Those clunky lasagna sheets have so much potential.
According to the serving size on the box, two pieces of lasagna is a full serving.
If youre cooking for yourself, you could keep it to two sheets and multiply per person from there.
Once boiling, salt the water generously and add the lasagna noodles.
Boil them for five minutes (if using no-boil, it will take one to three minutes).
This amount of time cooks the pasta sheets until theyre flexible and soft, but not completely tender.
Theyll be easy to cut but not break apart while you handle the sheets.
Let them cool for about five minutes.
The flour will prevent the semi-cooked pasta from sticking to itself, the knife, or a cookie cutter.
Now it’s possible for you to cut this sheet of pasta in any of the following ways.
This is easiest with a larger chef knife.
Take the knife and cut parallel lines, lengthwise, down the sheet of pasta.
Depending on the width of each strand, you are making a different hand-cut pasta.
Technically, fettuccine is made with egg but that hasnt stopped Ronzoni from labeling their boxes as such.
Even still, only a monster would turn it away.
(For more information on pasta shapes, readthis articlefrom Masterclass.)
Quadretti and quadrettini
These little pasta cuts are perfect for soups.
Think of the itsy-bitsy pastina in Italian wedding soup, or orzo.
Quadretti and its little sister quadrettini are squares of pasta that are fast and simple to make.
Cut strips along the lasagna like you would for linguine, about 14 inch wide.
Vary the size of the quadretti by adjusting the initial strip-width to make bigger or smaller squares.
In fact, the thickness of lasagna sheets is ideal for cutting out short or irregular shapes.
Cut the noodles width-wise, and dont be precious about it.
Maybe cut weird, long, triangle shapes on purpose.
What youll end up with is rustic, homemade-looking pasta.
The lasagnas thickness plays into this, making it feel even more handmade, even though its not.
you’ve got the option to say hand-cut pasta and youre not lying.
No one will ever know.
For a pasta that everyone will loveespecially kidsuse any small cookie cutter shape you like.
Use heart cutters, stars, trees, pumpkins, or dinosaurs.
As long as its small enough to entirely fit on the pasta sheet, itll work.
For small circles, Ive used metal piping tipseither side works.
Use a fluted biscuit cutter to make scalloped-edged curved pasta.
What will initially appear like a boring bowl of linguine will have surprise pasta stars mixed in.
Youre only limited by your imagination and sharp metal objects.
Finish the hand-cut pasta
The last step is finishing the pasta.
Bring that old pasta water back to a boil.
Drop in your freshly metamorphosed noodles, and allow them to boil for two minutes.
This final boil finishes cooking the noodles and brings them to the perfect consistency.
