LASAGNE
Time: 1 1/2 hours
Ingredients:
(approximately for 8 people)
1 box of Lasagne Barilla
1 onion
1 carrots
1 celery stick
2 cloves of garlic
2-3 bay leaves
1 lb ground beef
1 lb pork sausages
1 glass of wine
2 large cans of plum tomatoes
1 chili pepper or red crushed chili pepper
1 stock cube
few dried porcini mushroom (if you have them)
50 gr. (0.1 lb) butter
2-3 T-spoon flour
1 liter (0.26 gallons) milk
parmesan cheese (good stuff, not from the green
can)
nutmeg
1 egg
mozzarella cheese
olive oil
salt
Directions:
Lasagne are made of 5 layers, you start with just a bit of Ragu' sauce, then a layer of pasta, a layer of Ragu' sauce, a layer of besciamella, a layer of parmesan cheese and a layer of mozzarella. Then you start again with pasta, sauce etc. until your baking pan is full. After you should cook it in the oven at 360 F for 35-40 minutes. Following are direction for the Ragu' sauce and Besciamella.
Pasta
Even though in america the lasagna box says "already cooked" make sure to cook the lasagne pasta. Put a big pot of water to boil and add some salt and olive oil before adding the pasta. Make sure to add one lasagna "foil" at the time so they do not stick to each other. After 5 minutes take each individual foil of lasagna from the water and place it flat on a towel to dry. Again make sure you do not lay one foil over an other otherwise they will stick together.
Ragu' Sauce
Chop finely (use a "mezzaluna" if you have it) the
onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Add them together with the bay leaves
and some pieces of chili pepper or red crushed chili pepper and put them
in a pan with some olive oil. Then let them get golden on a medium flame.
After add the ground beef and the pork sausages without the skin and chopped
in small pieces. After 5 minutes add the wine and keep cooking until the
meat is not red anymore (5 more minutes). Then add the can tomatoes and
the stock cube and let is simmer slowly (medium flame) for 45-60 minutes.
If you have them you can add a few dried porcini mushroom. If you have
some of this Ragu' sauce left over you can uses it as a normal sauce
over pasta...great over fresh pasta like tagliatelle o fettuccine!
Besciamella
In a small pan slowly (low flame) melt the butter and add the flour.
Add slowly some milk trying to avoid forming small little balls of flour.
Keep adding slowly the milk. Then add a hand full of parmesan cheese, a
pinch of salt and some nutmeg (how much it depends on how much you like
nutmeg. I love it and probably pout in couple of t-spoons). Rise the flame
to medium and be sure to keep steering almost constantly so that it doesn't
stick to the bottom. Also do not let it boil. YOu will slowly see the besciamella
change consistency and becoming thicker. When it had began as thick as
a pancake mix turn off the flame, let it cool for 10 minutes and then add
the egg and stir vigorously.