Lasagna For Wedding Rehearsal Dinner

[Angus]

I have to make 4 large pans of lasagna for my son's wedding rehearsal dinner and take them to the wedding location, 5 hours away, two days before the dinner. I'll be making 2 vegetable and 2 meat. Naturally I'll be making the lasagna at home, but should I freeze it uncooked or cooked. If I freeze it and it begins to thaw during the trip, will it be all right if I refrigerate it as soon as I get there, and finally, if I freeze it cooked, how long does it take to reheat it? I really need help. Thank you.

I read all of the threads about freezing lasagna, but the lasagna was all cut into little squares.

 

[chynablue]

Cook the meat, noodles, etc. and assemble the lasagna, but don't bake it (if that makes sense), and then freeze it. If you freeze it, then travel for 5 hours and refrigerate it as soon as you get there, it will be fine even for the meat lasagnas. Then the amount of time to reheat the lasagna will be the same as the recommended baking time. Good luck! It sounds exciting!

 

[auntdot]

I would cook it, freeze it and transport it in a cooler with ice underneath.

 

[CharlieD]

You will get as many opininion as there are people here.

I say cook it. Freeze it. Reheat at location.

 

[Angus]

Cook the meat, noodles, etc. and assemble the lasagna, but don't bake it (if that makes sense), and then freeze it. If you freeze it, then travel for 5 hours and refrigerate it as soon as you get there, it will be fine even for the meat lasagnas. Then the amount of time to reheat the lasagna will be the same as the recommended baking time. Good luck! It sounds exciting!

Thanks for the information. I'm going to follow your advice. It makes perfect sense. I was afraid if I baked it, froze it, and reheated it, the noodles would get overcooked and the lasagna would dry out, so your recommendation is perfect. It will be very exciting, and I know everything will be perfect. Thanks, again.

 

[Angus]

Thanks to everyone for their advice. I've only made lasagna once in my life, and I've never made anything and frozen it. If I were going to be reheating in my own kitchen, I'd probably cook, freeze, and reheat, but I have no idea what I'm in for in the way of ovens when I get up there. After this dinner, I'll be the "Queen of Lasagna" and then I'll really start to experiment. I'll post any recipes that I come up with that are worthy of this website.

 

[elaine l]

imho is ditto what Auntdot said

 

[CharlieD]

Thanks for the information. I'm going to follow your advice. It makes perfect sense. I was afraid if I baked it, froze it, and reheated it, the noodles would get overcooked and the lasagna would dry out, so your recommendation is perfect. It will be very exciting, and I know everything will be perfect. Thanks, again.

Actually I don't see how it makes sence. If that was the case the lasagna in the store would be sold unbaked/uncooked. But in fact lasagna in store sold baked and frozen and ready to eat. Yu can eat Lasagna cold as a snack and you do not have to reheat it even. Simply defrost, serve it at the room temp.

 

[chynablue]

Thanks for the information. I'm going to follow your advice.

I used to work at The Olive Garden, and that is how the caterer there would transport the lasagnas to events. My boyfriend used to work in an Italian restaurant up north, and he said that is how they would transport them, too. It would work either way, though. Good luck!

 

[Bilby]

I would cook and freeze and partially defrost before I left home, letting it fully defrost the rest of the way. If the weather is too hot to do this safely, you can get these chiller bags that keep food frozen for up to three hours without using a freezer block. Add a freezer block into the bage and the block doesn't even start to defrost in the three hours.

Lasagna actually tastes better when it is reheated. Likewise cannelloni.

 

[Rom]

I'd cook and freeze too.