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Versione Italiana

(Traditional recipe)

• 500 g (1,1 lb) fresh lasagne
• 85 g (3 oz) bacon
• 200 g (7 oz) minced beef
• 200 g (7 oz) minced pork
• 85 g (3 oz) raw ham, in a piece
• 125 g (4 1/2 oz) fresh sausage
• 2 young fresh onions
• 1 carrot
• 1 celery stick
• 1 400 g (14 oz) can peeled tomatoes
• 250 ml (8 fl oz - 1C) red wine
• 200 ml (7 fl oz - 3/4 C) vegetable stock.
• 8 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 75 g (2 1/2 oz) unsalted butter
• 200 g (7 oz) grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt
• Pepper, if like
•  
• For béchamel
•  
• 60 g (2 oz) white flour
• 60 g (2 oz) unsalted butter
• 600 ml (21 fl oz - 2 1/2 C) milk
• Pinch grated nutmeg
• Salt
• Pepper, if you like.

• Time:
  preparation: about 60 minutes
  cooking: about 3 hours and half
• Difficulty:
  laborious recipe
• Nutrition Facts (amount per serving):
  Calories: XX (kCal) - XX (kJ)
  Protein: XX (g)
  Total fat: XX (g)
  Total carbohydrate: XX (g)
  Sugars: XX (g)

Traditional first course from Bologna made with egg pasta, ragù and béchamel.
Prepare the sauce (ragù). Peel and crumble sausage. Chop raw ham. Purèe peeled tomatoes in a blender or food processor until smooth. Prepare vegetable stock.
Clean and wash onions, carrot and celery; chop them together with bacon. Put them in a saucepan together with 4 tablespoons olive oil and 30 g (1 oz) butter. Let them fry lightly for few minutes and then add sausage, raw ham and meats. Brown all the ingredients a bit and then pour red wine into the saucepan; let it evaporate over a fierce heat. At this point add purèed tomatoes and stock, lower the flame, season to taste with salt and pepper, and keep on cooking for about 3 hours, half-covered, stirring now and then. Add other stock, if necessary.
Meanwhile you have to cook lasagne according to the instructions on the package. Remember: it's important to add 4 tablespoons olive oil into the water! This avoids that pasta rectangles stick. Remove lasagne from boiling water with 2 skimming ladles, cool them in cold water and arrange on a napkin in order to let them dry.
Prepare béchamel following our instructions. In this case this sauce must not be too thick.
Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Butter a shallow ovenproof dish. Line the bottom with a layer of lasagne and spoon in some tablespoons sauce and béchamel; sprinkle with Parmesan. Cover with lasagne and continue until all the ingredients are used up, bearing in mind that the top layer must be of béchamel mixed with sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan and arrange some pieces of butter on the top. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the surface is golden. Remove the dish from the oven; wait 5-10 minutes before serving. You have to serve this dish in its cooking dish..

Note

• - If you want to prepare dough too, you can follow our instructions. But remember that the best dough for Bolognese lasagne is without water. You can also prepare a green dough with 400 g (14 oz) white flour, 2 eggs and 45 g (1 1/2 oz) boiled and purèed spinach. You have to avoid that spinach form water and so our suggestion is to put them in a little non-stick frying pan and let them dry very well over a low flame.
• - If you want, you can substitute traditional béchamel with a light version. We have 2 recipes. In this case we suggest to use that one with cornstarch and milk.
• - This recipe is full of fats, calories and proteins. The best thing would be to eat only this dish; you can serve a seasonal salad after this dish in order to eat also vegetables. However we suggest you a complete menu around lasagne. If you have guests, you can consult it.
• - We prepared a sauce with all the ingredients without frying them. We used only olive oil (8 tablespoons) and so we eliminated butter. We didn't use vegetable stock too and so we cooked it for only 30 minutes. In Italy nowadays we prefer to cook less our recipes: in this way ingredients preserve better their nutritional characteristics.
• - Besides we substituted béchamel with beaten eggs (about 2) among the layers.

What's the right wine?

Our suggestion is: Merlot dei Colli Bolognesi (red wine from Emilia - Italy).

A little history

Some writings that belong to 1200 tell us about a sort of lasagne. They are not the recipe we know. Women from Emilia in Italy are very good in kneading dough; in the past they have created many successful recipes. Among them there are baked lasagne.

If you want to combine this dish with other ones for a complete menu,
consult our "Members-only Area".