Lasagna Freeze Dried And Fresh Comparison

5 lbs Lean Ground Beef
2 tsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Minced Garlic
1 Large onion
2 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes
2 15 oz cans of tomato sauce
2 tsp Italian Seasoning
1 lb Ricotta Cheese
1 lb of Cottage Cheese
1 1/2 lb of Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
2 Eggs
16 Lasagna noodles (you may want to throw in a few extra)

Brown Beef rinse and drain then set aside

In large pot cook noodles according to package directions. Rinse and leave in cold water. Set aside.

Sauce:

In a skillet add olive oil and bring up to heat. Mix in Minced Garlic and Onion. Saute until the onions are translucent. Add crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce mix in Italian seasoning stir and simmer. Add Ground Beef that has been rinsed and drained to sauce. Bring to boil reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Set aside.

Cheese:

In a large bowl combine Ricotta, Cottage, Parmesan Cheeses and 1 pound of the Mozzarella Cheese (set aside remaining Mozzarella Cheese for topping) add the two eggs. Mix well and set aside.

Put it all together:

have 4 foil pans (Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3t8jk0b ) ready to fill
have 4 Medium Harvest Right Freeze Drier trays ready to fill with liners

Bottom layer:

trim noodles and lay out as seen below, this is the bottom layer. Use cut off pieces for the "fresh" lasagna we will make at the same time.

top noodles with layer of sauce mixture. Place tray in freezer to freeze solid. In fresh pan spoon a layer of sauce on to bottom, top with the cut off portions of noodles.

2nd layer:

Lay out noodles as before, this time spread a little less than 1/4 of cheese mixture on to noodles. Top with meat sauce. Place tray in freezer to freeze solid. In fresh pan top noodles with cheese mixture then top with sauce.

3rd layer:

Repeat 2nd layer in trays and the fresh pan.

Top layer:

In trays. Spread out sauce (with no noodles) and top with dollops of cheese mix, sprinkle with remaining Mozzarella and also some Parmesan cheese. Place tray in freezer to freeze solid. In the fresh pan place layer of noodles and top with sauce. Top with dollops of cheese mix, sprinkle with remaining Mozzarella and some Parmesan cheese.

Freeze Dry:

Once trays are frozen solid fire up the freeze dryer. I used setting frozen liquid. When prompted insert trays into freeze dryer and follow screen prompts.

Assembly:

In the 3 remaining foil pans first take the bottom layer, flip it over and place in bottom of foil pan. Then repeat for the other layers flipping each. For the top layer do not flip, simply place on top as is. Bag, add O2 absorber and heat seal.

You can see me reconstitute in the video at the top of the post. I found that adding about 4 cups of water gave good results.