My friend, Mark, recently had a milestone birthday and I wanted to make a dinner for him that he would really like. Mark is Italian, so being the kind of guy that has to make everything from scratch, I started thinking about dragging out my KitchenAid with pasta attachment. I flipped through the pasta recipes filed away in my brain and remembered a lasagna that I made a couple of years ago. The recipe was from Mario Batali and the thing that I really liked about it was that it was layered with Bechamel sauce instead of the usual ricotta mixture.
Sometimes there’s nothing like spending the entire day in the kitchen building something delicious. I will warn you that this dish takes a good part of the day, but, man, is it worth it! As I’ve mentioned in other posts, my body starts craving heavier foods when autumn rolls around. I wouldn’t eat like this every day, but for a treat, this lasagna fits the bill.
I build this lasagna with three primary components: Bolognese sauce, Bechamel sauce, and spinach lasagna noodles. The Bolognese is a classic version with pork, beef, and veal. The building blocks are onion, celery, carrots, and garlic.
Typically, you would saute the vegetables and add the meat to the pot to brown. I find that browning the meat in another skillet and adding it to the pot works better. Yes, I do like to use every pan in the kitchen when I’m cooking! Jim’s eyes roll every time he walks in the kitchen after I’ve been at it for several hours. Once you get everything in the pot, you just leave it to simmer for two hours.
I love making pasta from scratch. It’s one of those tactile things where I love getting my hands in the dough.
After cutting the dough into smaller portions, make sure and wrap the portions in plastic wrap while you’re pressing the pasta. The dough will dry out pretty quickly if not wrapped.
There are various ways to make pasta. I have a KitchenAid mixer with a pasta attachment that works extremely well. If you don’t want to go to the trouble of making the pasta, many markets will have fresh lasagna noodles. If you can’t find fresh, dried pasta will work.
Ingredients
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 lb pancetta, chopped
2 cups diced onion
2 cups diced carrots
2 cups diced celery
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb ground pork
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground veal
1 28 oz can whole tomatoes
1 cup white wine
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 cups milk
2 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
2 cups grated Parmigiano Reggiano
6 tbsp butter
6 tbsp unbleached all purpose flour
6 cups milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1 cup Semolina flour
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
4 eggs
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 box frozen chopped spinach, thawed, well drained, and finely chopped
Instructions
1. Heat olive oil and brown chopped pancetta in a large Dutch oven.
2. Add onion, carrots, celery, and garlic. Cook until onions are translucent.
3. In a separate skillet, brown meats one type at a time and add to onion mixture.
4. Add tomatoes, wine, tomato paste, milk, salt and pepper.
5. Bring to a boil.
6. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours.
7. Additional salt to taste.
1. Mix flour and semolina.
2. Pour flour on a large cutting board and form a bowl.
3. Mix eggs, chopped spinach, and olive oil.
4. Pour egg mixture into the bowl of flour.
5. Begin incorporating flour into egg mixture with your hands.
6. When flour and egg mixture are blended, knead dough for 2-3 minutes.
7. Cut dough into 4 equal portions and wrap in plastic wrap.
8. Take a portion of dough and flatten into a disk. Sprinkle with flour.
9. Feed the dough into the pasta maker attachment on the widest setting.
10. Fold the pasta into thirds (like a letter) and feed the dough through the pasta maker again.
11. Adjust the opening of the pasta maker to the next smaller setting and feed the dough through again.
12. Continue feeding the dough through, adjusting to a smaller setting each time, ending with a setting of 5.
14. Sprinkle the strip of dough with flour on both sides.
15. Cut the pasta into 5 inch strips.
13. Bring a large pot of water to boil.
14. Prepare an ice bath in a large bowl.
15. Drop 4 strips of pasta in boiling water.
16. Remove after two minutes, drop in ice bath, and place on dish towel to dry.
1. Melt butter in sauce pan.
2. Add flour and whisk until combined with butter.
3. Cook for 3-5 minutes over medium heat whisking constantly.
4. Gradually add milk, continuing to whisk.
5. Add salt and nutmeg.
6. Continue to cook until thickened, whisking constantly.
7. Remove from heat and set aside.
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a 9"x13" inch baking dish, start by adding a layer of Bolognese to the dish.
3. Top Bolognese with grated Parmesan cheese.
4. Add a layer of pasta.
5. Top pasta with Bechamel.
6. Repeat layers in the same order, ended with Bechamel topped with Parmesan cheese.
7. Bake for 45-50 minutes until the top is browning and the sauce is bubbling.
8. Remove from oven and wait 15 minutes before slicing.
https://southernboydishes.com/2012/10/04/lasagna-with-bolognese-bechamel-and-spinach/
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This is very inspiring. I do like to make a Bolognese on a lazy Sunday. The one I make uses milk, but I’m willing to try your version. The spinach lasagna is beautiful, as are your photos. I can see that I’d want to make a HUGE batch of Bolognese and freeze it. I have a pasta maker, but haven’t used it since last fall. Homemade ravioli is on my list, and I think this would be a versatile dough recipe just for that. I have no doubt that this long process is worth it. Looks beautiful.
I love this post – esp the step by step photo’s. You are a great photographer, and cook. The hand made pasta take this over the edge. I’ve got to get the pasta roller attachment for my KitchenAid.
This lasagna is really fun to make! Thanks for the compliments and the comment, Karen!