Lasagna al Forno is a classic Italian dish that is perfect for a special occasion or a hearty family meal. Originating from the region of Emilia-Romagna, this baked lasagna features layers of fresh pasta sheets, a rich and flavorful meat sauce, a creamy béchamel sauce, and a generous sprinkling of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. The result is a decadent and satisfying dish that is sure to impress your guests. With variations including lasagna verde, which incorporates spinach pasta sheets for a vibrant green hue, and lasagna bianca, which omits the tomato sauce for a lighter and more delicate flavor, the versatility of lasagna al forno allows for endless customization.
This article provides a comprehensive guide to making lasagna al forno, with step-by-step instructions and helpful tips to ensure success. The traditional meat sauce recipe includes a combination of ground beef, pork, and veal, simmered in a rich tomato sauce flavored with onions, carrots, celery, garlic, and Italian herbs. For a vegetarian alternative, the meat sauce can be replaced with a hearty combination of mushrooms, zucchini, and eggplant. The creamy béchamel sauce is made with a roux of butter and flour, milk, and a touch of nutmeg, while the pasta sheets can be homemade or store-bought.
To assemble the lasagna, the pasta sheets are layered with the meat or vegetable sauce, béchamel sauce, and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. The lasagna is then baked in the oven until golden brown and bubbly. Once cooked, the lasagna is allowed to rest for a few minutes before slicing and serving. Accompaniments such as a simple green salad or a glass of Italian red wine can complement the dish perfectly.
Whether you are a seasoned cook or a beginner in the kitchen, this article has everything you need to know to prepare a delicious and authentic lasagna al forno. With its rich flavors, customizable options, and impressive presentation, this classic Italian dish is sure to become a favorite in your home.
LASAGNE AL FORNO
This is Delia Smith's version of Lasagne. I'm used to the American version of lasagna that is smothered in red sauce, but in England it is more traditional to have a bechamel sauce. It takes a while, but it's worth it! Cooking time is mostly inactive.
Provided by Scarlett516
Categories European
Time 24m
Yield 12 serving(s)
Number Of Ingredients 23
Steps:
- In a large sauté pan, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Add onion and fry for about 10 minutes.
- While the onion is cooking, chop the pancetta. The best way to do this is to roll it up, cut lengthwise then across.
- Once onion is softened, add the pancetta and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Place the pancetta and onion in a 6 quart dutch oven, add another tablespoon of oil to the sauté pan and return to heat.
- Add the ground beef and cook until browned. Transfer to the dutch oven, add another tablespoon of oil to pan and return to heat.
- Add the ground pork and brown.
- Once pork has browned, add it to the dutch oven.
- Preheat oven to 275°F (140°C, Gas Mark 1).
- Place dutch oven on burner and stir ingredients together. Add the tomatoes, tomato purée, red wine, salt, pepper, and about ¼ nutmeg, grated. Stir all ingredients together and bring to a simmer.
- While bringing mixture to a simmer, tear half of the basil leaves from the stem, tear or chop the leaves and add them to the pot. As soon as the mixture is simmering, place in preheated oven. You do not need to cover the mixture.
- Here the recipe says to let simmer for 3 hours before giving a stir, I stirred every 45 minutes.
- When liquid has reduced to a concentrated sauce, season to taste with salt and pepper and add the remainder of the basil.
- About 20-30 minutes before the ragú bolognese is due to come out of the oven, begin the bechamel sauce.
- Place the milk, butter, flour, salt and pepper, and garlic in a large saucepan. Heat oven medium-low heat and whisk until simmering and thickened. Reduce heat as low as possible and simmer for 10 minutes more.
- Sieve the sauce into a large bowl and add the cream. Adjust seasoning and add another quarter of nutmeg.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (Gas mark 4, 180°C).
- Now for the assembly. Organize your materials in the order in which you will use them, with the baking dish on a cookie sheet (to catch spillage) in the middle.
- Spread a thin layer of the ragú bolognese on the bottom of the pan. Cover with ¼ of the bechamel sauce, diced mozzarella and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. Add a layer of lasagna noodles (They don't need to be cooked, the large amount of sauce cooks the noodles). Repeat in this manner, finishing off with a top layer of cream sauce and a coating of Parmesan cheese.
