Recipes
LASAGNE RECIPE
HOW TO MAKE LASAGNE
Every Italian family has its own version of lasagne. ASK Italian’s is made with 4 layers of egg pasta layered with béchamel and Bolognese sauce and seasoned with Grana Padano. Prepare the sauces before making the pasta. You can substitute store-bought fresh pasta sheets for the home-made if you wish. Make the pasta on the day you are assembling the lasagne; the sauces can be made the day before. The pasta must be boiled briefly before the lasagne can be assembled.
INGREDIENTS AND METHOD
INGREDIENTS
- 1 batch Béchamel sauce
- 1 batch fresh lasagne made from 250 g flour, 3 eggs and 50 semolia
- 2 batches Bolognese sauce
- 120 g Grana Padano or Parmesan cheese, grated
- 40 g butter
METHOD
Serves 8-10
Preparation time: 2 hours
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil for the pasta. You’ll need some clean teacloths and a large flat surface to work on. Drop the lengths of pasta into the boiling water a few pieces at a time. Spread your teacloths out on the tabletop. After the pasta pieces have cooked for just 1-2 minutes, carefully scoop them out with a slotted spoon and arrange them on a teacloth. Don’t overlap them or they will stick. Continue boiling in small batches until all the pasta has been cooked.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/GasMark6.
Spread a little of the fat from the top of the Bolognese sauce around the bottom of the lasagne baking dish. You need a dish about 32 cm x 25 cm x 6 cm. Spoon a little of the meat in the bottom. Add a thin layer of béchamel and cover with a layer of pasta. Try to make an even layer of pasta that goes right to the edge of the dish, but not up the sides. Repeat the sequence, with thin layers of meat sauce and béchamel. You should use about one-third of the meat sauce and one-fifth of the bechamel in each layer. Don’t make the layers too thick: you just want the meat to be dotted through the béchamel. Sprinkle with a bit of the grated cheese before adding the pasta. You should have enough for about 4 layers of each. For the top layer, cover the final pasta sheets with a thin layer of béchamel and a sprinkling of cheese. Dot the top with butter.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the top is lightly browned. Let the lasagne rest for 5 minutes out of the oven before cutting into sections and serving alone or with a mixed salad.
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