(Bolognese lasagna recipe - Authentic Italian lasagna recipe from Bologna)

For egg pasta
400 g (14 oz) all purpose flour plus more for dusting
2 eggs
250 g (8 1/2 oz) fresh spinach
Salt
For béchamel sauce
50 g (1 3/4 oz) all purpose flour
50 g (1 3/4 oz) unsalted butter
500 ml (16 fl oz - 2C) milk
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt
Pepper, if liked
and ....
100 g (3 1/2 oz) unsalted butter
200 g (7 oz) freshly ground Parmeesan cheese
Meat and tomato Bolognese sauce (recipe ingredients)
9 X 13 x 2 baking pan

Time:
preparation: about 90 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)

We are going to describe a tradtional style lasagna recipe as we are used to do in Italy. This is a recipe from Bologna where lasagne is well made. So we call it Bolognese lasagna. It is made with egg pasta sheets, ragù (meat and tomato sauce), béchamel sauce, Parmesan cheese and butter.

Prepare the meat and tomato sauce (ragout, in Italian ragù). Follow our step-by-step instructions in this page. We make the sauce 1 day ahead as the cooking time is very long. You need at least 2-3 hours.

Prepare egg pasta. The authentic Bolognese lasagna must be made with green egg pasta whose main ingredient is spinach.
Clean, wash and steam the spinach. Let it cool and dry; then put through a food mill. Set aside.
Prepare the dough as we explain in this page with the flour, eggs and spinach. Add the spinach with the eggs.
Roll the dough into a fairly thin sheet and cut into strips suited to the baking pan. Remember to boil these strips before using. Plunge them in abundant lightly salted boiling water, few strips at a time, and remove them from the water with a skimming ladle as soon as they come to the surface of the boiling water. Cool them under running cold water and arrange on a napkin in order to let them dry.

Prepare béchamel sauce. Follow our instructions but remember to use the right amount of every ingredient.
In this case this sauce must not be too thick.

Prepare the lasagne. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Butter the baking pan. Line the bottom with a lasagna strip and spoon in some tablespoons of the meat and tomato sauce and béchamel sauce; sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Cover with another lasagna strip and continue until all the ingredients are used up, remembering the top must be made of the béchamel mixed with the sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and dot with the remaining butter.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until the surface is golden brown.
Remove the pan from the oven; wait 5-10 minutes before serving.

Note

- The flour amount for making the egg pasta can vary for a lot of reasons, for example how spinach is damp moist.
- Spoon the béchamel sauce to make a very thin layer.
- If you want a crunchy top, grill the lasagna dish for at least 2-3 minutes in the oven.
- Do you know how tasty is this dish if you have some pieces left and warm them up?
- We know there are a lot of gluttons around the world, Italy included. So we suggest you a complete menu whose main course is lasagne. If you have guests, you can consult it for a special occasion (Italian dinner menu for special occasion).
- The recipe we have just showed you is the original, authentic lasagna from Bologna. But it is a long-to-do, rich-calorie recipe. So you can vary the original recipe in these ways.
a) If you aren't able to prepare homemade egg pasta you can buy it. You can find easily ready to bake lasagna sheets, dry or fresh. Obviously they are not made with spinach.
b) You can use a light béchamel sauce.
c) You can make a quicker meat and tomato sauce with these ingredients: half an onion (finely sliced), a carrot (chopped), a celery stalk (chopped), 30 g (1 oz) of unsalted butter (or better 4 tablespoons of olive oil), 200 gr (7 oz) of ground beef, 150 gr (5 1/2 oz) of ground pork, 100 gr (3 1/2 oz) of chicken livers, a glass of puréed tomatoes, pepper, salt. You can reduce cooking time very much to to preserve better the nutritional characteristics of the ingredients. In any case this is a simpler lasagna recipe but it is no more Bolognese lasagna!

Healthy eating

- The original recipe of this Italian lasagna is full of fats, calories and proteins as you can see. The best thing would be to serve it as one-plate meal; you can complete your meal with a seasonal salad and fresh fruit.
But we beg you not to eat such a rich-calorie dish very often.
- Half the doses if you want to serve other courses.

What's the right wine?

Our suggestion is: Lambrusco (red wine from Emilia - Italy).

Lasagna 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 as the recipe above.