Quote Originally Posted by ny biker View Post
But I would like to try to make some easy pasta dishes. Does anyone have a ridiculously simple recipe for lasagna and baked ziti? When I say simple, I mean like the ingredients would be: pasta, sauce from a jar, cheese. No meat. Even vegetables are not necessary, at least not for my first attempt.

I already have a lasagna pan. I would be cooking for one, so a fair amount of it would be frozen for future use.
I do pretty much what Roxy does for lasagna. But I use no-boil pasta. I tried pre-soaking them in hot water first for a bit. That worked out okay, but honestly, I never had any issues with the noodles if I put them in dry. I follow the recipe on the back of the box (I think Ronzoni has a good one). Sometimes, I'll throw some sliced mushrooms (pre-cooked or out of a can/jar) and/or chopped spinach on top of the ricotta. I once cut the ricotta amount in half, and substituted with an equal amount of silken tofu (I had some shelf stable blocks and had no idea what to do with it). It came out surprisingly good.

I also use an 8x8 Pyrex (and half any recipe), so DH and I are not over-burdened with lasagna for a week. It's a super easy dish (the longest time is waiting for it to bake) and DH loooves it.