- Place in oven (be sure to keep the baking sheet underneath!) and bake for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown and bubbling.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 752.8, Fat 47.1, SaturatedFat 24.2, Cholesterol 140.7, Sodium 579.3, Carbohydrate 47.5, Fiber 2.5, Sugar 3.9, Protein 32.2
LASAGNE AL FORNO
Lasagne, as everyone knows, is a dish of wide flat noodles, sometimes green from spinach (lasagne Verdi), sometimes with ruffled edges (lasagne ricce). The classic, austere version from Bologna alternates layers of lasagne with meat sauce (ragu) and bechamel. I am giving a more exuberant example below. There are many others, including the lasagne di vigilia, Christmas Eve lasagne, involving very wide noodles that remind the faithful of the baby Jesus's swaddling clothes. Lasagne (Lasagne is the singular but it is almost never use. Ditto for other pasta types: who would ever lapse into speaking of a single spaghetto, except in humor) is first and foremost a noodle, not a specific dish, It may be the primordial Italian pasta noodle, or at least the oldest known word in the modern pasta vocabulary. In one way or another, lasagne seems to derive from the classical Latin laganum. But what was laganum? Something made of flour and oil, a cake. The word itself derived from a Greek word for chamber pot, which was humorously applied to cooking pots. And like many other, better-known cases of synecdochical food names, the container came to stand for the thing it contained. And eventually, by a process no one knows with any certainly, laganum emerged as a word for a flat noodle in very early modern, southern Italy. If you are persuaded by all the evidence collected by Clifford A. Wright, you will be ready to believe that in Sicily, an Arab noodle cuisine collided with the Italian kitchen vocabulary and co-opted laganum and its variant lasanon to describe the new "cakes" coming in from North Africa. Would you be happier about this theory if you had evidence of a survival of an "oriental" Arab pasta in Sicily? Mary Taylor Simeti provides one in Pomp and Sustenance, Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food. Sciabbo, a Christmas noodle dish eaten in Enna in central Sicily, combines ruffled lasagna (sciabbo-jabot, French for a ruffled shirtfront) with cinnamon and sugar, typical Near Eastern spices then and now.
Provided by Food Network
Categories main-dish
Time 1h30m
Yield 6 servings
Number Of Ingredients 14
Steps:
- In a mixing bowl, stir together the beef, milk, parsley, salt, and pepper. Form into balls the size of olives. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet and brown the meatballs in small batches. Remove from the pan as they brown and drain on paper towels. Set aside.
- In the same skillet, add the onion and garlic and saute until the onion is lightly browned. Then stir in the tomato puree and tomato paste. Simmer for 15 minutes.
- Bring 6 quarts of water to boil in a large pot.
- Add the meatballs to the tomato mixture and continue cooking for another 30 minutes. Meanwhile, liberally salt the boiling water and add the lasagna. Cook until al dente, about 10 minutes. Drain in colander.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- In a shallow ovenproof pan, roughly 13 by 9 by 2 inches, spread a thin layer of the sauce (no meatballs). Then spread a layer of overlapping lasagna 1 strip thick (don't let the strips run up the side of the dish). Cover that with mozzarella slices and then 5 tablespoons ricotta. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and then spread on 1/4 of the sauce and meatballs. Begin again with a layer of lasagna and continue as above until all the ingredients are used up, ending with the Parmesan.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. If the cheese on top hasn't melted, run under the broiler briefly. Then let the dish rest at room temperature for a few minutes before serving.
LASAGNA AL FORNO
Provided by Tyler Florence
Categories main-dish
Time 2h40m
Yield 12 servings
Number Of Ingredients 18
Steps:
- Cook the lasagna noodles in plenty of boiling salted water until pliable and barely tender, about 10 minutes. Stir with a wooden spoon to prevent sticking. Drain the noodles thoroughly, coat with olive oil keep them moist and easy to work with.
- Coat a large skillet with olive oil. Saute over medium heat, onion, garlic and herbs. Cook 5 minutes. Brown beef and sausage until no longer pink, about 15 minutes. Drain fat into a small container and discard. Stir in the tomato paste completely. Set aside to cool.
