Homemade Pasta Lasagna

One of our favorite places for authentic brick oven pizza makes a wonderful single serving of lasagna that Beep and I always order along side our metro Regina Margarita. I decide to attempt this lighter version of the layered dish at home. The recipe has four basic components: bolognese, pasta, cheese, and sauce. It turned out great! I made a full pan. The homemade pasta, makes all the difference. I completed each step over a period of days, so it wasn't an overwhelming amount of preparation. I started with the meat filling two days ahead, mixed, rolled and cooked the pasta one day in advance then mixed the cheese filling, assembled the morning of the third day, then relied on my completely competent sister-in-law and husband to finish the cooking.

 

INGREDIENTS:

MEAT FILLING:
A slightly shorter version of my traditional bolognese, which can be found on this blog.
2 T. olive oil
1-2 carrots, minced
1-2 celery ribs, minced
1/2 small yellow onion, minced
1-2 garlic cloves minced or crushed
1/2 Pound Veal, ground
1/2 Pound Beef, ground
1/2 cup tomato puree or sauce
1/4 cup cream
2 tsp. Italian seasoning, I use Penzey's
Salt & Pepper to taste
Pinch of Sugar, opptional

HOMEMADE PASTA SHEETS:
See blog recipe, roll to seven setting and cut into strips to fit your baking dish. Boil until Al dente and store in refrigerator until ready to assemble. If you mix the entire pasta recipe you will have enough to do more than one lasagna or cut extra pasta to cook as regular noodles. I rolled my sheets first and once I knew I had enough for 3 layers to fit my baking dish, I rolled and cut the remaining pasta into angel hair for the kids.

CHEESE FILLING:
8 oz. Whole milk Ricotta cheese
1/4 C cream
1 Large whole egg
1/4 C Parmesan cheese
a few grates of fresh nutmeg

SAUCE:
I use Alessi smooth jarred sauce, it is one of the best!

Freshly grated Parmesan for the top.

PREPARATION:

Prepare your meat filling a day or two in advance. In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, saute the veggies in olive oil until translucent and slightly caramelized. Season with Italian seasoning. Add both meats to the pan and cook until completely browned. The final product you want is a meat sauce that melts together, break up the meat as it cooks, so all of the veggies and meat become incorporated. Stir in tomato sauce, allow to cook 2 minutes. Pour in cream and simmer until almost all the liquid is absorbed, mixing and pressing down on the contents of the pan to "marry" all the ingredients of the sauce. Taste and add additional seasonings or tomato sauce and sugar if needed. Cool, refrigerate airtight until ready to assemble.

See pasta blog entry to prepare the pasta. Can be prepared and boiled the day before.

Final Assembly, should occur the day you plan to cook the dish. Coat baking dish with non-stick spray, place a layer of pasta sheets to cover the bottom of the baking dish. Next, spread all of the meat filling over the pasta to create an even layer. Top with a second layer of pasta sheets. In a large bowl, mix together ingredients for the cheese layer and spread it over the second pasta layer. Top with a third layer of pasta.

At this stage, I covered with foil and placed the baking dish in the refrigerator. We had a volleyball tournament and I knew it would be a long day. If you are going directly into the oven at this stage, preheat to 350 degrees and pour jarred sauce over the top of the lasagna, cover with foil and bake 30-45 minutes, until bubbly. Remove foil for the final 10 minutes of baking and sprinkle top with Parmesan cheese.
Allow to rest 5 minutes, cut and serve.

If you are baking later in the day, hold off on the sauce. Refrigerate until ready to bake, remove from the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature while the oven is preheating. Top with jarred sauce, recover with foil and bake as instructed above.