I've never even heard of using ricotta in a meat lasagne - I'd only really expect it with spinach in a veggie one (although IMO that works better with cannelloni than lasagne). Firmly in the bechamel camp here. It's really not time-consuming - well, depending on how long you want to infuse the bay etc - just roux, milk, heat & stir.

not a big fan of lasagne, there have been a couple of versions I've enjoyed but just never lives up to the hype for me.

Was at the barber shop yesterday and my barber and two other Italians were comparing how their various families make lasagne, from what I gathered, there isn't any set way for the layers to be FWIW, each family did things a bit different.

1. Noodles
2. Ricotta mixture of eggs, ricotta, Parmesan cheese, and parsley
3. Mozzarella cheese
4. Sauce
5. Repeat the layers

I heartily recommend making lasagna with fresh made pasta. No need to precook, just use them as they come out of the pasta rolled. Utterly sublime in a way you'll never achieve with boxed pasta.

I'm probably a heretic, but I do use ricotta that I mix with some ground pepper and parsley.

I agree that homemade pasta is best. In Santa Monica, Ca. there is an Italian grocery which sells homemade lasagna pasta. It's great. I'm sure there are other cities which also offer this. I am of the no mozzarella school, but ricotta is better and béchamel the best.:)

My grandmother used to mix sliced meatballs into the ricotta layer. I guess the family recipe is a hybrid. She'd have been mortified if anyone suggested adding vegetables of any sort, however.

It's funny how with Italian cooking, everyone is a little different but everyone likes to insist there's only one right way.

Personally, I can't stand lasagne and haven't touched one in 20 years or more.

Chicago had a bunch of Italian groceries that sold all sorts of useful stuff including "pizza dough in a bag" they're disappearing one by one.

There is boxed pasta, that doesn't need precooking. While they taste acceptable, the fresh pasta sold in most grocery stores is better and the fresh pasta sold by a small Italian shop (usually an Italian woman having made pasta for decades) is king.

I like this thread already. So many different recipes, methods, etc. . This is important stuff. Garfield would be proud of us. :D

#5 - regular boxed with the curly edges - never become part of the dish, they just sits there

#4 - no precooking boxed pasta - slightly better

#3 - grocery store fresh pasta

#2 - Italian shop fresh - better but still not 100% fresh by the time it hits the kitchen

#1 - fresh from my own kitchen - a couple minutes to make the dough - eggs and flour, 30 minutes resting, a quick roll out at the very point you're ready to assemble. That's fresh!

Never had #5 and #1 is too much work. I find cooking the meat sauce from scratch exhausting enough.

I hope you grease the bottom of the pan well first. One of
the reasons most of us put a ladle of sauce in the bottom
is to prevent sticking.

Ricotta (or cottage cheese! or both!!) is a standard component
of American home-kitchen lasagna casseroles. It's kind of okay.
I agree with you about bechamel, which improves many things
and takes mere minutes to make.

Sometimes one has to prioritize how to use "a couple minutes" in the kitchen. Most of what we eat is made from scratch, in my kitchen, by me. It's also gluten-free, soy free, lactose free (to the extent possible) because there are 2 celiacs and a kid with a laundry list of food allergies here. We use high quality gluten-free pasta (yes, it DOES exist) and make the sauce with herbs I grow. If you haven't tried cooking with herbs right of the plant, you're in for a surprise when you try it. Priorities differ.

We do provolone cheese instead of the mozzarella

I'm in the bechamel camp myself. Genuinely interesting thread, I've never heard of ricotta (or even cottage cheese!) in a standard meat lasagne.

Quick question from a confused Brit, why is the pasta referred to as noodles? (I'm assuming everyone is talking about the iPhone Plus / A5 sized pasta sheets)

Italian-American Lasagne noodles are 3/12-4in wide flat pasta with curly edges.
The term Lasagne is used for both the noodle and the dish. I did not realize there was such a difference in what is called Lasagne here and across the pond until I started digging into this. I think you can find the large flat sheets of pasta at specialty shops, but lasagne in America anyways is seen as more of a homestyle comfort food, and specialty food kind of don't fit it's image.

Keep in mind ricotta itself is different over here. For us it comes in containers like oversized yogurt tubs. Yes you can find real ricotta too now, but most people automatically thin the stuff in tubs. That may be why it is viewed more as a special dish in Europe and a home style dish in the US.