Do you cook homemade pasta b4 assembling lasagna?

lizab, May 26, 5:54am
Just made pasta today and thought I should precook it before making my lasagna, but most of it tore when I was assembling. I pretty much only brought the water back to the boil to cook the sheets - only a minute or two. I was wondering if the juices from the meat sauce and cheese sauce would have cooked it? Fresh pasta only needs a very quick cook anyway doesn't it ... does anyone know for sure please? Thanks :)

vintagekitty, May 26, 5:56am
I never cook it, fresh or boxed, I do however add extra liquid to the boxed stuff

lizab, May 26, 6:03am
sorry I don't follow your reply lol. You never cook it but you do add extra liquid? ? ?

245sam, May 26, 6:15am
lizab, my understanding of vintagekitty's reply is that because she doesn't pre-cook the "boxed' dried pasta, she adds extra liquid when assembling the lasagne that is made with that "boxed" uncooked pasta because it is really dry as opposed to fresh pasta which is not dried.

Hope that helps and that my thinking is correct. :-))

nauru, May 26, 6:37am
I agree with post 4. If using dried pasta, just add a little more liquid to your meat/vege sauce, thepasta will take up the extra liquid when it cooks.

lizab, May 26, 9:53pm
thanks everyone. The next time I make it, I'll use the fresh stuff without precooking it. It was a yummy lasagna tho :)

elliehen, Jun 11, 9:54am
The packet of 'instant' Lasagne dried pasta sheets gives instructions on how much extra liquid to use; the fresh pasta doesn't need extra liquid to rehydrate it.

Neither needs to be cooked before assembling the Lasagne.

If you use fresh Lasagne sheets, chef Richard Till suggests 'stabbing' the Lasagne through to the bottom with a sharp knife in several places before cooking, to prevent the top rising in waves and burning.