Classic Italian lasagna with a slow-cooked Bolognese meat sauce and bechamel.

Ingredients

Ragu:

  • Olive oil
  • 1/2 stick chopped onions, carrots and celery
  • Salt and pepper
  • 40% sausage (pork sausage, cut open and insides squeezed out)
  • 60% low fat meat
  • 3/4 bottle passata di pomodoro or sucre di pomodoro (690 grams typical bottle)

Besciamelle:

  • 500 ml milk (or half milk and half cream)
  • 50 grams butter
  • 50 grams flour
  • 1/2 cube chicken broth

Layers:

  • Freshly made lasagna spinach pasta
  • Olive oil for bottom of pan
  • Freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Steps

  1. Add a little olive oil to a pan and add chopped onions, carrots and celery (about 1/2 stick).
  2. Add salt and pepper to taste (this is the only seasoning).
  3. Add a combination of about 40% sausage and 60% low fat meat and stir-fry.
  4. Add about 3/4 of a bottle of passata di pomodoro or sucre di pomodoro.
  5. Cook covered over very low heat for 3 to 4 hours and stir occasionally.
  6. For besciamelle, heat 500 ml of milk in microwave (or half milk and half cream).
  7. Melt 50 grams of butter in a pan.
  8. Slowly add 50 grams of flour and stir very quickly over low heat to make it smooth.
  9. Add about 1/2 cube of chicken broth.
  10. Slowly add a little heated milk at a time so that the mixture will be smooth, taking off the heat if it starts to clump.
  11. For pasta, heat water to boiling, add salt, gently add the pasta and cook for only a few minutes, then drain.
  12. Oil the bottom of pan so that the pasta will not stick.
  13. Layer freshly made lasagna spinach pasta, laid vertically and cut to fit.
  14. Add ragu, then besciamelle.
  15. Add lasagna pasta, laid horizontally, then ragu, then besciamelle.
  16. Repeat layers so that there are about 3 or 4 layers of pasta.
  17. Top with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano.
  18. Cook uncovered at 350 F for about 40 minutes.

Notes

  • In contrast to American Lasagna pasta, this pasta is freshly made and very thin, which is why so many layers can be achieved.
  • Please don’t use that Kraft stuff in a can for cheese.
  • This recipe was orally handed down by an Italian friend who now lives in Lissago.
  • Allow a good part of the day to make this meal and enjoy with freshly baked bread.