Maries Italian Lasagna Recipes

CLASSIC ITALIAN LASAGNA

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Bechamel sauce:
• In a 2-quart pot, melt 5 tablespoons of butter over medium heat. When butter has completely melted, add the flour and whisk until smooth, about 2 minutes. Gradually add the milk, whisking constantly to prevent any lumps from forming. Continue to simmer and whisk over medium heat until the sauce is thick, smooth and creamy, about 10 minutes. The sauce should be thick enough to coat the back of wooden spoon. Remove from heat and add the nutmeg and tomato sauce. Stir until well combined and check for seasoning. Set aside and allow to cool completely.
• In a saute pan, heat extra-virgin olive oil. When almost smoking, add the ground beef and season with salt and pepper. Brown meat, breaking any large lumps, until it is no longer pink. Remove from heat and drain any excess fat. Set aside and allow to cool completely.
• In a medium sized bowl, thoroughly mix the ricotta and eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
• Into the bottom of a 13 by 9-inch baking dish, spread 1/3 of the bechamel sauce. Arrange the pasta sheets side by side, covering the bottom of the baking dish. Evenly spread a layer of all the ricotta mixture and then a layer of all the spinach. Arrange another layer of pasta sheets and spread all the ground beef on top. Sprinkle 1/2 the mozzarella cheese on top of the beef. Spread another 1/3 of the bechamel sauce. Arrange the final layer of pasta sheets and top with remaining bechamel, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Cut the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter into 1/4-inch cubes and top lasagna.
• Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place lasagna dish on top, cover and put on the middle rack of the oven and bake until top is bubbling, about 30 minutes. Remove cover and continue to bake for about 15 minutes.
• In a large casserole pot or Dutch over, heat oil over medium high heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until soft and translucent, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add celery and carrots and season with salt and pepper. Saute until all the vegetables are soft, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add tomatoes and bay leaves and simmer uncovered on low heat for 1 hour or until thick. Remove bay leaves and check for seasoning. If sauce still tastes acidic, add unsalted butter, 1 tablespoon at a time to round out the flavors.
• Add 1/2 the tomato sauce into the bowl of a food processor. Process until smooth. Continue with remaining tomato sauce.
• If not using all the sauce, allow it to cool completely and pour 1 to 2 cup portions into freezer plastic bags. This will freeze up to 6 months.

CLASSIC LASAGNA

Steps:

• Make the sauce: Heat oil in a large, heavy bottomed pot over medium heat. Add sausage, if using, and cook, stirring occasionally, until it's starting to brown but not yet crisp, about 5 minutes.
• Add onion and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is totally softened and translucent (without letting it brown), 8 to 10 minutes. Add tomato paste and continue to cook, stirring until the tomato paste has turned a deeper brick red color, tinting the oil and onions a fiery orange color, about 2 minutes.
• Using your hands, crush the whole tomatoes into smaller, bite-size pieces and add them and the crushed tomatoes, stirring to scrape up any bits from the bottom of the pot. Fill one of the tomato cans halfway with water and add it to the pot. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomato sauce has thickened and flavors have come together, 20 to 30 minutes.
• Make the lasagna: Heat oven to 375 degrees and set a large pot of salted water to boil.
• Set aside 1 cup mozzarella. In a medium bowl, combine remaining mozzarella, ricotta, 1 cup Parmesan and cream; season with salt and pepper and set aside.
• Cook lasagna noodles in the large pot of salted boiling water until just softened (before they are even aldente), about 4 minutes. Drain and separate any noodles that are trying to stick together, slicking them with a bit of olive oil to prevent them from sticking further.
• Spoon a bit of sauce on the bottom of a 3-quart baking dish and top with a layer of noodles, avoiding any heavy overlap.
• Top with about 1 ¼ cups of sauce, and dollop ¼ of the cheese mixture over. Top with another layer of noodles and repeat three more times, ending with the last of the noodles (depending on size of the noodle/shape of the baking dish, you may have a few extra noodles) and the last of the sauce. Top with reserved 1 cup mozzarella and more Parmesan, if you like.
• Cover loosely with aluminum foil and place baking dish on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet (to prevent any overflow from burning on the bottom of your oven).
• Bake until pasta is completely tender and cooked through and sauce is bubbling up around the edges, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove foil and increase temperature to 450 degrees. Continue to bake until lasagna is golden brown on top with frilly, crispy edges and corners, another 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool slightly before eating.

