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Alison Roman's perfect lasagna makes holiday entertaining easy

There should be a civilized ratio of pasta:sauce:cheese so that each slice feels satisfying but also balanced.
/ Source: TODAY

Food writer Alison Roman is stopping by the TODAY kitchen to share crowd-pleasing holiday recipes from her cookbook "Nothing Fancy: Unfussy Food for Having People Over." She shows us how to make a cheesy lasagna with homemade tomato sauce and a layered tiramisu with mascarpone and coffee.

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Alison Roman's Very Good Lasagna

For me, a very good lasagna isn't overly cheesy or too saucy or insanely indulgent — there should be a civilized ratio of pasta:sauce:cheese so that each slice feels satisfying but also balanced. While I do love a creamy lasagna, I find bechamels a bit unnecessary and instead use heavy cream in conjunction with the ricotta and mozzarella to keep things nice and saucy.

If this feels like a trick to get you to make tiramisu, then you are correct. Many people don't like tiramisu, and that's because often it is bad. Too dry or too soggy, too sweet or too boozy — there's a lot that can go wrong. But if you think of it as a very good angel food cake delicately soaked with bitter espresso and layered with a barely sweetened, custardy, pillowy mascarpone, then you may be open to the possibility that you do, indeed, love tiramisu.

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