Pasta comes in all kinds of fun shapes: skinny noodles, twisty spirals, even spinny wagon wheels. But the simplest pasta shapes are the big, thin, flat pieces called “lasagne,” which means more than one “lasagna.” That’s also the name of our fan Lindsay O.’s favorite food. To make lasagna, you layer the pasta sheets with sauce, cheese, sliced veggies, and whatever else you want. You pile up these layers in a big pan and bake it, but first you need to do the pattern right!
Wee ones: If you layer pasta, then sauce, then cheese, then start over with the pasta, then the sauce, what’s next?
Little kids: If you put in pasta, sauce and cheese, then repeat, then repeat again, how many layers of ingredients do you have? Bonus: If you add in 3 layers of sliced zucchini but take out 1 layer of pasta, now how many total layers do you have?
Big kids: If you start baking your lasagna at 5:45 pm and it takes 20 minutes, when does it come out of the oven? Bonus: If you cut a 9×12 pan of lasagna into pieces that are 3 inches by 4 inches, how many pieces can you cut with no gaps or overlaps?
Answers:
Wee ones: The cheese.
Little kids: 9 layers. Bonus: 11 layers.
Big kids: At 6:05 pm. Bonus: 9 pieces (3 rows from back to front, with 3 pieces in each).
