I was asked by my mother to take care of dinner last night as the whole family was going to be together and we needed to find a kid friendly dinner for the little ones. So we thought that lasagna would be a good choice since it consists of noodles, meat and cheese. Normally I would make my own noodles when I am making lasagna, as it is so easy and fun, but my pasta maker was at my house in another town and so that was out of the question. Instead we headed to the grocery store looking for gluten free lasagna noodles. I stopped buying them when I started making my own and was not particularily enthused about having to use brown rice flour noodles, but that seemed my only option in the gluten free section. Upon browsing the normal aisles I noticed that the Catelli gluten free pasta was with the normal pasta and they had lasagna sheets. I thought I would try these instead of the brown rice ones and see how they worked. They seemed small, so we bought several boxes just in case.
This lasagna was one of the best I have had in a long time. The noodles are no boil, but I soaked them in hot water for a couple minutes just so they did not soak too much of the sauce. I used my normal meat/veggie sauce and cheese combinations and used almost 2 boxes of noodles for 3 layers in an 8x13" pan. It cooked for an hour at 350, and came out perfectly browned.
All of us enjoyed it, (gluten and non gluten eaters) including my picky eating nieces. It was a perfectly saucy, cheesy lasagna. It was more like the gluten filled lasagna my mom made when we were kids, as I find most gluten free noodles soak up too much sauce and become soggy. These held their shape and did not fall apart. They easily held the whole lasagna together and when cooled slightly cut into perfect pieces. It was a wonderful family dinner.
I will keep these noodles in the cupboard for days when I am away from my pasta machine, or just feeling too lazy to make my own noodles.
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