The Pasta That Never Belongs In Lasagna, According To Michael Symon

Michael Symon is an expert in all things culinary. He's a James Beard Foundation award winner and has had an illustrious career as a restauranteur and cookbook author, and was co-host of "The Chew" on ABC (per Michael Symon). Those are just a few of his accomplishments. Michael Symon is also known for freely sharing his opinions. He's talked about his favorite kitchen tools and how to get the crispiest fried foods, and he recently shared advice about the proper noodles to use in your lasagna.

It's important to Symon that the best ingredients are used in his dishes. He doesn't believe in taking shortcuts, and this belief extends to the kind of pasta he uses in his lasagna. His mother, Angel, was famous for her lasagna recipe — Symon says he would choose it for his last supper – which is now on the menu of the Atlantic City restaurant he named for her. Angel's lasagna consists of a whopping 30 layers, and only the finest ingredients.

In an interview with Food & Wine, where he shared his best tips for perfect lasagna, Michael Symon said that using no-boil or oven-ready noodles "sacrifices taste." The celebrity chef believes they don't provide the best texture for the dish and insists on only using traditional noodles in his lasagna.

No-boil lasagna noodles are made by pre-boiling and then dehydrating the sheets, which are then rehydrated by the filling as it bakes. The key to making the best lasagna using these noodles is using a lot of sauce and covering the pan with foil to create steam as it bakes.

Despite Symon's feelings about oven-ready lasagna noodles, they are far more popular with cooks than traditional noodles, even in pasta-obsessed Italy, where young Italians appreciate the convenience of not having to boil the noodles (per Los Angeles Times). Some cooks like the thinness of the no-boil noodles and their ability to provide lightness to otherwise heavy lasagna recipes.

According to HuffPost, experts believe that no-boil lasagna noodles have pros and cons. Michael Symon agrees with one downside — no-boil noodles don't provide the starchiness and firmness you get with traditional boiled noodles. Still, while oven-ready pasta may not give you the exact mouthfeel you want, the convenience is undeniable. Boiling conventional lasagna noodles is a messy, hot experience, and using the oven-ready variety can get dinner on the table much more quickly.

There's another alternative to cooking lasagna noodles that's more convenient than the traditional boiling method, according to Pasta.com. By soaking conventional noodles for 30 minutes in a baking dish with hot water as you prepare the filling, they will soften and be ready to use without the fuss of boiling them.

Using traditional noodles has another benefit — you can add salt to the water to flavor the noodles as they boil. Mario Batali, Symon's co-host on "The Chew," recommends making it "as salty as the sea," (per Food & Wine). Buon appetito!