How long should lasagna rest before serving?
In this blog post, we will answer the following question: How long should lasagna rest before serving? We will also discuss whether lasagna tastes better the second day or is it a myth!
How long should lasagna rest before serving?
Lasagna should rest about 15 minutes before serving. This is an important step before serving the lasagna that should not be ignored. Rest transforms the mass and makes it manageable, thus you will be able to cut and serve the lasagna without it falling apart.
Also, if you are making lasagna sheets at home, the dough needs a resting time for the flour to absorb the water and the gluten to relax (like when we make bread or pizza). After resting, the dough gains strength and becomes manageable, foldable, and easy to fold. The higher the yolk content, the more hours you need to rest. Pasta made with just yolks needs to rest for 6 hours.
Another reason why the lasagna should rest before serving is the bechamel sauce. Whether they are cannelloni, lasagna, or pasta dishes, if they have dairy in the composition of the sauces that hydrate them, as time passes, the lactose begins to undergo changes in its composition and can slightly alter its flavor, adding a slightly sweeter touch.
When you eat something freshly cooked, your taste buds can identify the flavors of the whole dish, as well as the different ingredients that make it up. After time passes and the brew cools, the flavors of the food will begin to melt and develop a smoother, more uniform overall result. Thus, a dish like a lasagna can be tastier the day after being prepared or simply a few hours later.
Does lasagna taste better the second day?
Yes! Nothing cheers up the stomach more than finding a piece of lasagna from the day before. The bechamel sauce will have compacted a bit more, creating a delicious filling with the rest of the ingredients. In any case, a little fresh grated cheese and gratin can help to revive it on the outside and not only make it good but also look beautiful.
Whether there is food that is better reheated days later is a matter of chemistry. Complex and full-bodied dishes such as stews, elaborate sauces or creams and soups take on a special charm when reheated and eaten the next day or two. It is a chemical reaction that occurs especially in this type of preparation, and that takes place after cooking, cooling, and subsequent reheating.
Both chemistry and physics take part in this improvement. And it is that the food that is better-reheated shares certain characteristics. These preparations usually have foods that are very tasty on their own, and that is precisely added to the preparations to give them more aroma, such as onion, garlic, spices.
The point is that, at first, when it is just cooked and eaten directly, many of these ingredients may not only have not finished releasing their flavor but also collide with each other. When the ingredients are very aromatic, it is often difficult to find the balance, and some overlap one another.
But if the food remains mixed after being cooked, cooled, and reheated, the flavors bind. And it is that when cooking the juices of these foods interact with proteins and starches.
When the dish is cooled and refrigerated and then reheated, some of these reactions continue to result in better flavor. In a freshly prepared dish, these aromatic ingredients like garlic and onion can stand out too much and fight each other. The next day, however, they have already been mixed and softened, giving the dish a fuller and rounder flavor.
Fats and collagens have a lot to do with the migration of different flavors
When braised meat cools, the gelatinous material of collagen, tendons, and bones that has melted during cooking begins to coagulate around the pieces of meat, trapping many flavors.
This phenomenon is even more accentuated with ground beef used in lasagna because there is more surface to which that gelatinous flavor can adhere.
Without a doubt, lasagna is the dish that gives the best result after being reheated. This is due to the fact that when it is heated, the sauce that is used in its preparation dissolves, but when all that fat is cooled again, it solidifies again adhering to the ingredients and catching the flavors of the sauce.
The more meat and the more shredded it is, the greater this phenomenon will occur. That’s why reheated lasagna, cannelloni, or spaghetti bolognese are so wonderful.
In addition to this, this also favors the consistency of the sauces, since in these processes they also gain body. It is due to the fact that every time the protein is heated and cooled it releases collagen, thickening the sauce. Of course, this process should not be abused as the meat ends up becoming fibrous!
Other FAQs about Lasagna which you may be interested in.
How do you thicken ricotta cheese for lasagna?
How do you use precooked lasagne sheets?
Final thoughts
Lasagna does taste better a few hours later, more even on the second day, and the simple explanation is that this dish needs time to release all of its flavors and surprise us! Both chemistry and physics take part in this improvement. And it is that the food that is better-reheated shares certain characteristics.
These preparations usually have foods that are very tasty on their own, and that is precisely added to the preparations to give them more aroma, such as onion, garlic, spices.
What do you think? Do you agree with us? We’d love to know your opinion so don’t hesitate to leave a comment below!
References
Bbcgoodfood.com
Allrecipes.com