- In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta, parsley and oregano. Stir in beaten eggs. Add Parmesan, season with salt and pepper.
- To assemble the lasagna: Coat the bottom of a 13 by 9-inch pan with a ladle full of tomato sauce. Arrange 4 noodles lengthwise in a slightly overlapping layer on the sauce. Then, line each end of the pan with a lasagna noodle. This forms a collar that holds in the corners. Spread 1/2 of the meat mixture over the pasta. Dollop 1/2 of the ricotta mixture over the meat, spread to the edges with a spatula. Sprinkle 1/2 of the mozzarella on top of the ricotta. Top with a ladle full of tomato sauce, spread evenly. Repeat with the next layer of noodles, meat, cheeses and sauce. Top last layer with noodles, sauce and shredded mozzarella and Parmesan. Tap the pan to force out air bubbles. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 1 hour. Remove from oven. Let lasagna rest for 30 minutes so the noodles will settle and cut easily. Cut into 2-inch squares and serve.
LASAGNE VERDI AL FORNO
A recipe from my home in Emilia-Romagna, Italy; this lasagna made with spinach pasta cannot be beat. It's excellent if you want to impress some guests, or even yourself. It may be a bit time consuming, but it's well worth the TLC you put into it.
Provided by Arianna
Categories World Cuisine Recipes European Italian
Time 1h30m
Yield 8
Number Of Ingredients 26
Steps:
- For the pasta dough: Steam the spinach in a steamer or over boiling water until bright green, 2 minutes. Squeeze to remove excess moisture and process in a food processor to make a paste. Combine spinach with eggs, semolina, and salt and process until smooth. Stir in enough of the flour to make a smooth dough. Knead briefly, cover and set aside.
- For the ragu: In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Saute bacon, carrot, celery and onion until onion is translucent. Stir in ground pork, ground beef and minced ham, and cook until browned. Stir in tomato paste, oregano and beef stock. (Reserve the chicken livers for later.) Season with salt and pepper, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 20 minutes.
- For the bechamel: While the ragu is simmering, combine 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons flour in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Whisk to make a roux. Remove from heat, let rest one minute, then whisk in warm milk. Return to heat, simmer 10 minutes, stirring constantly, until thickened. Season with salt and nutmeg. Remove from heat.
- To cook pasta: Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. On a floured surface, divide pasta dough into three portions. Roll each portion out to a thin sheet. Have ready an ice water bath. Cook each sheet 3 minutes in the boiling water; remove from the boiling water and dip in the ice water; drain and dry on a clean, dry cloth.
- To finish the ragu: Stir the chicken livers into the simmering sauce. Cook 1 minute, remove from heat and set aside.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 baking dish.
- To assemble lasagna: Place one pasta sheet in bottom of prepared baking dish. Spread one-third of the ragu, one-quarter of the bechamel, one-third of the ricotta, and one-quarter of the parmesan over the pasta. Repeat layers twice. Top with remaining bechamel and parmesan and dot with butter.
- Bake in preheated oven 30 minutes, until top is golden brown.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 551.8 calories, Carbohydrate 31.4 g, Cholesterol 186.6 mg, Fat 33 g, Fiber 2 g, Protein 31.8 g, SaturatedFat 17.4 g, Sodium 1044.4 mg, Sugar 5.5 g
Tips:
- Use fresh lasagna noodles. Fresh noodles will cook more evenly and have a better texture than dried noodles.
- Don't overcook the noodles. Lasagna noodles should be cooked al dente, or slightly firm to the bite.
- Use a variety of cheeses. A combination of cheeses, such as ricotta, Parmesan, and mozzarella, will give your lasagna a rich and flavorful filling.
- Layer the lasagna properly. Start with a layer of sauce, then add a layer of noodles, followed by a layer of cheese. Repeat this process until you have used all of the ingredients.
- Bake the lasagna until it is bubbly and golden brown. This will take about 30 minutes.
- Let the lasagna rest before serving. This will allow the flavors to meld and the lasagna to set.
Conclusion:
Lasagna al forno is a classic Italian dish that is perfect for a special occasion or a weeknight meal. It is a versatile dish that can be customized to your liking. With a little planning and effort, you can make a delicious lasagna al forno that your family and friends will love.
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