MARY'S LASAGNA

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the noodles. Put a bowl of ice water near the stove, and set out a few towels next to the bowl to drain the pasta.
• Generously grease a 10 by 14-inch baking pan using 1 to 2 tablespoons of the butter. Set aside.
• In a small bowl, mix the ricotta, egg, and parsley together. Rip up the basil leaves and fold them into the ricotta mixture. Season with salt and set aside.
• With a slotted spoon, transfer the pieces of pork, sausage, and meatballs from the Sunday Gravy to a separate bowl. They will be coated with some of the tomato gravy. That's okay. Set the remaining gravy and bowl of meats aside.
• Generously salt the boiling water and cook the lasagne sheets, a few at a time, at a rolling boil for 1 minute. The noodles will be very firm; they will cook further in the oven. Transfer the pasta to the ice water with a long-handled flat skimmer or strainer. As soon as they are cool to the touch- less than a minute- lift them out, shaking off excess water, and lay the noodles out on towels to drain. Repeat the process until all the pasta is cooked.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Cover the bottom of the baking pan with a layer of lasagne sheets, allowing the pasta to hang over all sides of the pan. Top with another layer of lasagne sheets cut to fit the bottom of the pan without an overhang.
• Cover the pasta with 1/2 of the reserved meats. Spoon over enough gravy to moisten well, about 1 cup. Sprinkle with a rounded 1/4 cup Pecorino Romano. Cover with another layer of pasta cut to fit without an overhang. Top with 1 cup gravy. Dollop 1/2 of the ricotta mixture over the gravy and top with half of the mozzarella and a rounded 1/4 cup of Pecorino Romano. Repeat the pasta and meat layer and the pasta and ricotta mixture layer.
• Cover with a final layer of pasta (you may not have used all the lasagne sheets) cut to fit the inside of the pan without an overhang. Top with the remaining gravy and Pecorino Romano. Bring up the overhang of pasta and fold over the top of the lasagne to enclose the filling. Dot with remaining butter and loosely cover with foil.
• Bake the lasagne for 25 minutes, uncover, and continue to bake until very lightly browned and bubbling hot, an additional 10 to 15 minutes. To keep the top noodles soft without browning, bake the lasagne covered with foil for 35 minutes and uncovered for the last 5 to 10 minutes in the oven. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.
• Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed stockpot. Add the pork chops and sausages and brown on all sides. Transfer the pork chops and sausages to a plate to make room for the onions. Toss the onions into the pot with the garlic, fennel, and salt. Saute over moderate heat, stirring frequently and scraping up any bits left behind by the pork and sausages, until the onions are soft and golden.
• Put the pork chops and sausages back in the pot with any juices on the plate. Add the tomatoes, water, and tomato paste. Drop in a few cheese rinds or ends if you have any. They are completely optional but give a nice flavor to the sauce. Cover the pot, bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Gently drop in the meatballs, 1 at a time, shaking the pot a bit to encourage the meatballs to nestle in with the pork and sausage and to make room for the addition of more meatballs. After all the meatballs have been added, continue to simmer, covered, for an hour longer or until the pork chops are very tender.
• To finish the gravy, transfer the pork chops to a cutting board. Remove and discard the bones, chop up the meat, and return it to the sauce. Keep warm over low heat.
• Homemade, fresh pasta is glorious and well worth the effort. Nothing compares to the silky, light, slippery noodles you can produce in your own kitchen. This is a quick recipe. The dough is mixed in a food processor and a pasta machine kneads and rolls the dough. George's whips this up easily, in 5 minutes tops.
• There are minor variations depending on the weather and the moisture in your flour (you may have to knead in an extra tablespoon or 2 of flour) but if you follow these proportions you will have excellent pasta.
• The organic eggs we buy at the farmers' market vary in size. The most reliable way to get an accurate measurement is with a portion scale. The measuring cup method will work, too (crack eggs into a small mixing bowl, whisk to combine, pour the required amount into a liquid measuring cup, and discard or save any excess for another use). In making pasta, skill is developed through repetition. Each batch will be easier than the last and with a little experience exact measurements will be less important.
• Don't fret if the final dimensions of the pasta are different from those specified in the recipe. The strips coming through the rollers of the pasta machine may be longer and/or not as wide. The ends may also narrow rather than being perfectly square. For instance, the edge going through the rollers first will be u-shaped (they can be cut later to square the noodle, if you like). Practice does make a difference in developing a feel for the process. Try to roll the dough as wide as possible--a little less than the width of the rollers, but don't be discouraged if that doesn't happen the first time. Adjust the cutting of the pasta to the strips you have--less wide sheets of lasagna noodles, for instance.
• Put the flour in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. With the motor running pour the eggs through the feed tube. Stop the machine as soon as the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Run the motor again pouring the hot water through the feed tube. Pulse on and off for 10 seconds; stop the motor. The dough should stick together when pressed between your fingertips. If not add another 1/2 to 1 teaspoon hot water and run the motor again. Turn out onto a cool, smooth surface--marble is ideal. Knead for 1 to 2 minutes until the dough is smooth and pliable. If it is sticky, knead in 1 to 2 tablespoons flour. Shape into a ball and cover the dough completely with plastic wrap and allow to rest at room temperature for a minimum of 20 minutes or up to 2 hours in the refrigerator. If the dough is refrigerated, remove it from the refrigerator about 20 minutes before proceeding with the recipe.
• Set up the pasta machine with the rollers at their widest opening.
• Divide the dough in 1/2. If the dough is sticky, dust it with flour. Flatten the dough half with the heel of your hand, and feed it through the rollers of pasta machine. Fold the dough in half lengthwise and feed it through the rollers again. Repeat 20 to 30 times occasionally folding widthwise to fit between the guides. This kneads and smoothes the dough further, creating silky and supple pasta.
• Now you can roll the pasta into thin sheets by feeding it through each successive setting of the pasta machine until you have passed it through the second thinnest opening (dust with just enough flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking). This process is done without folding. If the sheet of pasta becomes cumbersomely long cut it crosswise into 2 pieces to make it more manageable. Repeat with the second half of the dough. Lay the dough out on a barely floured counter or clean, dry kitchen towels. Each half of dough will yield 2 strips of pasta roughly measuring 3 feet by 4 inches.
• Try to make lasagna noodles as wide as your pasta machine allows (4 to 5-inches); cut the lengths the most appropriate size for the pan you plan to use--anywhere from 8 to 12-inches long (longer if you like, or shorter if smaller noodles are easier for you to handle. Lasagna noodles can be cut and patched together in assembly). Keep in mind the pasta will grow, or expand, when it boils, increasing its dimensions.
• After you have cut the noodles, you can cook them right away or lay them out in a single layer without touching on a lightly floured surface or on clean, dry kitchen towels until ready to cook (flour dusted or towel lined baking trays work well if you don't have counter) If you are not using the pasta the same day, allow it to dry completely, then transfer to long, shallow containers with lids. You can keep it in a cool, dry place for 1 week.

