Forget The Oven: Cook Lasagna This Way For The Best Flavor, Hands Down

There are a lot of mistakes everyone makes when cooking lasagna; it turns out that not smoking it might be a doozie. Lest you accuse us of being silly off the fumes from our grill, let us clarify: this is a real, proven, and worthy way to cook your next pan of lasagna. Not only does putting your lasagna pan in your smoker instead of your oven avoid heating up the whole house — a feature that's especially salient with warmer weather right around the corner — but smoking your lasagna imbues the spongy cheese and pasta with deep, rich smoke flavor that complements the taste you already love and adds a new depth of character to your dinner. "This is my favorite thing to smoke. I cook everything and assemble in a big cast iron pot," one Redditor advised on the subject of smoked lasagna.

Perhaps the best part of smoking a lasagna is that it's hardly any more work than cooking lasagna the old-fashioned way ... there's about a half hour of prep followed by about an hour of actual cooking (more on that in a moment). Just put together your lasagna the way you normally would — maybe read up on how to properly layer lasagna noodles? — and cover it with foil. Make sure you use a pan that's safe for the heat of your grill! Cook your lasagna for half the time covered, and half the time uncovered for smoke penetration and browning. You can technically bake your lasagna in your grill at the same temp and time that you would do so in the oven, or you can take a more classic "low and slow" approach like you would with a side of meat and cook it for two or even three hours!

Lasagna is already a highly customizable dish with plenty of room for variations on what's considered "normal." When you smoke lasagna, the possibilities are even more exciting. Let's break this down layer by layer. There are tons of surprising and interesting cheese changes that you can make if you want to bid ricotta goodbye, and many of them will play fabulously with smoke from your grill. Keep in mind that, the more porous the cheese you choose, the more absorbent it will be of your smoke. To this end, mascarpone, cottage cheese, and goat cheese are all prime candidates for a swap. Don't underestimate a bechamel-based lasagna, either ... how about making your sauce with milk that you've smoked for 30 minutes?

Smoking individual components of the lasagna before cooking the whole dish is, indeed, a valid way to inject even more flavor into your meal. If you are using ground beef or ground pork, consider smoking it before stirring it into your tomato sauce. Or be adventurous and get some sliced smoked sausage in there! How about some pulled chicken or pork at the base of your pasta? If you can smoke it, you can layer it! Whether to use oven-ready or standard lasagna noodles is a source of no small debate amongst lasagna smokers. There's not a right answer, but, if you use regular noodles that you have to boil, consider cooking them only halfway so they don't get gummy and overcooked in your smoker.