Thanksgiving lasagna is the best lasagna

By Khushbu Shah, The New York Times

Justin Pichetrungsi is having lasagna this Thanksgiving, carrying on a tradition his parents started. But he’ll be making his from scratch. Thanksgiving was a rare day off for his parents, who ran a Thai restaurant, and they weren’t really turkey people. For the holiday, they often bought lasagna from the nearby Costco and served it with the store’s bagged Caesar salad tossed with its packaged Chinese chicken salad dressing. The spread was rounded out with a Cantonese seafood feast from a beloved local restaurant.

“Our table always had something Anglo-leaning and something Asian-leaning,” said Pichetrungsi, who is now the chef of the family’s restaurant, Anajak Thai in Los Angeles.

In place of lasagna straight from the freezer aisle of the bulk food store, Pichetrungsi now makes one inspired by the flavors of nam prik ong, a meaty Thai dip made of pork, tomatoes and chiles. He uses both Thai basil and Italian basil for freshness and flavor, and Thai pantry staples like shrimp paste and soy sauce — but also a hefty amount of cheese, which he calls the “glue” of the dish.

Pichetrungsi’s Thanksgiving table is not the only one that will feature a tray of lasagna this year. The layered pasta, bubbling with sauce and cheese, can be found across the country in proximity to mountains of mashed potatoes, pans of stuffing and large turkeys. Though lasagna started out as — and remains — a fixture at many Italian American Thanksgiving meals, it’s also found a home on the tables of many immigrants, particularly those from Asia.

Lasagna was at the center of Calvin Eng’s family feast in the Brooklyn borough of New York City when he was growing up. “We ate Chinese food every other day of the week, so Thanksgiving was the one day we actually ate American food,” Eng said. An owner and the chef of Bonnie’s in Brooklyn, Eng said his family would always bake a traditionally American lasagna with “whatever jarred sauce was on sale,” but would cook the meat sauce in the wok.

“The tomato sauce was so acidic, the wok would be silver and glistening after,” Eng said.

According to food historian Amy Riolo, lasagna first appeared at Thanksgiving — often as a point of pride — in the late 1800s with the large-scale arrival of Italian immigrants to the United States. Many immigrants were advised by social workers and doctors to not openly eat Italian food and to adopt a more American diet of meat and potatoes. Riolo said they would celebrate Thanksgiving to show that they were assimilating as Americans, but would serve American dishes alongside beloved Italian dishes like lasagna “to honor their Italian roots.”

“There is definitely always pasta with Thanksgiving,” said Adam Erace, a food writer who grew up in a large Italian American family in Philadelphia. More often than not, it’s lasagna, given how well it can feed a group and adapt to dietary restrictions and seasonal ingredients. At the first Thanksgiving he hosted with his wife, Charlotte, Erace spent the day preparing a white lasagna with a butternut squash and quince purée to serve alongside the turkey.

Newer Italian immigrants (“those who came on airplanes,” Riolo said) often skip the turkey altogether and just have lasagna as their main dish. “Lasagna is associated with celebrations in Italy,” she said. “That’s when people will splurge and make such a luxurious thing.” Built from scratch, it’s a dish best made on a day off.

Eng said in many ways, perhaps because he was raised in Brooklyn, Italian food was most commonly seen as the exemplar of American food. It would explain how lasagna made it to his Cantonese American family’s Thanksgiving dinner, and baked ziti to their Christmas table.

Ken Concepcion, owner of Now Serving, a cookbook store in Los Angeles, said Eng was not alone in his experience. He was born into a Filipino family and raised in New Jersey, where Italian dishes were the “American recipes” his family would turn to, including a Bolognese- and ricotta-heavy lasagna at Thanksgiving.

A new generation of chefs, most often those raised in America by immigrant parents, have started to experiment more with lasagna, creating Venn diagrams of intersecting flavors and textures. Pichetrungsi said there were overlaps with Thai and Italian cuisines: chiles, tomatoes, garlic, basil and “an entirely matriarchal vibe when it comes to culinary techniques.”

Chef Mei Lin gained national acclaim at her Los Angeles restaurant Nightshade for her mapo tofu lasagna, where she swapped a traditional Bolognese for one inspired by the beloved Sichuan dish. When chef Christine Lau cooked at Kimika in Manhattan, she made a lasagna that swapped pasta for tteok, chewy Korean rice cakes, and used a sauce made with Italian sausage and gochujang.

