No one knows how to make a lasagna for one or two people – it just isn’t possible. If you recently made a lasagna and have leftover in the refrigerator, you probably want to heat it up!

Contents show

Thankfully, reheating a lasagna is super easy. The best method is the oven. To do this, all you need to do is set your oven to 400 degrees, cover the lasagna with aluminum, and leave it in there for around 30 minutes.

After that, remove the aluminum for 10 minutes to allow the cheese to get all delicious.

A close second would be the microwave, but only if you’re in a rush. Of course, you may also choose to air fry or fry your lasagna in a skillet. However, these don’t get the best results you could hope for.

The lasagna in the oven method might take a little longer than some other approaches, but it gets the best results by far.

If you want to learn how to reheat your leftover lasagna, just keep reading. Don’t worry if your oven is currently broken, either! There are methods here that will suit every kind of person out there. Let’s get into reheating a lasagna using five different methods.

Methods To Heat Lasagna

Everyone knows that it’s impossible to make lasagna in small quantities. As such, knowing how to properly reheat this delicious dish is an important thing to know. You could use an oven, skillet, microwave, or even an air fryer to get the job done.

While each of these methods will reheat a lasagna, some of them really aren’t that great. The secret to a good lasagna isn’t only the flavor, but the textures as well.

As you will learn, some heating methods result in a lackluster lasagna that’s either too watery or too crispy. Keep reading to find out all the secrets of reheating a lasagna!

Reheat Your Lasagna In The Oven

How we would rate this method: 10/10

Using an oven to reheat your lasagna is a classic, and that’s because it just works the best. You can use a toaster oven or a regular oven to get the job done.

While it does take a little while (up to an hour), you will probably end up with a dish that’s even tastier than the night before. To do this, all you need to do is make sure your lasagna is in an oven-safe dish and set your oven to 350 degrees (325 if it’s a toaster oven).

Sprinkle one or two tablespoons of water over the top (or sauce), cover the top with aluminum foil, then let it sit in the oven for around 30 minutes (if it’s a big one). Take the foil off and leave it to crisp up a little for the remaining 10 minutes.

How To Reheat Your Lasagna Using This Method

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (325 for a toaster oven)
Ensure the lasagna is in an oven-proof dish
Get either water or sauce and sprinkle one or two tablespoons over the top
Cover the lasagna with aluminum foil
Put it in the oven for around 30-35 minutes (for slices, 10-15 minutes will do)
Remove the foil
Leave the lasagna to crisp up in the oven for 5-10 minutes
Take the dish out when the edges start bubbling
Serve immediately and enjoy

What we think of the results: the oven method definitely gets the best results, no questions asked. Sure, it takes some time, but you can’t beat the results. If you want it to be even better, make sure to grate some fresh cheese on the top.

To make sure the center of the lasagna is heated properly, use a temperature probe. This should read 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Alternatively, you can stick a knife into it and check if the metal is hot when it comes out. If it is, the lasagna should be good to go!

Use A Microwave

How we would rate this method: 8/10

The microwave is a convenient device we can use at our leisure. However, it doesn’t always produce the best results. In this case, the lasagna came out good, but still not better than the oven method.

To heat your lasagna using a microwave, place one or two portions on a microwave-safe plate, and cover it with a damp paper towel.

On full power, allow the microwave to run for one minute. After that, use 30-second intervals until it has completely warmed through.

How To Reheat Your Lasagna Using This Method

Get your lasagna portions (one or two only), and place them on a microwave-safe plate. If you want to heat up more lasagna, you will need to do another batch. Heating up too much at once is likely to result in cold spots.
Get a damp paper towel, and place it over the lasagna
Reheat the lasagna using the microwave at full power for one minute.
After the minute, heat the dish up in 30-second intervals. Do this until the lasagna is fully heated up all the way through
Remove the food from the microwave and allow it to rest for a minute before enjoying it.

What we think of the results: microwaves are great, but not as good as ovens. That being said, they do take a fraction of the time to get pretty decent results. Because of this, they’re great for anyone who is in a rush and can’t afford to wait for an oven.

Be careful when using this method as it is easy to overheat it. If this happens, the pasta can go chewy. For those who have a lot of melty cheese on their lasagna, you can stick a toothpick into the middle and rest the paper towel on that.

This should prevent the cheese and paper towel from sticking together.

