Michael Symon's Top Tip For Baking Lasagna
If there's one thing Michael Symon knows how to do right, it's lasagna. He grew up eating the dish every Wednesday religiously as a child, recalling to Food & Wine, "You could smell the lasagna baking houses away, and Wednesday was the only night of the week I was more than happy to be early for dinner." With plenty of years to master the recipe, the same lasagna his mom used to make is now on the menu at his Italian restaurant Angeline in Atlantic City.
Luckily you don't have to go all the way to Atlantic City to get a taste of Symon's lasagna. The celebrity chef shared his recipe with the Food Network, and it includes layers of veal, ground beef, Italian sausage, and ricotta seasoned with parsley, basil, and oregano. These ingredients are responsible for the lasagna's delicious flavor, but it's how he goes about adding the cheese on top that makes all the difference.
Michael Symon learned this lasagna tip from his mother
As with every lasagna, Michael Symon's is finished off with a layer of cheese on top. Usually, lasagna recipes call for low-moisture mozzarella (what people normally refer to as "regular" mozzarella, per The Kitchn), but Symon revealed on the Rachael Ray Show (via YouTube) that he instead uses fresh mozzarella and layers of parmesan on top of that.
After adding the final layer of cheese, most people put the lasagna straight into the oven and let it bake until the top gets brown and bubbly. Symon, on the other hand, follows a tip he learned from his mother that he shared with Food & Wine. He first covers the baking dish with aluminum foil, then 10 minutes before the lasagna finishes cooking, he removes it. Within the last ten minutes, the uncovered cheese starts to toast. This method allows the cheese to retain its meltiness without getting hard and overcooked while the rest of the lasagna bakes.