Because lasagna can be a vegetarian-friendly main course that still feels special, it has found its way into South Asian households, including my own, where I prepare a lasagna layered with the spiced spinach and savory cheese of saag paneer.

Pichetrungsi is considering trying a version with rice noodles in place of standard wheat-based lasagna noodles in the future. Regardless of which pasta he uses, he knows lasagna will remain a staple on his Thanksgiving table.

“Lasagna is one of the few dishes you can pass through any cultural lens and it would be pretty good,” he said.

Recipe: Nam Prik Ong Lasagna

Recipe from Justin Pichetrungsi

Adapted by Khushbu Shah

There are many unexpected overlaps between Thai and Italian cuisines, and Justin Pichetrungsi — chef and owner of Anajak Thai in Los Angeles — embraces several of them in this cheesy, deeply savory lasagna. Borrowing flavors from bold, meaty nam prik ong, a Thai dip, he turns to soy sauce, shrimp paste, fermented soybean paste and spicy sambal to amp up this lasagna’s beefy bolognese layer. The ricotta filling is intensified by chile crisp and fresh cilantro, and there’s plenty of Parmesan and mozzarella throughout, including in the crisp and cheesy golden top. Brightened with both Thai basil and Italian basil, it’s a far cry from the lasagnas Pichetrungsi grew up eating in Southern California, straight from the frozen section of Costco. This lasagna will shake up any dinner party or holiday spread.

Yield: 6 to 9 servings

Total time: 2 3/4 hours

Ingredients

For the Nam Prik Ong Bolognese:

• 5 cups cherry tomatoes
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 pound ground beef chuck
• 1 cup thinly sliced white onion (from 1/2 a medium onion)
• 1 packed cup gai lan (Chinese broccoli) leaves (see Tip)
• 4 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 cup Thai or Italian basil leaves (preferably a mix), plus more for garnishing
• 4 tablespoons sambal
• 2 tablespoons red curry paste
• 5 teaspoons yellow fermented bean paste (preferably a Thai brand) or miso
• 2 teaspoons thin soybean sauce (preferably a Thai brand) or Japanese white soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon Maggi seasoning, plus more for garnishing
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 2 tablespoons shrimp paste or fish sauce
• 2 cups beef stock or water
• 2 large egg yolks

For the Cheese Filling:

• 1 cup full-fat ricotta
• Leaves and tender stems from 1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons store-bought or homemade chile crisp
• 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon powder
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

For the Assembly:

• Olive oil
• 1 (8-ounce) box no-boil lasagna noodles
• 1 pound fresh mozzarella, sliced into rounds (about 4 cups)
• 1 cup shredded Parmesan

Preparation

1. Make the Bolognese: Heat a large pot over high until very hot, 2 to 3 minutes. Toss in the cherry tomatoes and cook until blistered and charred, about 3 minutes, moving the tomatoes as little as possible to avoid puncturing them, which can stop the charring process. After the tomatoes are charred a bit, give them a good stir and transfer, along with any juices, to a bowl; set aside. (There will be charred and caramelized bits on the bottom of the pot.)

2. Add the vegetable oil to the same pot and turn the heat down to medium. Add the ground beef, onions, gai lan leaves and garlic, and cook, breaking up the beef and combining it with the other ingredients while scraping up the brown bits on the bottom of the pot, until the beef is cooked through and no longer pink, about 8 minutes.

3. Add the charred tomatoes, basil, sambal, red curry paste, bean paste, soy sauce, Maggi seasoning and white pepper. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the shrimp paste and let the mixture cook down at a rapid simmer for another 5 to 7 minutes, adjusting the heat as necessary to prevent splatter or the sauce sticking to the bottom of the pot.

4. Add the beef stock, bring the mixture to a boil, then boil for 7 to 10 minutes; the liquid will reduce and the mixture will thicken. Turn off the heat and stir in the egg yolks to bind the sauce together. At this point, it should look glossy and taste like a rich but somewhat loose Bolognese, with notes of shrimp and curry. Set aside to cool.

5. While the Bolognese is cooling, make the cheese filling: To a medium bowl, add the ricotta, cilantro, chile crisp, bouillon powder and olive oil; mix until well combined.

