Baked lasagna with my variant, doses and preparation.
To make a lasagna tin for 4 people you need:
- 250 grams of egg puff pastry in sheets of about 20 cm by 15 (they are already ready in all supermarkets)
- 800 grams of meat sauce
- 500 grams of béchamel sauce
- 200 grams of sliced ham
- 200 grams of cheese type caciotta
- 4 hard-boiling eggs
- 150 grams of fine peas to add to meat sauce
- 100 grams of parmesan cheese or freshly ground grit.
Meat sauce doses
to make about 800 grams of meat sauce you need 500 grams of finely ground veal and pork pulp
for the sauté: a carrot, a celery rib, a small onion, finely chopped.
- 500 grams of tomatoes peeled into small pieces
- 1 litre of meat stock, even nut.
- to season a pinch of brine (a mince formed by garlic, rosemary sage, salt and pepper)
- towards the end of cooking the sauce, add the peas.
- olive oil, enough.
Preparing meat sauce
In a pan with 4/5 tablespoons of olive oil fry the celery, carrot and onion, finely chopped until they are nice browned.
Add the meat, already chopped and stirred, and cook for about ten minutes.
Prepare about a litre of broth with the meat nut
Add the broth to the sauce and cook until all the broth is withdrawn, about a couple of hours, adding a little water if the sauce dries too much, stirring occasionally.
Salt and pepper with the brine I was talking about before and add the peeled tomatoes in to pieces.
Cook for another twenty minutes, then add the piscanes and cook for another ten minutes adding a little water or meat broth if the sauce tends to dry too much.
at this point our lasagna sauce is ready.
Preparation of béchamel sauce
To make 500 grams of béchamel sauce it takes the following ingredients:
- ml 500 whole milk
- grams 50 butter
- 50 grams flour
- a pinch of nutmeg
- a pinch of salt
Preparation: pour the milk into a saucepan and bring it to a boil adding a pinch of nutmeg (on the market there are already ground, but I prefer the whole walnut and grate it fresh) and a pinch of salt.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small pan and then add the flour, stirring well to avoid lumps. Once ready pour it into the milk that you have just boiled, turn on the heat and slowly bring it back to the boil, turn often with a whisk and cook until desired consistency.
At this point our béchamel is ready to be used in lasagna.
Start and prepare
While the sauce cooks and the béchamel sauce is ready we also prepare the cheese, like caciottin, which we will grate into fairly large pieces. (there are graswells on the market with rather large holes that are perfect for having the right size of our cheese). We cook the eggs and after cutting them into slices we finally begin the actual preparation of our lasagna,
Let’s take a rectangular iron tin. (the perfect tin to make 4 generous portions is 20 cm by 30) Anoint the tin with butter and put a couple of tablespoons of sauce on the bottom. Above we put the sheet dough that must arrive at the edges of the pan, that is, perfectly cover the surface.
On top of the dough we put a couple more tablespoons of sauce and a couple of tablespoons of béchamel sauce. We spread it all over the surface. The doses are indicative, you can put more or less depending on your personal tastes. Above we go to put the cheese type caciotta distributing it evenly, above still a few slices of hard-boiled egg and a couple of slices of cooked ham. At this point the first layer is finished and we start to put the sheets of dough and follow the preparation as before, until you have finished all the ingredients.
On top of the last layer put only the sauce and béchamel sauce, spread evenly and then sprinkle with a decent dose of Parmesan cheese or grated grits.
At this point our lasagna is ready to be put in the oven. The static oven at about 180 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until a golden crust has formed on top.
Cut the portions, bring to the table and serve warm.
A tip
Being the preparation of lasagna quite long I recommend to make the doses at least doubling them so that instead of a baking soil you can prepare two. I prepare the second in an aluminum pan, (if they are on the market of different sizes and they are very cheap) that then instead of baking in the oven I put in the freezer ready to be put in the oven when you want to and eat it as if it were fresh.
The classic recipe for bolognese lasagna
For those who want to try the most classic recipe of lasagna bolognese, below I bring back the recipe. First the pasta, or rather the egg pasta sheets that form the layers of lasagna are green, strictly green. That is, it is a dough made by combining with the flour and eggs of spinach cooked in water and finely chopped.
Green pasta recipe for bolognese lasagna
Serves 4:
- 300 grams of flour
- 60 grams of spinach already cooked and finely chopped
- 3 medium eggs
Preparation:
Beat the eggs and mix them with flour and spinach and knead with your hands, until you get a rather firm dough. Form a ball and let it rest in a covered container for about half an hour.
After this time the pasta is definitely more elastic and lends itself better to be stretched.
Spread the dough with the rolling pin, it turns out a rather large and fine thick pastry. Cut it into rectangles and cook in boiling salted water for a few minutes. Remove the sheets from the water and put them to dry on a cloth. At this point they are ready to be used in our lasagna.
