The Simple Technique To Bake A Full Lasagna In The Air Fryer

Lasagna is a quintessential Italian meal to pop into the oven for a crowd-pleasing dinner. However, you can avoid the casserole dish and the oven altogether with the help of your air fryer. Known for cooking and crisping anything from potatoes to chicken cutlets into deep-fried versions of themselves minus the deep fryer, the air fryer is essentially a more efficient convection oven. It's therefore perfect for oven-baked dishes like lasagna. The best part is that the air fryer basket serves as the oven and the baking dish.

The simple technique to bake a full lasagna in the air fryer is simply layering all of your ingredients into the basket itself. Of course, this technique will only work with basket air fryers and not oven air fryers. The basket air fryer's drawer is the perfect vessel to layer sauces, lasagna sheets, and cheese. It'll also cook faster than traditional oven-baked lasagnas, providing a crispy charred cheese topping and gooey, perfectly cooked layers you can spoon directly out of the basket with a spatula. Air fryers come in various sizes, so the size of your air fryer will determine how many servings of lasagna it can hold. You don't have to make any changes to a traditional lasagna recipe. Simply add layers to the airy fryer drawer, slide it back in, and bake for around 20 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until the top cheesy layer is browned and crispy.

Whether you're sticking with a classic lasagna bolognese or you want to get creative with a buffalo chicken lasagna, any of our 14 homemade lasagna recipes can be layered into an air fryer basket instead of the traditional glass or ceramic casserole dish. You'll still need to prepare each layer separately over the stovetop or in mixing bowls. The layers should be spread evenly across the area of the air fryer basket starting with an ample coating of sauce to ensure your ingredients won't stick to the bottom. The fryer basket is removable and designed to be cleaned between uses. You can wash it with a sponge and soap or throw it into the dishwasher to remove any lasagna remnants.

Just as the air fryer will speed up cooking times and save you a casserole dish to clean, you can also speed up the preparation of the lasagna by swapping scratch made sauces for store-bought or raw vegetables for frozen. For example, you could use jarred marinara or vodka sauce and swap béchamel for a ricotta mixture or even a jar of Alfredo sauce. Whether you're using lasagna sheets from a box or fresh pasta, soak the sheets in water or parboil them for 3 minutes before incorporating them. You can also cover your lasagna in tin foil for the first 15 minutes in the air fryer to cook the lasagna, removing the tin foil for the last 5 minutes to brown the top.