Made a Lasagne

The finished Lasagne

It is a while since the last post. Today is lasagne day. The lasagne I make typically consists of several meat sauce layers and 2 or 3 layers of blanched spinach mixed with an egg and some Parmesan cheese. Both types of layers also have more or less Bechamel sauce sprinkled in. So lets get started.

This evening I decided to follow a new recipe when making the meat sauce. I finely grated 1 large carrot and I finely diced 1 large onion. I sweated the diced onion for 5 to 8 minutes in some olive oil to get it into a translucent state, but not browned (I used medium heat). Then I added the grated carrot and stirred that mixture for another 3 to 4 minutes. Afterwards I added about a half pound of ground beef and stirred that mixture for about 10 minutes (maybe at medium-high heat). The meat was at this stage no longer pink, but definitely not browned. Then I de-glazed the whole concoction with about 0.25 cup of red wine and cooked the wine completely down. This was followed up by about a half 28-oz can of tomatoes with their sauce and 0.75 tsp salt. I brought the tomatoes to a boil and also mashed them a bit into smaller chunks. Then I reduced the heating to very low, covered the pot and simmered that sauce for about 3 to 4 hours (closer to 4 hours). My recipe suggested that goodness would be achieved after 5 hours, true goodness after 7 hours, and by no means should the cooking process take less then 3 hours! Cooking a tomato meat sauce this long was a new experience for me. I would have cooked it just for fun for 5 or 7 hours, but by the time I decided to make a lasagne, pretty much only 4 hours were left until the lasagne had to be assembled. I stirred the meat sauce about every half an hour to recombine the liquid and fatty parts of the sauce floating on top with the rest of the sauce. Also, I was supposed to complement the ground beef portion with the same amount of ground pork which I had not at hand. So the sauce contained only about half of its supposed meat content, but I have to say I was very happy with the results of the extremely long cooking time. Food for thought when making future meat sauces.

During the lasagna assembly stage: The meat sauce is at the left side of the picture. The gratin dish in the middle already has a layer of Bechamel sauce at the very bottom. On the right side one can see the freshly made lasagne pasta sheets.

About 90 minutes before lasagne assembly time I made fresh egg pasta dough and rested it for about 45 minutes (sometimes I rest it up to 2 or 3 hours). Then I rolled out the flat lasagne sheets with my Imperia pasta machine. One of these days I post another blog that deals with how to make fresh egg pasta. I used 300g of flour, and 3 eggs, for this particular lasagne dough. I figured this was enough to easily feed 3 people and have left-overs for next day lunch.

During resting the pasta dough I blanched a decent sized bunch of spinach for about 1 minute, drained it, and cut it into 1 to 1.5 inch sections. I mixed these spinach sections in a bowl with a fresh egg, some pepper, some salt to taste, grated Parmesan cheese and 0.25 cup creme fraiche. Using creme fraiche wasn't my first choice, but I had no ricotta cheese at hand. Sometimes I use 2 eggs instead of 1 egg in this mixture. Pretty much anything goes. The following picture gives a reasonable idea about the overall consistency of the spinach sauce.

Assembling a spinch-egg-creme layer. This picture gives a good idea about the consistency of the spinach layer.

The Bechamel sauce followed next. 3 tbsp of unsalted butter is melted over medium heat. Once the butter melted, I added about the same amount of all-purpose flour to the butter and whisked the whole thing together. Maybe at this stage the heat needs to be reduced somewhat to avoid burning. Pending on the exact ratio between fat and flour the flour bubbles or glues together into a sort of putty ball when being whisked. Afterwards I gradually added cold milk to the flour-fat mixture while constantly stirring/whisking. The milk dissolves the fat-butter mixture and later considerably thickens as it heats up. Sometimes the butter-fat ball evolves initially into a custard type consistency and only becomes runny after more milk is added. Ultimately I added milk until the whole thing becomes a sauce that is liquid, but definitely not super runny. If in doubt, stay on the runnier side and simply cook the sauce for a while longer. Also the fresh lasagne pasta happily absorbs liquid when being baked in the oven. The Bechamel sauce can be easily thickened with grated Parmesan. I typically cook the Bechamel sauce for about 10 to 20 minutes on relatively low heat and whisking often to avoid that the sauce sticks to the bottom of the pot and gets burned. Sometime during the cooking process I add salt, black pepper and grated nutmeg to taste. And often some grated Parmesan. The end result is a white sauce with no flour taste.

The assembly stage is easy. I first heat up the oven to 180C (375F). I use a decent sized gratin dish. The lowest layer is covered with Bechamel sauce, followed by the first sheet of fresh lasagne pasta sheets. I do not pre-boil my lasagne sheets. I rather have a bit more liquid in the Bechamel sauce and the meat sauce. Then I typically continue with a layer of  meat sauce, followed by a layer of spinach-egg-creme/ricotta and so on. After running out of spinach, I just continue assembling layers of meat sauce. Sometimes I add 1 or 2 tbsp of Bechamel sauce to a meat sauce layer or a spinach layer. Sometimes I decide to sprinkle 1 or 2 tbsp of Parmesan over a given layer of meat sauce or spinach. At the very end, the lasagne is covered up by a last sheet of lasagne pasta. This final noodle sheet is covered completely with Bechamel sauce and sprinkled generously with grated Parmesan.

My lasagne consists somewhere from 6 to 9 layers, subject to the amount of people that have to be feed. Lasagne left-overs are very tasty reheated the next day. Given that, it is generally best to make a decent amount more for a given dinner party.

Assembling the first noodle layer.: I am currently roughly cutting a suitable noodle layer shape to fill the remaining half of the dish with a noodle layer.

Finishing the first noodle layer.

Adding the meat sauce no top of the first noodle layer. I typically eye-ball the amounts of meat sauce and spinach I use for certain layer. Sometimes I have more meat sauce and sometimes I use a little less (like here). The intent is to have sufficient meat sauce and spinach for all noodle layers.

Another meat sauce layer: Here with a little bit more meat sauce.

And here an example of a spinach layer.

After the lasagne is assembled I move it into the oven (by that time the oven is typically hot) on a middle rack with no cover. I typically bake the lasagne for 45 minutes. Towards the end I eye-ball the lasagne a few times with regards to the browning stage of the top layer. I like the grated Parmesan on top experience some browning. I rather leave the lasagne 5 minutes longer in the oven, if the browning hasn't happened. I guess it is possible to also use a broiling phase at the very end, but I never do this. I rather wait a bit longer.

The finished lasagne!

A nice dinner!