Sues Lasagna Al Forno Recipes

LASAGNE AL FORNO (ITALIAN BEEF LASAGNA)

Steps:

• Finely chop the carrot, onion and celery and saute the vegetables gently in a large frying pan with the olive oil. Once the vegetables are soft add the beef and pork mince and cook until browned.
• If there is a lot of excess fat in the pan, spoon some out. Add the red wine and reduce by half.
• Once the wine has reduced, add the sieved tomatoes, tomato paste, bay leaves, 4 cups of beef stock (1 litre) and a pinch of salt and pepper.
• Stir everything together and leave to simmer on a low heat for 2.5-3 hours uncovered. Add the rest of the beef stock half way through.
• Add the butter to a saucepan and cook until melted and bubbling.
• Add the flour to the melted butter and stir to form a paste. Let the flour cook for 1 minute.
• Slowly whisk half of the milk into the butter and flour constantly whisking to avoid any lumps. Once it has started to thicken add the rest of the milk, nutmeg, parmesan and a pinch of salt and pepper.
• Continue to heat the sauce whilst stirring until thickened enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Take off the heat and set aside.
• Preheat the oven to 350F (180C).
• To assemble the lasagne, spoon a small amount of ragu on the very bottom of the baking dish. Top with and even layer of lasagna pasta sheets (cut the pasta sheets to fit your baking dish).
• Add a few more spoons of ragu so the pasta is completely covered followed by 2 ladels of white sauce.
• Repeat the layers of pasta, ragu and bechamel sauce until everything is used up making sure to keep enough of bechamel sauce for the very top layer (you should have 4-5 layers of pasta).
• Cover the top layer of the lasagne with torn mozzarella and then bake in the oven for 45minutes or until bubbling and golden.
• Let it cool slightly for 5-10 minutes before serving.

LASAGNE AL FORNO

Steps:

• In a large sauté pan, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Add onion and fry for about 10 minutes.
• While the onion is cooking, chop the pancetta. The best way to do this is to roll it up, cut lengthwise then across.
• Once onion is softened, add the pancetta and cook for another 5 minutes.
• Place the pancetta and onion in a 6 quart dutch oven, add another tablespoon of oil to the sauté pan and return to heat.
• Add the ground beef and cook until browned. Transfer to the dutch oven, add another tablespoon of oil to pan and return to heat.
• Add the ground pork and brown.
• Once pork has browned, add it to the dutch oven.
• Preheat oven to 275°F (140°C, Gas Mark 1).
• Place dutch oven on burner and stir ingredients together. Add the tomatoes, tomato purée, red wine, salt, pepper, and about ¼ nutmeg, grated. Stir all ingredients together and bring to a simmer.
• While bringing mixture to a simmer, tear half of the basil leaves from the stem, tear or chop the leaves and add them to the pot. As soon as the mixture is simmering, place in preheated oven. You do not need to cover the mixture.
• Here the recipe says to let simmer for 3 hours before giving a stir, I stirred every 45 minutes.
• When liquid has reduced to a concentrated sauce, season to taste with salt and pepper and add the remainder of the basil.
• About 20-30 minutes before the ragú bolognese is due to come out of the oven, begin the bechamel sauce.
• Place the milk, butter, flour, salt and pepper, and garlic in a large saucepan. Heat oven medium-low heat and whisk until simmering and thickened. Reduce heat as low as possible and simmer for 10 minutes more.
• Sieve the sauce into a large bowl and add the cream. Adjust seasoning and add another quarter of nutmeg.
• Preheat oven to 350°F (Gas mark 4, 180°C).
• Now for the assembly. Organize your materials in the order in which you will use them, with the baking dish on a cookie sheet (to catch spillage) in the middle.
• Spread a thin layer of the ragú bolognese on the bottom of the pan. Cover with ¼ of the bechamel sauce, diced mozzarella and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. Add a layer of lasagna noodles (They don't need to be cooked, the large amount of sauce cooks the noodles). Repeat in this manner, finishing off with a top layer of cream sauce and a coating of Parmesan cheese.
• Place in oven (be sure to keep the baking sheet underneath!) and bake for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown and bubbling.