6. Assemble the lasagna: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom of an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with olive oil. Add a thin layer of Bolognese to cover the bottom of the pan. Then add a layer of no-boil noodles, breaking the noodles as needed to fit. Spread more Bolognese evenly on top of the noodles, followed by a thin layer of the cheese filling. (Dollop it on and spread as evenly as possible; there will be a bit of mixing with the sauce.). Repeat this layering process — noodles, Bolognese, cheese — until about halfway up the side of the pan. Then add half the Parmesan and half the mozzarella cheese in an even layer. Continue the layering process as before, until you reach the top of the pan (see Tip). The final layer of noodles should be topped with the remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.

7. Place the pan on a sheet tray to catch any overflowing cheese, and bake for 1 hour, uncovered, until golden, with crispy edges. Let cool 15 to 30 minutes before slicing. Drizzle with a little olive oil and Maggi seasoning before serving, and garnish with more basil.

Tips

You could also thinly slice the stems of the gai lan on a bias and include them in the 1 cup measure, or reserve them for another purpose, like a stir-fry.

Any leftover sauce may be served on the side. It may also be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days to be eaten with lasagna leftovers or over any type of noodle, or frozen for up to 3 months.

Recipe: Saag Paneer Lasagna

By Khushbu Shah

While writing her cookbook “Amrikan” (W. W. Norton & Co., 2024), Khushbu Shah became convinced that a spinach lasagna could be greatly improved by swapping in the flavors of saag paneer for the filling. It’s a dish she jokingly refers to as “lasaagna.” Shah uses a saag base made with warm spices, spinach, cilantro and dried fenugreek leaves (which are optional but highly encouraged, and add a beautiful earthy note to the sauce), and then adds fistfuls of grated paneer for an extra punch of cheese. Many of the lasagna’s components may be made ahead (see Tips), making assembly a breeze, especially when making this dish for a dinner party or as a vegetarian meal during the holidays.

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Total time: 2 3/4 hours

Ingredients

For the Saag:

• 16 ounces baby spinach
• 2 small Roma tomatoes, quartered
• 2 green serrano chiles, stemmed and halved lengthwise
• Leaves and tender stems from 1 bunch cilantro, rinsed and dried
• 3 tablespoons kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves), optional
• Salt
• 3 tablespoons ghee or neutral oil (such as vegetable or canola)
• 1 medium white onion, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 tablespoons garlic paste or 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 tablespoons ginger paste or 1 (1/2-inch) piece fresh ginger, grated
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Kashmiri chile powder
• 1 1/2 tablespoons ground coriander
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric

For the Sauce:

• 8 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 quart whole milk, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 3/4 cup shredded Parmesan

For Assembly:

• Olive oil, for greasing
• 2 (8-ounce) boxes no-boil lasagna noodles (24 sheets), for assembly
• 1 (12- to 14-ounce) block of paneer, coarsely grated

Preparation

1. Prepare the saag filling: Bring a large pot of water to boil then add the spinach. As soon as the greens fully wilt (about 2 minutes), strain through a colander and run cold water over the spinach to cool; wipe out and reserve the pot. Let the spinach drain before transferring to a blender. (There’s no need to squeeze any water out!)

2. Add the tomatoes, serrano chiles, cilantro, kasoori methi (if using) and 3/4 cup water to the blender with the drained spinach and blitz 30 seconds to 1 minute until puréed. Season to taste with salt; set the saag aside. (The filling may be made up to 2 days ahead and stored in the fridge in an airtight container.)

3. In the same pot used for the spinach, melt the ghee over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened and somewhat golden. Add the garlic and ginger and continue to stir for 2 minutes, adjusting the heat as necessary to prevent any scorching.

4. Add the chile powder, coriander, cumin and turmeric, and season with salt. Give it a good stir before adding the saag. Gently simmer and continue to stir occasionally, adjusting the heat as necessary if the mixture begins to sputter and splatter, until the saag is slightly thickened, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

5. Prepare the sauce: In a large pot, melt the butter over low heat. Add the flour and whisk until smooth. When the roux is golden in color, about 2 to 3 minutes, add the milk, adjust heat to medium and continuously stir until the béchamel thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon, 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the black pepper, nutmeg and 1/2 cup of the Parmesan. Whisk until smooth, season with salt and set aside. (The sauce may be made up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated. It might need to be loosened a little by adding some milk or water to the sauce before layering in the lasagna, as the sauce gets quite thick as it sits.)