The national cuisine of Italy is associated with all three main dishes: pasta, pizza and lasagna. All of them were delivered by emigrants from the Apennine Peninsula to the New World. And the Americans made sure to make them world famous. But if pizza and pasta have become synonymous with fast food, then lasagna has retained its image of restaurant, festive dishes. But with pasta, plates of dough are related to her.
Lasagna is similar to pizza in that it is covered with the same delicious layer of baked parmesan. The dish looks like a rectangular or square casserole. If you cut it, you can see that it consists of several layers of dough, interspersed with filling. This stuffing is prepared differently in every region of Italy. There are fish and vegetable lasagna. But since the dish was invented in Bologna, the classic recipe involves the use of ground beef or veal stuffing.
The plates are saturated with a special sauce, named after the city, and sprinkled with parmesan cheese on top. In this article you will find a detailed and step-by-step recipe for minced lasagna. At home, cooking this dish will be easy. The main thing is to have lasagna plates. They are sold in supermarkets in the same department as pasta.
History of Lasagna
It will be unforgivable to keep silent about when this delicious dish was born. The name of the inventor has been lost for centuries. After all, the ancient Romans baked lasagna. But judging by the etymology of the name, they were not the first. Lasanum is a Latin transcription of the ancient Greek word "lasanon". These terms in the ancient world meant first “put on the pot,” and then this very vessel. With the fall of the Roman Empire, the dish, due to its budget, was not forgotten. In the Middle Ages, lasagna was cooked everywhere.
And the first two recorded recipes for this dish were found far from Bologna - in Naples. They date from the 30s of the XIII and the beginning of the XIV centuries. The classic Bolognese lasagna has overgrown with variations over the centuries. They touched not only the filling (minced meat), but also the sauce (it can be bechamel or pesto) and even the plates (spinach or dried peppers or tomatoes can be rubbed into the dough, which makes it change color). In ancient times, the dish was prepared in a special pot, from which it was named. Features of the classic lasagna with minced meat ("Bolognese") are that it is baked in the oven. The full name of the dish is lasagne al forno. This means that they cook it in the oven.
Classic Lasagna: ingredients
We have already mentioned the main component of the dish. These are dough plates that are just as difficult to cook at home as Italian pasta. After all, they prepare flour for pasta and lasagna from durum wheat varieties. But these plates are easy to buy in any European supermarket. They are sold, like pasta, in dry form. Later we will tell you how to cook this specific type of pasta.
We will need from 6 to 20 plates - depending on what size you have a baking dish and how many layers you plan to create in the dish. But three "floors" are the minimum for a classic minced lasagna. Recipes allow you to use one of two sauces for a dish: bolognese and bechamel. We will alternate the layers with a special stew, to create which you need to stock up with a kilogram of beef, one and a half liters of milk, 6 tomatoes, 2 onions, garlic, fresh and dry herbs, as well as 100 milliliters of table white wine.
Discover the secrets of delicious lasagna
Creating a dish can be divided into three stages. The first is cooking stew. He is the most laborious, so many cooks prefer to devote two days to climbing. In the first we cook the stew and possibly the sauce. These ingredients should be cold. On the second day we add the classic lasagna with minced meat.
The secrets of cooking a delicious meal are simple. Since the dough plates are not boiled separately, they soften under the influence of hot sauce. Therefore, we do not regret this ingredient and especially carefully coat the edges of the casserole. If this is not done, the lasagna will turn out dry, or rather, half-baked. Before sending the dish to the oven for baking, you need to let it stand for at least 10 minutes. So the sauce soaks the plates and stews. Cut a hot dish with a very sharp knife. But then you are unlikely to get even squares.
Minced meat
We have decided on the ingredients. It's time to tell how to cook the classic Bolognese lasagna:
- First of all, we turn a kilogram of veal into minced meat. We pass it through the meat grinder. Here are the options. Some chefs use purely beef. Others add some pork to it.
- You can also spice finely chopped onions in vegetable oil and add them to the minced meat. But you can leave this ingredient for the second stage - cooking stew.
- We heat olive oil in a saucepan or in a frying pan with high sides.
- Spread the stuffing.
- Stirring with a wooden spatula, fry until the juice fanned from the meat evaporates.
Cooking stews (Bolognese sauce)
- If you didn’t mix the onions in raw mince, add this ingredient now.
- Also, for flavor, you can put several cloves of garlic in a stewpan. When they give all the aroma to the stew, we will pull them out.
- Next, a step by step recipe for classic lasagna with minced meat instructs us to pour a glass of milk into the stewpan. This ingredient will reduce the acidity of tomatoes, which we will add later, as well as combine all the components of the stew.
- Cook another 10 minutes.
- Scalp tomatoes, peel them. Three tomatoes. For simplicity, it is allowed to replace fresh tomatoes with pasta or ketchup (1 cup).
- Spread tomato sauce in minced meat. Mix.
- Next we use Italian herbs. You can use the same dry seasoning, but it is better to finely chop fresh herbs. According to canon, you need to take at least a few stems of thyme, rosemary and basil. Oregano and marjoram will not be superfluous. If we use Italian Herbs dry seasoning, then sprinkle a full tablespoon.
- Do not forget to salt and pepper the stew.
- Pour 100-150 milliliters of white wine. Continue to fry for three minutes.
- Reduce the fire. Stew under the lid for another 20 minutes.
- Turn off the fire. Cool the stew under the lid.
