Why You Need To Be Baking Lasagna In A Glass Pan, Not Metal
Lasagna may be the perfect comfort food. Its many layers of tender noodles, tomato sauce, and gooey cheese are reminiscent of family dinners around the table and having the best leftovers at work. It's a meal that freezes well and is always welcome at a potluck. As an added bonus, it's a dish that lets you make it how you like it, whether it's adding Italian sausage, spinach, or more cheese.
Lasagna has a transatlantic history. It was once a dish saved for special occasions and holiday feasts in Italy, with different regions serving it at different times. This pasta then crossed the Atlantic to become a popular dinner staple in American households. While you can find it in restaurants and the frozen dinner aisle, it's best when it's homemade. Grandma may have her secret recipe for lasagna, but we have a tip to share with everyone — you should be using a glass baking dish when making yours at home.
Metal pans may leave a bad taste
If you're putting the time in to make a meal from scratch, chances are you want to make the best food you possibly can. It may seem like choosing a baking dish for your lasagna is a decision with pretty low stakes, but that's not the case. The truth is, deciding on the right pan is the foundation of a delicious lasagna, and choosing the wrong one could spell disaster.
Speaking to Food & Wine, chef Michael Symon shares that he relies on a 9x13 pan because "it keeps the ingredients nice and condensed, versus each layer being spread thinly in a larger pan." You probably have a few pans that size in your cabinets, but should you be reaching for metal or glass?
Metal baking dishes are great for a lot of things, like brownies, but aren't good for lasagna and other baked pasta dishes. Metal pans are mainly made of aluminum, and aluminum can react with acidic ingredients, like the tomato sauce in your lasagna. The reaction between your tomato sauce and the aluminum pan results in the sauce, and by extension your lasagna, becoming bitter. The aluminum in the pan will also leech into your pasta, leaving it gray and discolored.
Glass pans are the way to go
Obviously, the last thing you want is to serve a tray of lasagna that is bitter and gray. For a lasagna that looks amazing and tastes great, it's important to skip the metal pan and go straight for the glass bakeware. Glass baking pans obviously don't contain aluminum, so you can layer your sauce, noodles, and cheese without worrying about losing flavor to a chemical reaction. Using a glass baking dish instead of metal doesn't just guarantee a dish with better flavor; they have some added benefits as well.
Glass baking dishes tend to retain heat longer than metal, keeping your lasagna warmer as you bring it to the table. That's not the only plus, though – glass is also naturally more non-stick than aluminum. That means that when you're done enjoying the delicious lasagna, cleanup doesn't have to be a challenge. Between glassware's natural benefits and the problems that occur when cooking tomatoes in aluminum, it's clear which is the better choice. Next time you're making lasagna, get out the glassware to ensure the only thing you're tasting is gooey, cheesy goodness.