Nothing tastes better than a lasagna made the old-school way. Today that's exactly what I'm doing and with winter upon us, the house is smelling of the many ingredients for this classic dish.
Today I'm working with dried noodles, as I assume that's what most people will use, but you can use homemade or fresh in your grocer's dairy case, as shown above. I've included a production note below if you decide to use the fresh noodles.
INGREDIENTS
Bolognese Sauce
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled, coarsely chopped
1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound ground beef
1 pound Italian sausage
4 oz. pancetta or bacon, finely chopped
6-8 cloves fresh garlic, finely chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup red wine
1 cup whole milk
1 14.5-oz. can crushed tomatoes
2 cups chicken broth
3 tablespoons tomato paste.
Béchamel Sauce
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups whole milk, warmed
Salt and white pepper (about 1/2 teaspoon each)
pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
Cheese Mixture
2 large eggs
It's a great time for lasagna because this is an all-day enterprise, and I'm trapped in the house by the weather. You can break up the preparation and make it over several days, but generally I start in the morning and on and off all day long, prepare this meal. This is not a weeknight undertaking, and if you are looking for that try my Quick and Easy Lasagna recipe that uses the oven-ready noodles. Still quite good, but not the caliber of this lasagna which would make any "nonna" proud.
 |
| Ready for the Oven |
Restaurants used to make this lasagna, which includes a creamy béchamel sauce. You rarely see them go to the trouble anymore. A béchamel is a rich white sauce made with milk infused with herbs and other flavorings. Balsamell or Besciamella is the Italian equivalent of the French term béchamel. The sauce was originally from renaissance Tuscany and was known as “Salsa Colla or Colletta” and was brought to France by the chefs of Catherina de’ Medici in 1533. The sauce was prominent in Italian cooking texts of the Renaissance but was renamed much later in Le Cuisinier François, published in 1651 by François Pierre La Varenne. It really helps to set a great lasagna recipe apart from the rest, although you'll not notice it explicitly in the lasagna when you eat it. It will simply taste better. So does the slow-cooked bolognese sauce, which is really what takes most of the time to prepare. These two are the hallmarks of a great lasagna, but also add greatly to the preparation time.
 |
| Use fresh, not dried, lasagna sheets. |
Today I'm working with dried noodles, as I assume that's what most people will use, but you can use homemade or fresh in your grocer's dairy case, as shown above. I've included a production note below if you decide to use the fresh noodles.
INGREDIENTS
Bolognese Sauce
 |
| Bolognese is read when the sauce doesn't fill in for 5 seconds |
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled, coarsely chopped
1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound ground beef
1 pound Italian sausage
4 oz. pancetta or bacon, finely chopped
6-8 cloves fresh garlic, finely chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup red wine
1 cup whole milk
 |
| Plastic on bechamel stops skin from forming. |
1 14.5-oz. can crushed tomatoes
2 cups chicken broth
3 tablespoons tomato paste.
Béchamel Sauce
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups whole milk, warmed
Salt and white pepper (about 1/2 teaspoon each)
pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
Cheese Mixture
 |
| Cheese Mixture |
1 1/2 pounds ricotta cheese
4 ounces mozzarella cheese, grated
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated
1 teaspoon parsley, chopped
Assembly Ingredients
Lasagna noodles (dried Barilla or fresh as you prefer)
Unsalted butter, room temperature or food spray
4-6 cups prepared pasta sauce (or seasoned tomato sauce)
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan, for topping
INSTRUCTIONS
Bolognese Sauce
Pulse onion, carrot, and celery in a food processor until finely chopped.
Heat oil in a large Dutch Oven over medium heat. Add beef, sausage (need not be exactly 1 pound each, a little more or less of either will not be a problem), and pancetta/bacon and cook until browned, stirring regularly breaking up the meat. Use a pastry cutter if necessary to break up larger pieces of meat. Add vegetables; cook until moisture is almost completely evaporated, meat is well browned and vegetables soft, 25–30 minutes. Add garlic and stir in cooking one minute more. Season with salt and pepper.