Why bechamel sauce is needed
The consistency of the bolognese is rather thick. It is called a sauce conditionally when served with pasta or used in pizza. But essentially, bolognese is a finely chopped meat stew. Served with pasta, it resembles a dish of Soviet cuisine - naval pasta. In any case, one Bolognese sauce is clearly not enough to prepare the classic minced lasagna. After all, the plates will be either completely or half raw. Therefore, the casserole clearly needs a liquid sauce, in which the pasta dough will reach full readiness. Therefore, some recipes of simplified lasagna in Bologna provide a completely different algorithm of actions:
- sauteing onions with garlic,
- minced meat roasting,
- adding tomatoes
- short stewing in wine
- dressing with herbs and herbs.
Cooking Bechamel Sauce
A step-by-step recipe for classic meat Lasagna prescribes us:
- In a saucepan with a thick bottom, melt about a hundred grams of butter (it must be cut into smaller pieces). Replacing this ingredient with a spread will reduce the cost of the dish, but will negatively affect its taste.
- When the oil becomes liquid, put in a stewpan 80 grams of sifted flour.
- Stir well with a spatula so that there are no lumps left.
- Continue to keep on fire until the mass turns yellow.
- Pour in the remaining milk. Before this, it needs to be heated.
- Three a little nutmeg, salt the sauce to taste.
- Cook over low heat for about five minutes.
- The sauce should slightly thicken, but remain liquid - the consistency of sour cream
Plates
The most asked question that worries those who have never cooked lasagna with minced meat and bechamel sauce - how to cook pasta dough? The classic recipe involves the use of dry plates. They are cooked directly in the oven. In the oven, they come in contact with bechamel sauce. But there are times when the plates should be pre-boiled until half cooked.
If there is little sauce, turn on the fire under a pan of water and arm yourself with tweezers. When the liquid boils, immerse the plate in boiling water and hold it for exactly two minutes. Pull out and dip in ice water. So you stop the cooking process due to residual heat. The plates need to be thoroughly dried from water. It should be ensured that they do not deform, because the dough has become soft. We will discuss them on a cutting board.
Product assembly
What does the next step-by-step recipe for classic lasagna with mince suggest us? The composition of the dish is known - dough plates, stew bolognese and bechamel sauce). They need to be joined together in a strict order. But first, choose a baking dish. In addition to being heat resistant, it needs to have high walls. This requirement is mandatory for those cases when you are going to cook high festive lasagna from four or more layers.
- Pour a little bechamel sauce onto the bottom of the mold.
- We spread the plates in a continuous layer, trying to keep the gap between them to a minimum.
- On top of the dough, pour a little more bechamel.
- We lay out part of the stew Bolognese.
- Level and cover with another layer of plates. Sauce and stew again.
- So repeat until the components of the dish are over.
Build completion
At the very top of the product we should have a layer of plates generously greased with bechamel sauce. Let the dish stand in this form for about ten minutes. In the meantime, we will preheat the oven to 180 degrees and rub the cheese. Ideally, it should be parmesan - this is the recipe for classic minced lasagna.
Russian chefs assure you that any hard cheese in the oven melts in the same way as the original product. You can take Dutch, Estonian and other varieties. You can’t spoil the lasagna with cheese, so rub it on top of the dish (on a layer of bechamel) no matter how much you feel.
Roasting
Put the form in the oven. It’s difficult to say exactly how long it takes to bake classic lasagna with minced meat. After all, factors such as the width of the pan and the height of the product play a role here. Focus on half an hour of cooking. If you have cooked the plates in advance, then the baking time can be reduced to 15-20 minutes.
When you turn off the oven, do not rush to pull out the lasagna. Give her a little insist and obscure the internal warmth. Also, do not rush to immediately cut the casserole into portions. When the product cools a little, the sauce will thicken and the layers will “seize”. Then cutting the cake will be much easier.
Very fast minced climbing
The classic recipe is quite complicated, so cooks do not get tired of looking for simpler cooking options. Here is one of them:
- In a pan, we pass the onions.
- When it turns yellow, add the stuffing.
- Fry until half cooked.
- Add tomato paste or ketchup. Salt, pepper, season with spices and dry Italian herbs.
- Remove from heat.
- We heat butter in a pan.
- Add the flour. Grind.
- Top up milk. Stir until the lumps disappear.
- Make less fire and simmer under the lid until the bechamel thickens. But remember: the sauce must remain liquid. If it turned out to be too thick, pour hot milk.
- Next, proceed to the assembly of the product as described above. Bake at 180 degrees.
Lasagna storage
This dish is very hearty. It has a lot of protein, carbohydrates, fats. It is worth eating a small portioned square, as hunger does not remind of itself for long hours. In this case, you will not feel any heaviness in the stomach and a feeling of overeating. This is the value of Italian cuisine. The calorie content of lasagna depends on its filling. After all, you can make the dish completely vegetarian - with spinach, tomatoes, and other vegetables. You can also vary the filling by adding cheeses - mozzarella, ricotta and other Italian varieties.
But classic lasagna (with minced meat) is especially high in calories. It is difficult to prepare the dish, but the family will hardly eat the casserole all at once. What to do with leftovers? Unlike pasta, lasagna is perfectly stored. But you need to make sure that the air penetrates less into the dish. Cut the lasagna into pieces and pack them in containers with airtight lids. Store them in the freezer. Before using such a lasagna, it is enough to simply heat it in the microwave or in the oven. In terms of gastronomic qualities, no one can distinguish it from just cooked.