Try The Air Fryer

How we would rate this method: 6/10

The air fryer is good for a lot of things, but it isn’t amazing with reheating lasagna. To reheat your lasagna, set your air fryer to 375 degrees, and place a lasagna slice into a foil pan. Cover it with aluminum foil, then allow it to cook for up to 10 minutes. It might take longer if you need to reheat more. Once the time is up, remove the food from the dryer, allow it to rest, then enjoy!

How To Reheat Your Lasagna Using This Method

Preheat your air fryer. This temperature should be at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cut your lasagna up into medium-sized slices. Too small and they will get overheated, too large, and they won’t get heated up enough
Create a “pan” made from aluminum foil, or use a loaf pan, then place the lasagna in it
Cover the lasagna with aluminum foil to prevent it from drying out
Put the dish in the air fryer for 5-10 minutes. Don’t leave it in for longer than 15 minutes, or else it will dry out way too much to be edible
To test if it has warmed all the way through, stick a knife into the thickest part of the dish. When you pull it out, the blade should be warm. Alternatively, you can use a temperature probe in the thickest part, which should read 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
When the lasagna has heated all the way through, remove it from the air fryer.
Allow it to rest for one or two minutes before serving and enjoying.

What we think of the results: this method gets the job done, but doesn’t produce amazing results. Overall, the lasagna tends to get a little dried out. It’s not a bad method to use if you have an air fryer at your disposal, just be sure to time it well.

Make sure your slices are the right size, or else it will dry out very quickly. If they are too large, the inside might be a little cold white the outside dries out a lot.

If you would like to get those classic crispy parts on the top of the lasagna, you can forego the aluminum foil covering. Again, just be careful about the timing.

Warm Your Lasagna By Frying It

How we would rate this method: 5/10

The classic skillet with a little oil is the perfect tool for most things – is reheating lasagna one of them? To do this, just get a skillet, heat it over a medium-high heat, add some oil, then fry the slices.

Allow the lasagna slices to fry up for around one to one and a half minutes on either side, or until it’s nice and golden brown.

How To Reheat Your Lasagna Using This Method

Cut a slice or two of the lasagna cold from the refrigerator. Make sure they’re relatively small, and only about an inch thick
Get your skillet and heat it over a medium-high heat
When the pan is hot, add a little oil
Add the one-inch thick lasagna slices and fry up
Fry them for around one minute on each side – they should be golden brown
After this time, remove the slices from the heat
Allow the lasagna to rest for a minute before serving and enjoying

What we think of the results: while good in theory, you need to have a specific type of lasagna for this to work. It has to be super cheesy or else this method is kind of a fail. For us, this method isn’t worth the effort.

For this method to have any chance of working, it should have lots of cheese and be cold. If you try to cut and heat up a slice of room-temperature lasagna, it will probably just fall apart. On top of that, this method was pretty involved.

Although it doesn’t take very long to do, the effort involved doesn’t make it all worth it. This is especially the case if you aren’t sure if your lasagna is right for the method in the first place.

There’s a good chance that you will just end up with a weird scramble of pasta, sauce, and your other ingredients. So, unless you’re certain that your lasagna is cheesy and cold enough, maybe leave this one for the people who are desperate to try it.

Use A Skillet With Water

How we would rate this method: 4/10

This one is pretty similar to frying up the lasagna, but instead of oil, we’re using water to steam it warm. To do this, get a skillet and put it on a medium-high and add a little water to it once it gets hot.

You only need around three tablespoons to get the job done, so go easy on it. Add the lasagna to the skillet. When the water gets hot, reduce the heat to medium-low, and put the lid on. Leave the lasagna to warm up for around five minutes, then enjoy!

How To Reheat Your Lasagna Using This Method

Get a non-stick pan and put it over a medium-high heat. You can just add a little oil to the pan as it is heating up if you don’t have a non-stick pan available to use.
Get your slice of lasagna and add it to the pan.
Add three or four tablespoons of water to the pan. Do this in the area around the lasagna, not on top of the lasagna.
Put the lid of the skillet so that the steam is stuck in the pan. If your skillet doesn’t have a lid, find something similar that will trap the steam inside.
Allow the lasagna to sit and heat up in the pan for three or four minutes. The time can vary depending on the size of the slice you are heating up.
Check if the internal temperature of the lasagna is high enough by using a temperature probe, or stub it with a knife to see if the blade is hot.

What we think of the results: this method revolved around steaming the lasagna in order to heat it up. While it might sound like it works very well, it honestly doesn’t produce the best results.

It is very easy to add too much water to the skillet, which in turn makes everything too wet and soggy.

