In recent years, lasagna has become an increasingly popular dish that is gaining worldwide fame. Therefore, many housewives today dream of learning to masterfully cook it.
Some as a basis for it are enough and semi-finished products, while others want to learn how to cook a dish completely with their own hands, without using sheets sold in the store. And, of course, they will be interested to know the recipe for the lasagna test, as well as some tricks related to cooking and serving.
History of Lasagna
Lasagna came to us from Italy. Which is not surprising - where else are macaroni, cheeses and sauces so loved to combine these ingredients in one dish?
It is difficult to say when the first lasagna in the world was prepared. But the name itself comes from the term "lasana", which means "hot plates". And her recipe was first recorded in the XIV century. True, authorship could not be established, but the manuscript itself, discovered in Naples, was called the Culinary Book.
Some experts argue that the word lasana itself came to Italy from ancient Greece. Others argue that initially they were ordinary cakes, grated to improve their taste with cheese and spices. Therefore, the Greek dish is very far from modern lasagna. And therefore, only Italy is its homeland.
However, because of the amazing popularity of the dish, the British and even the Scandinavians try to attribute his invention to themselves. But Italians unshakably believe: only in their amazing country could such an exquisite and delicious culinary masterpiece be prepared for the first time.
Which dough to use?
Experts have been arguing around this issue for several years. Some believe that the most successful is climbing from puff pastry. Indeed, the taste of such a dish is simply incomparable. When cooking, the dough is divided into thin layers, which are quickly soaked in sauce. Therefore, the taste is especially refined and refined. However, hardly Italian cooks used puff pastry five hundred years ago. That would be very troublesome. Judging by all the evidence, they preferred flat cakes from the usual unleavened dough. They were made as thin as possible, so that they were perfectly saturated.
Therefore, modern culinary specialists have a certain scope for creativity here. Try different options to determine which tastes better - puff pastry or unleavened lasagna.
What ingredients are needed for the test
If you are not going to buy ready-made sheets for lasagna, which are sold in many stores, having decided to cook this Italian dish completely on your own, you need to find out which products are useful. Fortunately, the list is not too long. The ingredients for the lasagna dough are:
- 600 grams of flour;
- 50 ml of olive oil;
- 3 chicken eggs;
- 100 ml of boiled cooled water;
- salt.
Perhaps in most kitchens there is everything you need to get a little familiar with Italian cuisine.
Choosing the right flour
However, in the preparation of lasagna there are simply no trifles. Therefore, if you want to master the classic Lasagna recipe, you should try to find durum wheat flour. To some this may seem like an insignificant trifle. But after all, it depends on this ingredient what properties the dough will have, and therefore the finished dish.
An experienced culinary expert will easily identify her by simply touching. Why is it needed flour made from durum wheat? Because it contains a large amount of gluten. Such flour absorbs more water, but it is much easier to roll out the finished dough - it is less plastic and keeps its shape better. And this is exactly what you need in the cooking process.
Do it yourself
If you want to make the dough for lasagna with your own hands, get ready for the fact that this simple process will take at least 20 minutes of hard work:
- Flour is sifted through a fine sieve to make it more airy.
- The rest of the ingredients are added to it: eggs, salt, oil and water. By the way, water should not be poured out all at once, but in parts.
- Knead the dough. If it turns out too hard, not plastic, add water. Pour it in a little, constantly kneading. You have to adapt to a specific flour so that the dough is not too liquid and moderately stiff.
- The kneading process takes up to 15 minutes. The result should be an elastic, soft and resilient dough. Leave it in a bowl for 30-40 minutes. And so that it dries less, it should be covered with a paper towel, towel or cling film.
- For half an hour, the dough will infuse, gluten will finally mix with moisture, resulting in an ideal structure.
- Now divide the resulting dough into six parts. Roll each of them carefully. Do not spare your strength here! Do not forget what dough is needed for lasagna - as thin as possible, preferably not thicker than 1.5-2 mm.
- It is advisable to cut the rolled sheets to obtain a square or rectangular shape - to the size of the baking sheet on which the climbing will be prepared.
As mentioned above, the recipe requires the use of eggs. But some people would like to make lean lasagna dough. Of course, you do not need to add eggs to it - slightly increase the amount of water to compensate for the lack of moisture. However, be prepared for the fact that the finished product will not be so elastic.
Now you can easily cook your own lasagna dough. But this is only half the battle. It is also necessary to deal with the filling - it can be surprisingly varied. Replacing one single ingredient, you get completely different dishes.
What filling can I use
Of course, the classic recipe for cooking involves the use of real minced meat. Most often beef or slightly less pork. In the first case, the dish will turn out less greasy, but in the second - more juicy.
But today, chicken is becoming increasingly popular - it is much cheaper than beef and pork. Therefore, many housewives make extensive use of it. You can use both minced chicken and finely chopped meat.
But some people, knowing how to make dough for lean lasagna, would like to learn about the complete recipe for cooking dishes that you can treat your family to fasting. In this case, the meat can be replaced with finely chopped and well-fried mushrooms with onions.
Let's do classic lasagna
Experts say that classic lasagna is cooked with bolognese sauce and using certain types of cheese. So, to make the sauce you will need:
- 500 grams of minced meat;
- 700 grams of tomatoes;
- salt, black pepper.
Preparing the sauce is easy:
- Dip the tomatoes in boiling water, peel the skins and pass through a blender to make a homogeneous mass.
- Sauté the minced meat in vegetable oil.
- Add chopped tomatoes to it.
- Salt, pepper.
- Stew for 5-7 minutes.
It remains only to take 300 grams of cheese (parmesan, mozzarella or ricotta) and grate it on a fine grater. You already have everything you need for cooking.
You can proceed with the assembly:
- Put the first sheet of dough on a deep baking sheet.
- Pour the sauce thickly.
- Cover the top with a second sheet. Repeat until dough and sauce are over.
- Put in the oven preheated to 200 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes.
- Pull out the lasagna and sprinkle with cheese - the more it is, the tastier the dish will turn out.
- Return to oven for 10-15 minutes to melt the cheese well.
Italian lasagna is ready!
Proper serving
But it’s not enough to know the recipe for the lasagna test and how to prepare it. It is important to have an idea of the correct presentation of the dish so that guests receive maximum pleasure. There are a few tricks here:
- Serve it on hot plates (just not scorching!) So that the lasagna remains warm longer (when cooled, it loses some of the taste).
- The optimum size of the cut for the feed is 10 x 10 centimeters. If cut smaller, the pieces will look too modest and cool quickly. And larger ones are inconvenient to eat.
- Before serving, it will not be superfluous to sprinkle a treat outgoing steam with chopped herbs - parsley, basil or oregano.
Well that's all! Now you not only know the recipe for the lasagna dough, but you can also properly cook this Italian dish and serve it.