Add wine to pot and bring to a boil, scraping up browned bits from bottom of pot, about 2 minutes. Add milk; bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and cook stirring regularly until moisture is almost completely evaporated, 8–10 minutes. Add tomatoes, tomato paste and 2 cups broth; stir in and bring to a boil. Reduce heat medium-low (a few bubbles should be present in the pot) and cook until flavors meld and sauce thickens, about 3 hours. During cooking, stir regularly to help reduce the liquid. Turn off the pot when you can pull the meat back with a spatula and leave an empty space in the sauce for 3-4 seconds. Evaporation and thickening will continue as the meat sauce cools.
Let sauce cool as you prepare the remaining ingredients or up to all day until you are ready to make the lasagna. If you let cool overnight and refrigerate, rewarm with a little extra chicken stock to bring it back to a spreadable sauce consistency before use.
Béchamel Sauce
Heat butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat until foaming. Add flour and cook, whisking constantly, 1 minute. Whisk in warm milk, 1/2-cupful at a time. Bring sauce to a low boil, reduce heat, and simmer, whisking often, until somewhat thickened, 8–10 minutes; add salt, white pepper, nutmeg and stir in. Taste, add salt if necessary. Remove from heat, transfer to a medium bowl, and press plastic wrap directly onto surface; let cool slightly.
Cheese Mixture
Using a fork scramble the egg. Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well to combine. Set aside.
Assembly
Reheat sauces if chilled overnight.
Working in batches, cook lasagna noodles in a large pot of boiling salted water until just softened, about 10-12 seconds for fresh noodles and about 8-10 minutes for dry noodles. Remove carefully with tongs and transfer to a large bowl of ice water; let cool. Coat a baking sheet lightly with oil. Line a second baking sheet with paper towels. Remove noodles from ice bath one by one, blot dry on paper towels. Placed noodle on oiled baking sheet rubbing turning the noodle in the oil or by rubbing a little oil on the top of each noodle, and repeat until all are dried and lightly oiled.
Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Coat a 13x9 inch baking dish with butter or spray with food release.
Spread about 1/3 cup béchamel in the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Top with a layer of noodles. If the noodle doesn’t reach from end to end on the pan, place the noodles all evenly against the one end of the pan. Do not overlap noodles. Fill the gap at the bottom of the pan by cutting a noodle and running it perpendicular to the already placed noodles. If the noodles do not fill the pan from side to side cut one in half to fill the gap so the pan is completely covered with noodles that do not overlap. As you proceed up the layers, place the short gap-filling noodle that you cut at the opposite end of the pan on each layer, so they alternate. This will provide more structural integrity when you cut and serve the lasagna later.
On top of the first layer of noodles which are now covering the entire bottom of the pan, spread a thin layer of the cheese mixture. Top with 3/4 to 1 cup Bolognese sauce then 1/2 to 3/4 cup béchamel. Add another noodle layer, and repeat process until all noodles are used and the top layer is a plain cooked noodle. Top with just enough prepared pasta sauce to insure all noodles are covered in a little sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. The meat and cheese should be fully used although you may have a little extra béchamel left. Discard if you do.
Note: One pound of prepared dry pasta that you typically find at your grocer (Barilla) will make five layers of noodles including the top and bottom layer. All the noodles will be used. If you are using homemade noodles or fresh purchased pasta, these tend to be thinner noodles and will make either a shorter lasagna or one with more layers. Reduce the amount of filling per layer if making more than the five layers noted here.
Place baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet and bake lasagna until bubbling and beginning to brown on top, 50–60 minutes. Let lasagna sit 45 minutes before serving.
Cut each person a serving and top with a little extra pasta sauce. Serve.
4 ounces mozzarella cheese, grated
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated
1 teaspoon parsley, chopped
Assembly Ingredients
Lasagna noodles (dried Barilla or fresh as you prefer)
Unsalted butter, room temperature or food spray
4-6 cups prepared pasta sauce (or seasoned tomato sauce)
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan, for topping
INSTRUCTIONS
Bolognese Sauce
Pulse onion, carrot, and celery in a food processor until finely chopped.
