How to Make Classic Italian Lasagna Bolognese

Nys Aqyla    9/05/2022    Baked Pasta , Ground Beef , Italian , Lasagna , Pasta Mains   

 Everything you need to know to make the classic Italian bolognese lasagna, the famous toast with alternating layers of deep and meaty ragù bolognese, creamy bechamel sauce and delicate pieces of fresh noodles.

 

In the US, when most people say they're going to make lasagna, they almost always mean the dish is toasted with wide noodles with thick layers of ricotta, mozzarella, and tomato or meat sauces. . But this limited use of the term doesn't begin to capture the vast possibilities of lasagna as it is made in Italy, and in particular, the queen of all lasagna: lasagna bolognese.

What is Lasagna Bolognese?

The word lasagna itself, technically just refers to the noodles - wide, flat and rectangular - which is why Italians almost always use the plural, lasagna. Lasagna is also one of the oldest forms of pasta, which makes sense considering it's actually the starting point for so many other pastas: you have to make the lasagna before you can cut a thing. something like fettuccine or pappardelle in them. Considering their age, there are probably 50 lasagna recipes for every square inch of Italian soil,* and not all of them are layered and baked.

Don't quote me on that.

In Liguria, for example, lasagna is rolled to an almost transparent level when cooked, then drizzled with pesto. Sure, they call it mandilli de saea (or fazzoletti di seta), a reference to the silk handkerchiefs that the noodles look like, but they're lasagna anyway.

Meanwhile, in Naples, you can find lasagna alla napoletana, a wonderful grilled version stuffed with every delicacy you can imagine. However, the one I crave the most is lasagna alla Bolognese, which originated in Emilia-Romagna in north-central Italy. It's a simple basic recipe, with just a few key ingredients: pasta; meat sauce, called ragù Bolognese; besciamella (also called Béchamel or white sauce); and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

Despite its hearty setting, the real beauty of Lasagna Bolognese is its sophistication. The layers aren't overdone, making sure the pasta (and your mouth) isn't swept away by the richness of the filling.

No ricotta in it, no mozzarella, no spinach leaves, mushrooms, or other heavy additions commonly found in other lasagna recipes.

Instead, the silky texture is the result of delicate layers of fresh noodles and long-cooked gelatin-coated ragù, all skillfully bonded by a layer of besciamella cream. And the flavor, while strong and meaty, has a hint of sweetness, a gift from all the carb- and dairy-rich ingredients (plus the judicious use of nutmeg). It's as close to perfection as any baking powder I've ever eaten, and while you're free to stuff it with additional ingredients if you want, try it at least in its most basic form first, because I really think it doesn't. don't want anything.

To make it work, you have to think about every ingredient – ​​like many of the best Italian dishes, Lasagna Bolognese is relatively simple, which means poor technique and confusing shortcuts that have very little to do. hide.

Look at the ingredients: Pasta

 

Many experts, including Italian food agency Marcella Hazan, tell you that if you're not ready to make your own fresh lasagna from scratch, you shouldn't worry about preparing the dish. I don't agree with that. While fresh homemade lasagna, rolled from egg-enriched dough, can make the top of the dish, it's not a requirement. (In fact, Kenji even calls for unboiled dry lasagna noodles in his lasagna recipe.)

First of all, you can now buy fresh (or frozen) lasagna noodles in abundance at many supermarkets, delivering undeniably delicious results. And, to be honest, while it doesn't look like it, even dry pasta can work well - the pasta in lasagna should be overcooked anyway, so you can Stab it with a fork without too much resistance, and the dry pasta lends this variety almost overcooked as well as fresh. If you're ready to make pasta from scratch, you should start by reading Niki's in-depth test of fresh pasta dough, in which she dialed in the sweet spot (as long as it can last. at) for a flour-based dough. and eggs. You can follow her regular pasta recipe or her spinach-enriched recipe. Technically, spinach pasta is the more traditional choice for a lasagna bolognese, but I don't see that as more of a claim than a homemade pasta dish.

One of the benefits of making your own pasta is that you can control how thin the paper is. With lasagna bolognese, the thinner the better, at least to a point. I recommend rolling the sheets to about 6 or 7 on your pasta machine - thin enough that the layers of pasta aren't unnecessarily bulky, but also not so thin that Ligurian silk handkerchiefs. Once they're unrolled, cut the long sheets of paper into rectangles of a more manageable length of about 8 inches.

To make pasta, I cook it in boiling salted water until cooked through, with only a slight resiliency when you chew it (it gets softer in the oven). Then I let the noodles cool in a bowl of ice water, drained, and lightly rubbed with oil so the noodles wouldn't stick. If you plan to store cooked noodles for a while, I recommend placing the oiled sheets on a parchment-lined baking tray with several layers of plastic wrap between them again, to prevent them from sticking together. .

Appearance Ingredients: Bolognese Ragù

 

 Next up is ragù bolognese, and we at Serious Eats have helped you perform on that front in many ways. Bolognese is a meat sauce usually made with beef, and sometimes pork and/or veal; Lamb is not an unheard of addition.

While there are probably as many recipes for Bolognese sauce as lasagna, it always starts with soffritto, a sautéed blend of herbs like onions, carrots, and celery. While alive, the Italians called this mixture of chopped vegetables abeatto, which means "beating," and hardened back to the days when they ground all the aromatics into a coarse mixture with a mortar and pestle. For this reason, I tend to opt for the pre-cut, hand-made biscuits (because I'm a bit grainy), but it can be easily done much quicker in a food processor. I love how the finer ground meat almost disappears between the pieces in the sauce.

