim any overhanging edges. Cover the noodles with about one-quarter each of the béchamel, meat sauce, and Parmesan, then a light sprinkle of black pepper. Layer noodles, béchamel, meat sauce, Parmesan, and pepper 3 more times, ending with Parmesan. (At this point, you can wrap the lasagne well and refrigerate it for a day, or freeze for a month; thaw in the refrigerator for a day before proceeding.)
4. Bake until the lasagne is bubbly around the edges and steaming hot in the center, 30 to 60 minutes, depending on how cold it was going into the oven. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before cutting into squares and serving.
— Recipe adapted from How to Cook Everything Completely Revised 20th Anniversary Edition