Heat oil in a large Dutch Oven over medium heat. Add beef, sausage (need not be exactly 1 pound each, a little more or less of either will not be a problem), and pancetta/bacon and cook until browned, stirring regularly breaking up the meat. Use a pastry cutter if necessary to break up larger pieces of meat. Add vegetables; cook until moisture is almost completely evaporated, meat is well browned and vegetables soft, 25–30 minutes. Add garlic and stir in cooking one minute more. Season with salt and pepper.
Add wine to pot and bring to a boil, scraping up browned bits from bottom of pot, about 2 minutes. Add milk; bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and cook stirring regularly until moisture is almost completely evaporated, 8–10 minutes. Add tomatoes, tomato paste and 2 cups broth; stir in and bring to a boil. Reduce heat medium-low (a few bubbles should be present in the pot) and cook until flavors meld and sauce thickens, about 3 hours. During cooking, stir regularly to help reduce the liquid. Turn off the pot when you can pull the meat back with a spatula and leave an empty space in the sauce for 3-4 seconds. Evaporation and thickening will continue as the meat sauce cools.
Let sauce cool as you prepare the remaining ingredients or up to all day until you are ready to make the lasagna. If you let cool overnight and refrigerate, rewarm with a little extra chicken stock to bring it back to a spreadable sauce consistency before use.
Béchamel Sauce
Heat butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat until foaming. Add flour and cook, whisking constantly, 1 minute. Whisk in warm milk, 1/2-cupful at a time. Bring sauce to a low boil, reduce heat, and simmer, whisking often, until somewhat thickened, 8–10 minutes; add salt, white pepper, nutmeg and stir in. Taste, add salt if necessary. Remove from heat, transfer to a medium bowl, and press plastic wrap directly onto surface; let cool slightly.
Cheese Mixture
Using a fork scramble the egg. Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well to combine. Set aside.
Assembly
Reheat sauces if chilled overnight.
Working in batches, cook lasagna noodles in a large pot of boiling salted water until just softened, about 10-12 seconds for fresh noodles and about 8-10 minutes for dry noodles. Remove carefully with tongs and transfer to a large bowl of ice water; let cool. Coat a baking sheet lightly with oil. Line a second baking sheet with paper towels. Remove noodles from ice bath one by one, blot dry on paper towels. Placed noodle on oiled baking sheet rubbing turning the noodle in the oil or by rubbing a little oil on the top of each noodle, and repeat until all are dried and lightly oiled.
Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Coat a 13x9 inch baking dish with butter or spray with food release.
Spread about 1/3 cup béchamel in the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Top with a layer of noodles. If the noodle doesn’t reach from end to end on the pan, place the noodles all evenly against the one end of the pan. Do not overlap noodles. Fill the gap at the bottom of the pan by cutting a noodle and running it perpendicular to the already placed noodles. If the noodles do not fill the pan from side to side cut one in half to fill the gap so the pan is completely covered with noodles that do not overlap. As you proceed up the layers, place the short gap-filling noodle that you cut at the opposite end of the pan on each layer, so they alternate. This will provide more structural integrity when you cut and serve the lasagna later.
On top of the first layer of noodles which are now covering the entire bottom of the pan, spread a thin layer of the cheese mixture. Top with 3/4 to 1 cup Bolognese sauce then 1/2 to 3/4 cup béchamel. Add another noodle layer, and repeat process until all noodles are used and the top layer is a plain cooked noodle. Top with just enough prepared pasta sauce to insure all noodles are covered in a little sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. The meat and cheese should be fully used although you may have a little extra béchamel left. Discard if you do.
Note: One pound of prepared dry pasta that you typically find at your grocer (Barilla) will make five layers of noodles including the top and bottom layer. All the noodles will be used. If you are using homemade noodles or fresh purchased pasta, these tend to be thinner noodles and will make either a shorter lasagna or one with more layers. Reduce the amount of filling per layer if making more than the five layers noted here.
Place baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet and bake lasagna until bubbling and beginning to brown on top, 50–60 minutes. Let lasagna sit 45 minutes before serving.
Cut each person a serving and top with a little extra pasta sauce. Serve.
 |
| Assembly process. If using dry noodles, boil to just al dente. |
Comments
Post a Comment