January 22, 2010: Lasagne Bolognese

Lasagne is a versatile dish. The most popular version is built from layers of lasagne noodles, a meaty tomato sauce and ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan cheeses. It's a winning combination of flavors playing off each other, particularly the savory sauce against the mellow cheeses. When baked, they melt into each other while maintaining their distinct profiles.

There could possibly exist as many variations of lasagne as there are cooks who serve it. All that is needed is a substitution of one ingredient or the addition of an herb or spice, and another original has been created. The recipe I'm sharing today, however, comes from the "Old Country." It is made from fresh pasta (January 19th post), a slow-cooked ragu (January 18th post) and melded together by a creamy bechamel sauce. Finally, imported parmigiano brings it all together. If you take the time to prepare this from scratch, I think you'll appreciate the the rich, yet simple, bouquet of the flavors that is layered between the delicately thin sheets of pasta. Buon appetito!

LASAGNE BOLOGNESE

1 full recipe Ragu (from January 18th post), gently reheated
2/3 freshly grated imported parmigiano-reggiano cheese
2 T butter

Bechamel Sauce
3 cups milk
6 T butter
4 1/2 T flour
1/4 t salt
A few grindings of fresh nutmeg

Heat the milk in a saucepan until just before it reaches a boil. Take off the heat. In another heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the butter. Add the flour and whisk until smooth. Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for 2 minutes. Gradually add the hot milk to the butter and flour mixture, whisking all the time. Add the salt. Cook over low heat until the mixture is thickened. Remove from the heat. Stir in the nutmeg.

Lasagne Noodles
1 recipe of pasta dough (from January 19th post)

Using a manual pasta machine, roll the pasta out as thin as possible. (I usually stop at the number 5 setting.) Cut into lengths to fit your baking dish. Set a bowl of cold water near the stove. On your counter, lay out a towel for drying the cooked pasta. Bring 4 quarts of salted water to the boil. Slip a few sheets of pasta into the water and let cook just a few seconds. Remove the pasta sheets with a slotted spoon, plunge them into the cold water, then rinse under cold water gain (to wash off the starch on the surface of the pasta), then place them on the towel to dry. Repeat until you have used all the dough.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Smear some of the butter on the bottom of your lasagne pan (typically 9-inches by 12-inches), then spread it with a small amount of the bechamel. Line the bottom of the pan with a single layer of cooked lasagne noodles. Spread a thin layer of ragu over the noodles, then spoon a thin layer bechamel over the ragu. Sprinkle with some of the grated parmigiano-reggiano. Repeat building layers of pasta, ragu, bechamel, and cheese, making sure the top layer is spread with sauce and sprinkled with parmigiano. Dot with the remaining butter. Bake on the uppermost rack in your oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until the top is a golden, crusty brown. Take out of the oven and give it ten minutes to settle before serving.