Cooking pasta in advance???

[Kenny Karaoke]

Been browsing around a bit, so here's my official first post.
As a kid I remember the pizza place I worked at we just heated the Lasagna (it was cooked in very large pan and refridgerated). What I don't know is if it was fully cooked or par baked. If I make my Lasagna today for X-Mas should I cook it? Or could I just cook the noodles and assemble the meal in pan and cook on X-Mas day?
Thanks for any help!!

 

[Andy M.]

Welcome to DC, Kenny.

You don't really gain much by just cooking the noodles. I'd assemble and cook the lasagna then just reheat it for Friday. No need to freeze it for the two days remaining.

Further, par cooking a dish like lasagna means the interior never reaches a high enough temperature to deal with any lurking nasty bacteria. So you just create a warn cozy breeding ground for them. Cook it all the way or don't cook it at all until Friday.

 

[Kenny Karaoke]

Great that'll help alot. What about cooking and reheating other items, like casseroles and scalloped potatos? You see big family/small kitchen. I'm not worried about stovetop items and I have 2 roasters and a crockpot. It's only the oven baked items. I'd like to cook them all today and tomorrow and reheat on Friday.
Thanks again for the lasagna tip.

 

[Andy M.]

Those can be cooked and reheated as well. Same as before, cook completely, cool and refrigerate.

 

[Kenny Karaoke]

Awesome.
Last year I had only one roaster and it burned out an hour into the turkey, had to move it to the oven. Everything turned out great, but with just the one oven we were almost two hours late eating dinner. So I picked up the two roasters one new/one used, should be good this year.
Happy Holidays!!

 

[HNLute]

I often make Lasagna and find it best to freeze the results uncooked for some future meal. As long as the container is air tight or wrapped in plastic wrap you can keep it frozen for several weeks without fear of degradation.