Gordon Ramsay’s Non-Negotiable Cooking Tip for the Best-Tasting Lasagna (So Easy!)

Gordon Ramsay knows a thing or two about what makes a dish spectacular. The renowned celebrity chef and television personality has numerous Michelin star restaurants and countless best-selling cookbooks, and he’s known to be a tough critic on shows like Hell’s Kitchen and Master Chef. 

Despite his accolades, he argues that cooking gourmet food doesn’t necessarily have to be fussy and that there are ways to quickly add flavor without much effort. Ramsay’s fridge is often stocked with homemade hummus (topped with chili crunch and Sriracha for the adults), Parmesan cheese rinds to add extra flavor to soups, and multiple jars of pickles (ranging from cucumbers and beets, to carrots and tomatoes). “It’s a really nice way of adding acidity to a salad. And quick pickling is so easy to do,” Ramsay says. 

To make things even easier for the average home cook, Ramsay recently partnered with Home Chef, a meal kit delivery service, on an exclusive six-month meal plan inspired by his signature dishes. Meals include French Onion Filet Mignon with roasted asparagus and garlic herb mashed potatoes, and Brilliant Truffle Scallop Risotto with roasted mushrooms, Parmesan, and chives.

He sought to “remove the intimidation” of gourmet cooking and was inspired by his work with home cooks on Master Chef. “I’ve been blown away with the talent, and the combination of the setup and the resourcefulness of Home Chef has helped create something unique, in a way that the seven weeks, eight weeks of food can really help elevate your cooking to the next level.” Each recipe comes with a meticulously planned recipe card and the exact ingredients you need so there’s limited food waste (something Ramsay is a stickler about.) 

Ramsay’s forthcoming cookbook (out September 30), Idiot Sandwich, will feature showstopping sandwiches, including his personal fave: the braised short-rib grilled cheese. As we lean into autumn, you’ll likely be craving more cozy comfort foods — like lasagna. So we decided to ask the expert what makes a good one. Here’s what Gordon Ramsay had to say. 

Adding a bit of salt and pepper at the end ain’t gonna cut it, and it’s one of the biggest faux pauxs he sees people make. “You cannot season that thing after it’s cooked,” Ramsay says. “Everyone thinks they just have to season the meat. No, season the vegetables as well. Add a touch of heat in there as well. A touch of cayenne, a touch of smoked paprika, a little bit of turmeric give it some depth of flavor.” 

People spend way too much time chopping, Ramsay says. To eliminate that step, he blitzes or purées the vegetables instead. “When you purée those vegetables — the onions, the garlic, the carrots, the celery — it comes into a really nice pulp. I much prefer roasting that off with a protein than waiting for these little bits of chunks of carrot to cook. [And] it blends so much better, especially with the red meat sauce.” You can even grate the vegetables if you want, like Ramsay does in his classic lasagne al forno recipe. “When you grate it, it all grates evenly. So when you fry it, it cooks evenly. Sometimes some of these vegetables are so rough that you’ve got hard, dense vegetables two hours after it’s cooked.”

Ramsay always uses dry pasta sheets in his lasagna — and he doesn’t pre-boil it either. But it’s not just a time-saver. “For me, they are way better than the fresh because they hold texture once it bakes in the oven for 60-70 minutes. It helps to formulate the layers as well. Sometimes [when] you use fresh pasta, they integrate and they don’t separate the layers, but dry pasta does.”

If your lasagna is a soupy mess, it tells Ramsay one of two things: Either the meat sauce is a bit sloppy, or the bechamel is too watery. “Once I’ve fried off the vegetables and browned the meat, I get two or three tablespoons of flour, and I’ll put them on a roasting tray and just brown the flour in the oven. Then I dust that over the vegetables to absorb the stock, and that holds the sauce a little bit tighter. And I like to thicken [the bechamel] with lots of cheese. [There’s] nothing worse than it becoming too watery. Otherwise it starts to break down.”

A simple but crucial step: Always finish your lasagna with a sprinkle of fresh Parmesan cheese on top. You can add some fresh oregano or basil as well.