The procedure to prepare the béchamel is the same as I told you before, instead the typical Bolognese sauce is different from the one I gave you the recipe for, so below I write the recipe of bolognese sauce.
Recipe of bolognese sauce
Needed:
- 300 grams of ground beef
- grams 150 minced pork belly
- a carrot
- a celery rib
- a small onion
- 300 grams of tomato purée
- half a glass of dry white wine
- half a glass of milk
- little olive oil
- salt, pepper
- half a glass of fresh cooking cream (this is optional, but I recommend it)
Preparation:
Tradition has it that you prepare this sauce in an earthenware pan, where you should fry the diced bacon together with celery carrot and onion, finely chopped with the crescent in 3/4 tablespoons of olive oil.
Cook over low heat for a few minutes and then add the minced meat and brown well. Wet with white wine and cook until the wine has evaporated. Add the tomato purée and cover, cook about 2 hours adding from time to time a little broth to prevent it from drying out too much. After two hours add the milk, salt and pepper just enough and cook for a few more minutes. In case you want to put the cooking cream, it should be put a minute before removing from the heat our sauce, just enough time to incorporate it, which will be yummy to season as well as our lasagna also noodles or other egg pasta.
At this point the preparation is the usual layered one That I have shown you before, that is, in the rectangular pan, buttered put a couple of tablespoons of sauce, then place the sheets of green dough to cover the entire surface of the pan, add the sauce the béchamel sauce , spread the mixture over the entire surface, sprinkle with parmesan cheese and start with a new layer until all the ingredients are finished. Finally on the final layer after the sprinkling of parmesan or grits, put on the surface of the butter flakes and put the baking pan in the oven at 200 degrees for 35 minutes, or until a light golden crust has formed on the surface. Let the lasagna rest for about ten minutes before bringing them to the table.
Pesto lasagna
This is a great variation to make lasagna a little special.
For this recipe you need egg puff pastry in rectangular format, the béchamel sauce, of which I gave the recipe above, (for these lasagna do not add salt to the béchamel as the pesto is already salty of its own.) the pesto to Genoa of which I will give the recipe below, the large grated cheese caciotta or provola, of the finely ground parmesan cheese.
Preparation of pesto in Genoa
Ligurian tradition wants the classic pesto to be made in the mortar which is a container of iron or marble or granite with a pestle of the usual material, in which the ingredients of the pesto are crushed, chopped and mixed making the taste and taste, which is not the case by using a classic food processor that slightly alters the taste of the ingredients as it warms them in to shred.
That said, let’s prepare our pesto, in this case preparing about 300/350 grams that will serve for our lasagna.
Ingredients:
- 100 grams of basil leaves
- 120 grams of olive oil
- 60 grams of pine nuts
- 60 grams of seasoned pecorino cheese
- 40 grams of Parmesan cheese
- half a clove of garlic
- a pinch of coarse salt
In the mortar, pound the garlic with the pinch of coarse salt, add the basil leaves that you will have washed and dried gently. After chopped the basil leaves add the pine nuts and when they are all shredded add the seasoned pecorino cheese and the grated Parmesan cheese. Finally mix everything with olive oil and our pesto is ready.
If you want you can prepare more because it is a seasoning that lasts for a long time in the fridge or vacuum.
Preparation of lasagna pesto for 4 people:
- 250 grams of puff pastry for lasagna
- 300 grams of pesto
- 300 grams of béchamel sauce
- 200 grams of provola or caciotta
In our baking sheet we sprinkle a tablespoon of pesto on the bottom and place the puff pastry on top until it covers the entire surface. Over the puff pastry put a couple of tablespoons of pesto and a couple of tablespoons of béchamel mix them together and sprinkle them on the dough. On top again the caciotta cut into small pieces. Continue to put layers of pesto paste and béchamel sauce and provola until the ingredients are exhausted. On the last layer sprinkle a dose of Parmesan cheese and put in the hot oven ventilated at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes, at this point our lasagna are ready. Let them rest for about ten minutes and serve on the table.
If you want to make your lasagna more delicate but just as tasty you can replace the béchamel sauce with fresh ricotta.
Mushroom lasagna
Even this tasty autumnal preparation is very easy to prepare and much appreciated by mushroom lovers.
It takes the usual ingredients of other lasagna, such as pasta and béchamel sauce and Parmesan cheese, instead of meat sauce instead of a mushroom dressing. Porcini mushrooms are the best ones for this dish, but if you don’t have it or at other times of the year when you don’t find them fresh, you can also use champignon mushrooms.
Clean the mushrooms well and cut them into small pieces. Heat 3 or 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan and fry a couple of crushed garlic cloves that will be removed freshly browned, add the mushrooms and cover, letting the mushrooms cook for about ten minutes. Freshly cooked add chopped parsley and our lasagna dressings are so ready.
We go to form the usual layers with pasta, mushrooms and béchamel sauce and at the last layer a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and put in the hot oven at 180 degrees for about 40 minutes.
Enjoy your meal.