In addition to soffritto and meat, Bolognese usually contains small amounts of tomatoes, either in a mashed or paste form, but not enough to form a complete tomato sauce, as well as wine (red or white, but still dry... and don't worry too much about the quality), plus a touch of warm spice like nutmeg and a good bit of milk or cream, for a smooth, luxurious finish.

 

You can choose from many different recipes for this. First, there's the slow-cooked version of Kenji, made to look like the real thing. Among the newest elements in his recipe are pancetta, lamb liver and chicken for added richness and depth; It also cooks the sauce in the oven rather than on the stove, which takes longer but delivers a darker flavor and softer texture, thanks to a combination of mild heat and topping.

Kenji also posted a Bolognese Pressure Cooker recipe, which is a great time saver without sacrificing much in terms of quality. If you have a pressure cooker, this is definitely something to consider. I also wrote my own bolognese recipe, just for this lasagna. It's a bit simpler than Kenji's, both a bit easier and to achieve the specific flavor I was looking for - bringing out those sweet milky notes and toning down some of the pancetta, livery intensity. chicken and lamb. My recipe isn't a quick and easy recipe by any means, though if you make it on the stove it takes three, maybe four hours. You can also bake according to Kenji's method, which will provide subtle flavor and texture improvements, but will likely take an hour or two longer.

It takes a while, but the sauce solidifies well, making it an ingredient you can make to your liking, then defrost whenever you want to make your lasagna (or serve with pasta). fresh tagliatelle).

There are several important steps in all of our ragù recipes. The first is to add unflavored gelatin to the chicken broth before adding it to the pot, especially if you're using a store-bought broth, which doesn't have the gelatin that good homemade broth always has. Gelatin is important because it provides a rich, enveloping viscosity that best separates sauces from all soft, watery sauces. Incidentally, using ground veal in bolognese also increases the gelatin factor.

An alternative is to brown only part of the mince, or start with the meat in large chunks to brown, then grind later. That's because browning offers great flavor development, but sacrifices texture by over-drying the browned parts - browning requires drying, so there's no good way to solve this problem. By browning only part of the meat, we get that wonderful grilled flavor, but we reserve a softer texture in the rest of the undercooked meat. It is a win-win outcome and good for all.

Appearance Ingredients: Besciamella (large white dope)

 

Aside from grated parmesan, besciamella is the most basic of all lasagna bolognese ingredients, but its importance should not be underestimated. It's the delicious creamy sauce that ties it all together, helping to combine meat sauces with silky-smooth pasta sheets while underscoring the dish's rich, milky flavors and highlighting the spice of nutmeg. that warmth (found in both ragù and besciamella).

The trick to getting it right is to create a version with the correct flour-to-milk ratio, which in this case means less flour for a thinner white sauce. This is because the lasagna will thicken as the lasagna cooks, so if you start with a thicker sauce, it will become mushy when the lasagna comes out of the oven. I use a ratio of just over a tablespoon of flour per cup of milk. The artificial part will melt easily in layers, but will achieve the perfect, slow-flowing consistency after baking.

Also, this method is classic. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour to form a thick paste, then cook until the raw smell of the dough is gone, but not to the point of starting to brown. Then, slowly pour in the milk in a drip, whisking well to avoid lumps and to make sure the sauce is really smooth and silky.

One thing to watch out for: Besciamella has a tendency to rapidly develop thickened skin on top when sitting; you can avoid this by pressing plastic wrap to the surface. Then keep warm until you're ready to use.

How to make Lasagna Bolognese

Once all the ingredients are prepared, all that remains is to assemble and cook the lasagna.

 

      

    Layers of Lasagna Bolognese

Step 1: Butter the baked goods, then start layering the ragu and pasta

 

Start by baking a baking dish (nine by 13 inches works well for my recipe), then lay out a thin layer of ragù, just to serve as the base for the first layer of pasta. Now cover the ragù with sheets of pasta; some overlap is fine, but you can trim the pasta if needed to avoid too much duplication.

Step 2: Layer with ragu, pasta, toast and cheese

Then add another thin layer of ragù, followed by besciamella fillet and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

Step 3: Repeat until the baking dish is full

Repeat this sequence of layers until the baking dish is full; it's about six layers in total for me.

Sauce Tips:

The most important thing is not to let the meat sauce get too thick, however you may be tempted. Each individual layer should be thin, as it will increase as each layer is stacked on top of the last; If you do it right, the pasta dish will have the same sauce as an undercooked pasta dish (i.e. not too much sauce). Too much sauce will only overwhelm the noodles and reduce the structural integrity of the layers after cutting and plating the lasagna. (Anyone who really wants the sauce can just ignore all that and eat it from the bowl with a spoon. There's no shame in that.)

Step 4: Finish with Besciamella and cheese

 

Once you've reached the top of the pasta, spread the rest of the toast on top, without further stewing, then drizzle the final amount of grated cheese over it.

Step 5: Cook lasagna

 

Whole dish can be baked in a 375°F oven until bubbly and golden on top, about 35 minutes. Then let it sit for at least 10 minutes, so it can harden slightly and hold together better after you cut.

It may not reach dizzying heights or overflow with thick layers of cheese, but it more than holds its place in the lasagna gallery – I mean, who could argue that there are more ways to do it. keep interesting things between sheets of paper?

 

Get recipes:

• Classic Grilled Lasagna Bolognese Recipe (Lasagna alla bolognese)
  
• Basic Bolognese Ragù