Name: Lasagna Recipe
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 60 min
Ingredients: Sauce; 2 tablespoons Cooking oil or lard; 2 medium Onion (diced); 1 lb Ground meat; 1 teaspoon Salt; ½ lb Tomato sauce; Pasta; 8 oz Lasagna pasta; Layering; 15 oz Ricotta cheese; 12 oz Mozzarella; 1 tablespoon Oregano; 1 tablespoon Basil; Sauce; For detailed instructions check out: How to make Bolognese sauce; 4 oz Bacon or pancetta (diced); 1 Onion (diced); 1 Carrot (diced); 2 Celery stalks (diced); 1 lb Ground beef; 1/2 cup Water or white wine; 2 Tomatoes (diced); 1 teaspoon Salt; 6 piece Black pepper (whole); 1/2 cup Milk; ½ lb Tomato sauce; Pasta; 8 oz Lasagna pasta; Layering; 15 oz Ricotta cheese

Looking for a quick meal or striving for culinary perfection? With a tasty lasagna like this, we can have both!

Lasagna is possibly the oldest type of pasta. It’s made of very wide, flat sheets of pasta.

Why Lasagna?

The term lasagna can refer to either the type of pasta or the Italian dish made of stacked pasta sheets and meat. The origin of the word is still up for debate as historians can’t really come to conclusions whether the origin of the word meant the type of pasta itself or the cookware that the dish was made in.

What is Lasagna?

Nowadays a lasagna generally includes cheese such as Ricotta, Mozzarella and Parmesan with typical Italian seasoning like garlic, oregano, and basil.

Otherwise, lasagna is quite forgiving in their making. As long as we use lasagna pasta sheets and bake it in the oven before serving our dish, it can be called a lasagna, no matter what ingredients we stack on each other.

Italian lasagna is generally filled with ragu A.K.A. Bolognese sauce (not Bolognese Spaghetti, that’s not even a thing) that can be made of beef, pork or chicken with a bit of tomato but as there are no two identical ragus in Italy, no two lasagnas are the same either.

Probably this is why no one is calling the Carabinieri to the house of those who pour Bechamel sauce over their lasagna. It seems that we can officially use Bechamel sauce instead of cheese or even better Bechamel with cheese, and still call our creation a lasagna. Even some Italians (Emilia-Romagna region) do that.

What was Lasagna?

In fact, some time ago when lent was a thing for the general population due to lack of proper refrigeration and fair food production practices, walnuts were a common filing for lasagnas.

Also, tomatoes weren’t even a thing anywhere else in the world but the Americas before 1492, so Italians had to rely on something else to flavor their dishes, they are now so famous for.

How to make the best Lasagna?

Making lasagna seems like an absolute breeze as no matter what we do, it will turn out just fine. If we are up for challenges or yearning for some real flavors, we have to sacrifice some time on the altar of lasagna, but we can just pop one together with almost ready-made ingredients.

Making a proper ragu from beef takes up to 4 hours and although it is absolutely worth it, we aren’t always up to the task. It’s always a good idea to make big batches of such time intensive food and freeze it for other occasions such as lasagna making.

Making lasagna fast?

If we aren’t that picky though, we can make a quick filling in about 30 minutes that will put smiles on the faces just as well. We can even put on our SuperChef cape and make fresh pasta sheets till the filling is getting ready to be filled in.

Sure, we can use shop bought lasagna sheets too and the world won’t stop moving either. It may die a little inside, but no one will notice it under the hastily cooked sauce filling, cheese topping and occasional Bechamel sauce, so worry not about it, Lasagna can take it all!

Ingredients

Beginner

Sauce

2 tablespoons / 30ml Cooking oil or lard
2 medium / 200g Onion (diced)
1 lb / 500g Ground meat
1 teaspoon / 5g Salt
½ lb / 250g Tomato sauce

Pasta

8 oz / 2oog Lasagna pasta

Layering

15 oz / 500g Ricotta cheese
12 oz / 375g Mozzarella
1 tablespoon Oregano
1 tablespoon Basil

Advanced

Sauce

For detailed instructions check out: How to make Bolognese sauce

4 oz / 100g Bacon or pancetta (diced)
1 Onion (diced)
1 Carrot (diced)
2 Celery stalks (diced)
1 lb / 500g Ground beef
½ cup / 125ml Water or white wine
2 Tomatoes (diced)
1 teaspoon Salt
6 piece Black pepper (whole)
½ cup / 125ml Milk
½ lb / 250g Tomato sauce

Pasta

8 oz / 2oog Lasagna pasta

Layering

15 oz / 500g Ricotta cheese
12 oz / 375g Mozzarella
1 tablespoon Oregano
1 tablespoon Basil

Overkill

Sauce

For detailed instructions check out: How to make Bolognese sauce

4 oz / 100g Bacon or pancetta (diced)
1 Onion (diced)
1 Carrot (diced)
2 Celery stalks (diced)
1 lb / 500g Ground beef
½ cup / 125ml Water or white wine
2 Tomatoes (diced)
1 teaspoon Salt
6 piece Black pepper (whole)
½ cup / 125ml Milk
½ lb / 250g Tomato sauce

Pasta

For detailed instructions check out: How to make Fresh pasta.

