French Lasagne Recipe (2024)

Been making this for years, everyone loves it, and it's so simple. No tweaks or substitutions, just make it as it is. Serve with a green salad, or steamed asparagus and cauliflower work with it really well.

This is a keeper! Made it as written except that I sprinkled some dry mustard over the first layer of Cheddar cheese to give it some zip.

1. This is a classic custard -- the typical proportions are 1 egg to one cup of milk.
2. It's easily converted to vegetarian -- the ham can be replaced or omitted
3. Asparagus, mushrooms (but cooked, not raw b/c they release too much water and the custard won't really set), sauteed onions, little broccoli florets...
4. Cut calories by using 1/2 croissant and 1/2 stale baguette.
5. Bottom line -- it's a savory bread pudding. I love that nigella calls it "lasagna."

Store-bought croissants, like the ones sold in plastic clamshell packs, come "pre-stale" and are fine for this dish. I halved it, which was plenty for four people, as it was so rich. I will say it was a little bland to me... a little pepper might have helped. As it is, the only variation on the butterfat flavor from the milk and cheeses is the ham, so if I make it again I'll use more ham and a more flavorful kind.

Add dry mustard, and a bit of cayenne. Sustitute fontina or gruyere for cheddar.Why doesn’t this save???

Second time I have made this (Christmas morning and now Easter morning). Made both times exactly as recipe calls for. One comment I would make is that the dish benefits from "resting" for 10-15 minutes when it comes out of the oven, rather than "Serve immediately." It sets up more firmly and won't burn the roof of your mouth!

Made this for Lady's Brunch. Was very delicious. Very puffy & moist. Left in oven a little longer than recipe stated due to still wet inside. Did leave out the garlic. Next time will chop the ham into pcs. Ham was to big. Will also try Canadian Bacon & chop that up. Can add chopped spinach too. Recipe a keeper!

I took other folks' advice and added pepper, mustard, and paprika. Otherwise this would be really Brit, uh, I mean bland.

Needs pepper.

I made this for the second time today, but used gruyere instead of cheddar. Much better (in my opinion) and more "French."

Such a simple but decadent addition to Christmas brunch! Since I had vegetarians at the table, I omitted the ham and added spinach and mushrooms. It was an absolute hit, even with our resident picky teenager. The need to let things rest/soak throughout the recipe make it a great one to have on the menu, since you can easily work on other dishes simultaneously.

Who on earth ever has leftover croissants?! ;)

Came out a bit too liquid-y, probably because used smaller croissants and guessed at the amount; will use regular size next time. Delicious anyway. Extended over 2 meals for the 2 of us, set well when reheated second time. This one's a keeper!

Made this for brunch but swapped the mozzarella for Swiss, which I thought tasted way better than the original. I also added fresh sage and thyme for some added flavor. Needed to cook A LOT longer than the 30 minutes for the liquid to set. Going to try the mustard and cayenne next time, this was a huge hit

This is lovely and *very* rich. I undercooked it on my first attempt--when Nigella says "puffy," she's not kidding. The pudding is going to double in height. It should look a little like there are cheesy popovers in your baking dish.

Definitely needs a little with the béchamel, I added mustard, bay leaf and a little nutmeg.Have made numerous times, and always gets a rave review.

Ugh. Soupy and bland.

After reading everyone's comments, I used toasted fresh croissants, added some salt and pepper to the custard, sauteed up some mushrooms, spinach, and shallots to replace the ham, and used aged gruyere instead of cheddar. It took an hour to cook but was a major hit for brunch.

I don’t honestly understand why I made this. It was horrible. I hate eggs and cheese so I have no clue why I thought this would be a good idea but it was disgusting. Good luck…

I love this recipe and make it all the time, BUT I bake it for 1.5h at 350F! Then it's much less liquidy

It was Ok-ish but I won't make it again. It was too heavy and the cheeses were all wrong. We weren't fighting over the leftovers with this one.

It’s rare that croissants get stale in our home so I usually use 3C of milk and bake an extra 10-15 mins. Always a wonderful treat!

Can this be prepared the night before?

Put some Dijon mustard on the croissant and was not disappointed. Also added some dried ramps and garlic scapes and mustard powder to the milk and was glad I did. Like the comments about paprika and cayenne. Next time.

Works with aged sourdough bread which doesn’t really get stale, just dry. There’s always that around here because we bake our own.

This is a bread pudding. I don’t know why one would call it lasagna, it’s not even in layers. I’ll make it with aging homemade sourdough bread.

French lasagne my eye. It's bread pudding, period. And depending on the size/quality/ of your croissants, this recipe can go one of two ways -- success or disaster. The typical custard proportions are 1 egg to 1 cup of milk -- yes, as she shows here; but that's a function of how much dough there is to soak up the moisture.The fresh mozzarella is not the culprit. It's the croissants.

You could vegetarianize this by using the vegetarian ham called Wham, available on the internet (it was originally made by Seventh Day Adventists). Or you could try the baconless made by Morningstar Farms, which is available most everywhere.

Sadly, the VERY worst recipe I've ever tried. NYT and all included. It was a soppy, bland pan of wasted good ingredients. Wasting irks me. Producing unsatisfying food is a major bummer, as well. My kids tasted it, but wouldn't go further. I salvaged the meat for use on breakfast sandwiches this morning, then tossed. While making, I'd thought, "Why no spices or herbs?" Added a few grinds of black pepper because I couldn't resist. But it needed at LEAST some nutmeg and definitely more savory.