I’ve had a slow cooker for a long time, but rarely ever use it… mostly because it’s HUGE and it’s kind of a pain to clean (though I now have those awesome slow cooker liners that Reynold’s makes!). Oh, and I lent mine to my sister a while ago now… haven’t asked for it back. *shrug* However, a quirky turn of events recently led to me offering my extra one – yes, I somehow had an extra slow cooker – to my friend EL, who responded by suggesting he make dinner for us. I let him pick from his cookbooks as he seemed excited by the prospect and was surprised when he chose… lasagna?
Based on the responses when I Tweeted about this, I am not the only one who never thought to make lasagna in a slow cooker. Won’t the pasta get too soft? was most people’s concern over my super late dinner. As it turned out, there was some rigging that needed to be done to make the lasagna, including some sort of tin foil cuff… In any case, the pasta didn’t come out too soft, and this was probably one of the better non-pulled pork dishes I’ve had come from a slow cooker, though it still had some of the problems I’ve had with dishes. The seasonings were fairly muted, with the flavors sort of mushing together after a while. The pasta itself was great – and EL said, “with about 3 pounds of cheese in there, how can it bad bad?” – though I thought the sausage could have been cut more uniformly so it would cook more evenly. I also would have liked the sausage to be smaller, but EL said he liked it the way he had it (some pieces weren’t fully cooked, to my taste).
Overall, though, I was pretty pleasantly surprised with the result. If you want the recipe, you’re going to have to ask, as I didn’t take it from him… but he said he’ll share if people want it.
Experimenting with letting my friends cook for me is definitely sometimes an exercise in restraint. And to those who are curious: yes, I washed the dishes afterwards – those are the rules! One cooks, one cleans! And no, I didn’t like cleaning. I think I’ll stick to cooking 😛
Happy eating!
Stephanie says
I haven’t made lasagne in a while…and never in a slow cooker!
Feisty Foodie says
It was definitely a new experience for me too!
hungry says
Was it difficult to get it out of the slow cooker? Those slices look messy.
Feisty Foodie says
The slice on the right was the first one out, the slice on the left was the second. I don’t think it was too hard to get out (after the first slice) but it was also like 11 by the time we started eating, so I was hungry and rushing him – it hadn’t fully set yet. The second slices we each had were much prettier since it’d had time to sit for a bit.
skippymom says
We make so many different things in our slow cooker. I don’t need the ease of cooking while I am off at a job – but I do like the smells and the idea of dinner cooking while I am doing other stuff around the house all day. Still, I never thought of lasagna and I love the idea. I don’t know if it is the pic’, but it seems to have an orangy glow – otherwise it looks really good and I bet it would be good with crumbled sausage or ground hamburger/turkey too. And nothing can be bad with three lbs of cheese. He’s right! How long did it take to cook, do you remember?
And El if you decide to share the recipe let us know. I would love to try it too. We are big lasagna fans.
Feisty Foodie says
I believe 4-5 hours? Around 6pm is when he started (it took a bit of time to put together) and we were eating around 11 pm…