I bought the wrong thing! Deboles no boil. I usually buy the Tinkyada which is not no boil and I’ve had no problems except for when I made the lasagna with no eggs (I’m allergic) and it didn’t set up. So I had a mess. I recently made stuffed shells and used ground flax instead of eggs. Worked like a dream! So I used that trick with the lasagna. The only problem? I accidentally bought the no boil noodles. They were on clearance somewhere. I do remember that.
My only experience with no boil noodles was many years ago and it was a wheat pasta. I followed the directions on the box but the edges of the pasta got really crispy. I had to go buy a jar of sauce and in those days jarred sauce was a new thing. Not nearly as good as the homemade sauce I had already put in the lasagna.
I also messed up because I had put the pasta in the boiling water and then looked on the box to see how long to cook it for. That’s when I realized the mistake. I immediately turned off the heat. But it did cook a little bit. Just enough for me to not be able to get it out of the water without a mess of pasta shreds. Since I am making it only for two, I was able to fish out enough pasta.
But I am worried! I used a glass bread loaf pan and I used a layer of sauteed vegetable in the middle in lieu of pasta to lower the carb count. I put too many veggies in there so when I got to the top layer of pasta, it was sticking up over the dish. And there wasn’t enough sauce to fully cover it. I was my experience with the wheat pasta that you needed a ton of sauce over the top to get the pasta to cook.
Now these people elsewhere are claiming they always use the no boil pasta (although not gluten-free) and that they use no sauce at all! They are claiming that the cheese and veggies will be enough to soften the pasta. I’m thinking not.
What I wound up doing was making a collar of heavy duty foil and pressing it tightly around the pan. Then putting the remaining sauce on and covering it with regular foil, allowing it to puff up somewhat but attaching all of the foil tightly. I did not put any cheese on top. The directions said to bake for one hour. I intend to bake for 50 minutes, then put the cheese then bake for another 10 minutes. And hope it works!
I just find that the gluten-free stuff doesn’t react the same as wheat stuff when it comes to pasta. Has anyone been able to successfully use the no boil? Did you have to use a lot of sauce? It does smell good. So that’s a start.