CLASSIC ITALIAN LASAGNE

Steps:

• For the ragu, melt the butter in a large flameproof casserole dish over a medium heat until foaming. Add the celery, carrot, onion, porcini, rosemary and some seasoning, and fry for 5 mins.
• Season the meat, add to the dish and cook for 5 mins until browned. Pour in the wine, add the tomatoes and bring to the boil.
• Reduce the heat to low, put the lid on the dish and cook for 1hr 30 mins, removing the lid for the final 30 mins so the sauce can reduce. The meat should be tender but not too broken up, and the sauce should be thick. Taste for seasoning. You can cook it for longer if you have time - the flavour will only improve.
• For the béchamel sauce, pour the milk into a saucepan with the bay leaf. Bring to a simmer, turn off the heat and set aside. In a heavy-based saucepan, melt the butter over a medium heat, then whisk in the flour and hot milk. Whisk vigorously until smooth, then cook for 10-15 mins until very thick. Remove the bay leaf and season, grating in nutmeg to taste. Stir in the parmesan and egg yolks, then set aside to cool.
• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Working in batches of three, plunge the pasta sheets into a pan of boiling salted water for 20 secs, just to soften, then immediately put in a bowl of ice-cold water.
• Rub oil onto the base and sides of a large baking dish. Put a layer of pasta on the base, then add a layer of ragu, followed by a layer of béchamel sauce. A good tip, for really defined layers, is to pipe the béchamel sauce over.
• Repeat this process until you have used all the pasta and ragu, and finish with a layer of béchamel sauce on top. Sprinkle the top with a generous layer of parmesan.
• Bake in the oven for 40-45 mins or until bubbling and golden brown, then remove from the oven and leave to settle for 10 mins.
• Cut the lasagne into squares and let it sit for another 10 mins before serving - this keeps the layers defined and helps it cool down more quickly.

BEST ITALIAN LASAGNA EVER!

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• Boil noodles and drain (you may also use uncooked noodles).
• Sauté garlic, sugar and salt.
• Add sausage and ground beef and brown, breaking into small crumbles.
• Add basil, pepper, tomatoes and paste; simmer 20-30 minutes until sauce thickens.
• Mix together in bowl, ricotta, egg and parsley (add milk if it's too thick).
• Layer sauce to cover bottom of pan, noodles 1/2 of ricotta mixture, 1/4 c of parmesan, noodles, ricotta, mozzarella, sauce and parmesan.
• Bake covered for 25 minutes.
• Uncover and bake another 25 minutes.
• Let cool about 10-15 minutes then cut and serve.
• Leftovers may be frozen and then heated in the oven until hot and melty.
• Goes great with crusty garlic toast and a salad.