lasagna
It has been too long! But I will blog again regularly from now on. I had the most lovely lasagna from scratch. It is, of course, a lot of work, not so much in work but in time. First, prepare a favourite bolognese sauce (ragu) with minced meat, garlic, diced onion, carrots and celery and of course tinned tomatoes and their juice. Add one bottle of red wine and let simmer for at least 2 hours until oil floats free on top. The sauce will thicken and acquire a deep taste. Prepare a bechamel (roux) with butter, flour and milk, add nutmeg, salt and pepper and add one cup of ricotta cheese. The sheets of pasta are the most work; use one egg to 100 grams of (soft) flour, knead the dough and let rest for half and hour. Then roll them out thinly with a pasta machine on the thinnest setting and cut in longish sheets which you will cook sheet by sheet in a pan of boiling water. Cook for about 2 minutes - the sheets will expand, then cool them in a second pan with cold water and wring out like a cloth (Marcella Hazan style). Then put to dry on clean towels.
Take a large oven dish, preferably rectangular and start building layers of lasagna: start with meat sauce, add a sheet, add meat sauce, drizzle with bechamel, sprinkle extra cheese on top, then a layer of pasta, meat sauce, bechamel, well you get the picture. End off with a layer of pasta, on which you put bechamel sauce, cheese and some chopped mozzarella. Bake in a preheated oven for 30 minutes at 175 degrees. It is quite arduous, but believe me, the taste of this home-made lasagna is super delicious, very fresh and light. It is supposed to taste even nicer the next day but.... no leftovers!
Take a large oven dish, preferably rectangular and start building layers of lasagna: start with meat sauce, add a sheet, add meat sauce, drizzle with bechamel, sprinkle extra cheese on top, then a layer of pasta, meat sauce, bechamel, well you get the picture. End off with a layer of pasta, on which you put bechamel sauce, cheese and some chopped mozzarella. Bake in a preheated oven for 30 minutes at 175 degrees. It is quite arduous, but believe me, the taste of this home-made lasagna is super delicious, very fresh and light. It is supposed to taste even nicer the next day but.... no leftovers!