This method cooks the pasta more, which is likely to result in it being overdone. As such, it isn’t the best option you could go with. Instead, stick to using an oven or even a microwave to get better results.

Lasagna Tips And Tricks

Storing Lasagna Properly

To store lasagna properly, allow it to cool down to room temperature, then place it in an airtight container. You can also cover it with plastic wrap or aluminum foil if you don’t have a container suitable.

If you have a lasagna made from meat, it should last in the refrigerator for up to four days. If you have a vegetable one, three days is usually the maximum.

Whichever you have, be sure to allow it to cool down completely before packing it into anything. If you don’t, the condensation will build up and create a soggy and overall unpleasant dish.

Be sure to save any leftover sauce, too. You can freeze this along with the rest of the lasagna that you would like to freeze. To freeze your lasagna, just wrap it up in plastic wrap (or use an appropriate container) like you usually would, and freeze it!

A frozen lasagna should last for up to three months in there, but don’t let it wait around that long.

If you would like to freeze your lasagna, just make sure the water content of it isn’t too high. You might want to avoid using things like zucchinis.

lso, you can easily freeze an unbaked lasagna, too! That way, you will have a meal ready to just go in the oven when the day comes.

How To Thaw Lasagna

To thaw a lasagna, all you need to do is take it out of the freezer, and put it in the refrigerator. Leave it in the fridge overnight or for 24 hours, depending on how large it is.

By allowing your lasagna to thaw properly, the reheating process will be a lot smoother, and you shouldn’t experience any cold spots.

You can also thaw your lasagna in the microwave. However, this method isn’t always a great option.

Reheating Lasagna From Frozen

You can easily reheat your lasagna from frozen, but it isn’t the recommended choice. To do this, you need to use an oven. Set the oven to 400 degrees, then cover the lasagna with aluminum foil.

Place it in the oven and allow it to bake for around an hour. If you’re only reheating a slice, this time will be reduced significantly.

To get a nice crispy top, be sure to remove the foil from the lasagna for the last 15 or so minutes it’s in. After that, your lasagna will be ready to go!

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Reheat My Lasagna From Frozen?

Yes, you can reheat your lasagna from frozen. Simply cover it with aluminum foil and place it in an oven at 400 degrees for one hour. Remove the foil for the last 15 minutes to get the top crispy again.

What’s The Best Way To Reheat Lasagna?

The oven. Ovens give the rest results for reheating lasagna, whether it’s thawed or frozen.

How Long Does It Take To Reheat Lasagna?

Depending on the size, it can take anywhere from five minutes to an hour. The method you choose will also affect this. Reheating a lasagna in the oven from thawed should take around 30 minutes.

Can I Reheat My Lasagna In An Air Fryer?

Yes, but air fryers tend to dry lasagnas out.

How Long Does It Take To Reheat A Thawed Lasagna?

Around 30-45 minutes, depending on the size of the lasagna.

The Best Way To Reheat Lasagna

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Active Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Reheated lasagna tastes almost better than when you first make it. Just put a spoonful of water over the top and place the lasagna in an oven-proof dish into your preheated oven. Enjoy your delicious lasagna after 40 minutes.

Materials

Lasagna
Oven-safe dish

Tools

Oven
Oven-safe dish
Spatula

Instructions

Prepare your lasagna: Make sure that your lasagna is in an oven-proof dish. Sprinkle some water on top of it and then cover the top with aluminum foil.
Preheat the oven: Preheat your oven to at least 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Put the lasagna dish into the oven: Once everything is prepared, you can place your lasagna into the oven. Allow the lasagna to heat up at least 30 minutes. Then remove the aluminum foil, and let the top crisp for another ten minutes.
Remove the lasagna from the oven: Once the top is bubbling and crispy, then you can take the lasagna dish out of the oven. Make sure that you wear oven gloves as the dish is extremely hot.
Serve the lasagna: It's best to serve your reheated lasagna piping hot.

Author
Recent Posts

Jess Smith

Hi, my name is Jess Smith, and I love cooking in my spare time. Around three years ago, I decided to give up my day job as a teacher to pursue my passion for food. While I have enjoyed sharing tips and tricks on Social Media, I have decided to expand my horizons through this blog.

Through this blog I hope to help others learn the basics and more intricate details of cooking. I know from personal experience how frustrating it can be to cook a meal, only to realize you are missing one ingredient from your list. This is why I love to write articles chatting readers through some great substitutes that can be used in an emergency.

I hope you will find this blog useful, and that it will help you to develop your culinary skills, to help you cook up a storm!