2 cups / 200g Flour
2 pieces / 100g Eggs

Layering

15 oz / 500g Ricotta cheese
12 oz / 375g Mozzarella
1 tablespoon Oregano
1 tablespoon Basil

Kitchen utensils

7½” x 12″ / 19cm x 30cm Casserole dish

How to make Lasagna

Beginner

Sauce

Pour some oil into a frying pan and saute the diced onion until it gets a glassy / translucent look, for about 5 – 10 minutes.
Add the ground meat and brown it.
Add the tomato sauce and cook it until the tomato sauce water content reduced about at least a quarter. The whole process should take about 30 minutes.

Pasta

Cook the pasta, according to the instructions on the packaging.

Layering

Mix the Ricotta cheese with basil and oregano. Slice or shred the Mozzarella up if necessary.

Assembly

Once the sauce is done, divide it into three equal parts and spread one third onto the bottom of a casserole dish.
Place a layer of pasta on top.
Spread third of the Ricotta it with third of sliced or grated Mozzarella on top. If we forgot to mix the basil and oregano with the Ricotta, just sprinkle it on top and start spreading the other half of the sauce on top.
Repeat the layering of sauce, pasta and cheese.
Place the lasagna under the broiler on maximum temperature on the top shelf until golden brown spots start to appear on the Mozzarella, for about 10 minutes then it’s ready to be served.

Enjoy!

Advanced

Sauce

Render fat out from bacon, pancetta or any other type of pork fat that we can use as lardon. We can substitute it with a tablespoon of fat or cooking oil, as well. No harm would be done. Add onion, carrot and celery then saute with the bacon on high heat, for about 5 minutes until the onion gets a slight translucent/glassy look.
Add the ground meat. Mix it well with the vegetables then cook it for 10-15 minutes while stirring it often until all the bigger chunks fall into smaller pieces. At this point the beef should lose all its pinkness and browned properly.
Add the water or wine, tomatoes, salt, black pepper and milk. Mix it well together, put the lid on and simmer it for 4 hours on low heat, stirring occasionally.
For more detailed instructions for the filling, check out how to make Bolognese sauce a.k.a Ragu. If our patience is wearing thin then use pureed tomato and cook it only for about 30 minutes before getting it ready for layering.

Pasta

Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packaging.

Layering

Mix the Ricotta cheese with basil and oregano. Slice or shred the Mozzarella up if necessary.

Assembly

Once the sauce is done, divide it into three equal parts and spread one third onto the bottom of a casserole dish.
Place a layer of pasta on top. Spread third of the Ricotta it with third of sliced or grated Mozzarella on top. If we forgot to mix the basil and oregano with the Ricotta, just sprinkle it on top and start spreading the other half of the sauce on top.
Place the lasagna under the broiler on maximum temperature on the top shelf until golden brown spots start to appear on the Mozzarella, for about 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Overkill

Sauce

Render fat out from bacon, pancetta or any other type of pork fat that we can use as lardon. We can substitute it with a tablespoon of fat or cooking oil, as well. No harm would be done. Add onion, carrot and celery then saute with the bacon on high heat, for about 5 minutes until the onion gets a slight translucent/glassy look.
Add the ground meat. Mix it well with the vegetables then cook it for 10-15 minutes while stirring it often until all the bigger chunks fall into smaller pieces. At this point the beef should lose all its pinkness and browned properly.
Add the water or wine, tomatoes, salt, black pepper and milk. Mix it well together, put the lid on and simmer it for 4 hours on low heat, stirring occasionally.
For more detailed instructions for the filling, check out how to make Bolognese sauce a.k.a Ragu. If our patience is wearing thin then use pureed tomato and cook it only for about 30 minutes before getting it ready for layering.

Pasta

For detailed instructions check out: How to make Fresh pasta.

Knead pasta and eggs until uniform.
Roll the pasta out on floured surface. Cut the pasta to the shape of the dish. For three layers we need three sheets of pasta.
Cook the pasta in boiling water until Al dente, about 1 minute. Rinse under running cold water so it won’t stick together.

Layering

Mix the Ricotta cheese with basil and oregano. Slice or shred the Mozzarella up if necessary.

Assembly

Once the sauce is done, divide it into three equal parts and spread one third onto the bottom of a casserole dish.
Place a layer of pasta on top. Spread third of the Ricotta it with third of sliced or grated Mozzarella on top. If we forgot to mix the basil and oregano with the Ricotta, just sprinkle it on top and start spreading the other half of the sauce on top.
Place the lasagna under the broiler on maximum temperature on the top shelf until golden brown spots start to appear on the Mozzarella, for about 10 minutes.

Enjoy!