Lasagna in Italy, not the cheesy, saucy stuff we make here in the US, is a very involved process. It all starts with a soffritto, followed by a meat ragu and if you REALLY like the people you are cooking for, you make the pasta. It is the only way to achieve the thin, thin layers that melt in your mouth and help give the lasagna its light texture. But it is a labor of love that takes patience and proper timing.
The first time I had this amazing dish was in Tuscany last year on our wine and food tour. Antonio's sister knows an Italian nonna who is in her 80's and makes the best lasagna you've ever eaten. She made us two big pans that arrived at our villa still warm from the oven, and we served outside in the garden with some delicious Cortona red wines. It takes her 2 days to make it, and now having done it myself, I know why.
I've been doing a series of posts on the recipes for the soffritto, the ragu, the pasta and the besciamella; now it's time to put it all together! It's best to make this over a two day period....the links to the recipes are highlighted in orange below.
First Day
Step One: Make the
Soffritto
Like the Holy Trinity of New Orleans cuisine, a "soffritto" is the
starting point for many Italian soups, sauces and stews. While locally
we use equal parts onion, celery and green peppers, in Italy the base is
usually a combination of carrots, onion and celery with the proportions
of each depending on what you are cooking.
To begin to
make the meat ragu, I first need the soffritto. Using the recipe in
Frances Mayes new Tuscan Sun cookbook, I began the long journey to
tomorrow's lasagna!
First Day
Step Two: Make the
Ragu
Every cook in Italy has their own ragu recipe, variations on a theme of
ground mixed meats, tomatoes, soffritto, herbs and spices. But one
thing that remains constant is the love and care that goes in to making
the perfect ragu. I don't claim to have achieved it yet, but I've
learned a few tricks along the way that have helped me get a wonderfully
flavorful sauce that can be used in many dishes. I like to make a big
pot, use some and freeze the rest for a quick tagliatelle on a busy day.
Second Day
Step Three: Make the
Dough
I have two pasta dough recipes that I use on a regular basis, one is
from Lidia Bastianich, the other is from Francis Mayes. I like them
both equally as much, but when I made the lasagna I used Frances Mayes
and I thought the texture and pliability of this dough was ideal for
achieving the thin sheets needed for this dish. The ingredients vary
ever so slightly and the process is the same. I use a kitchen aid mixer
for the initial blending, kneed the dough by hand and after it has
rested I use the pasta attachment for my mixer to roll the sheets. In this post I'll take you to the point where the dough is resting, before you roll it.
Second Day
Step Four: Make the
Besciamella
So your dough is currently resting and you have time to make your
besciamella before we start assembling the dish. Either of these
recipes will give you the desired affect of adding a wonderful
creaminess to your layers of lasagna, read through them both and decide
what you have the energy for!
Step Five: Assembling the Lasagana
Remaining Ingredients
-1 lb fresh egg pasta dough resting
-5 oz. Parmesan cheese, grated
-2-5 oz. balls of mozzarella
-a handful of fresh sage leaves
-olive oil
-Preheat you oven to 350 degrees F and butter a large baking dish.
Put a big pot of salted water with a good glug of oil on the stove for
the pasta.
-Reheat your ragu and put keep your white sauce on the stove at a very low heat, to keep it warm and make it easier to work with.
-Roll out your pasta dough
Rolling the dough with a pasta machine (I used the Kitchen Aid
attachments). Cut the ball of dough into 6 equal pieces. Shape each
piece into a rectangle about 5x3 inches. Lightly flour the pasta
rectangles and cover them with a kitchen towel. Set the rollers of the
pasta machine to the widest setting. Pass one of the pasta rectangles
through the rollers long side first, then pass it though the rollers a
second time. Keep the dough
lightly floured-just enough to prevent if from sticking to the rollers.
Reduce the width by one setting and pass the piece of dough through
the rollers again. Support the dough with your hand as it comes
through the rollers-don't pull it though, or the dough will shrink so it
is narrower than the width of the rollers.
Continue
working with the piece of dough and reducing the
width one setting each time until the dough has been passed
through to the proper setting.
(Each pasta machine is different. I finish with the next to the thinnest one);You
want to roll out strips of pasta that are about 3 x 10 inches depending on the size of your pan. I made mine a little longer and wider to accommodate the round shape of my pan. Always keep the
pieces of dough that aren't being rolled covered with a towel. If you
find the dough is very elastic, let all pieces rest for 5 to 10 minutes
before continuing.
When you have rolled one of your pieces of dough into the correct size, blanch 2 strips at a time in the boiling water and cover the bottom of the
baking dish with pasta strips, letting them hang over the edges. Put
down a layer of meat sauce, then some white sauce and a sprinkling of
fresh Parmesan. Roll and blanch another piece of dough and continue to repeat the process until you run out of ragu. But
keep back enough white sauce for a final layer on top.
Fold
the over the pasta ends from the edges and top with the white
remaining sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan, tear the mozzarella over the
top, scatter your sage leaves and drizzle with olive oil. Bake in the
preheated over for 45 minutes or so until golden.
Prepare to "wow" your friends and family...
All of this effort deserved a fine wine so we opened a gorgeous 2001 Castelgiocondo Brunello di Montalcino signed by the Marchesi di Frescobaldi himself when he was in the shop one day way back when...
