Lasagna

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Tray of lasagna
Lasagna

Similar to the spaghetti and meatballs dish, this started as a “But Cheaper” item from Joshua Weissman. Similar to the spaghetti, I added a sofrito, anchovies, and a bit of other things to make it a bit more aromatic and savory.

Materials:

  • Dutch oven
  • 9½" lasagna pan
  • Immersion blender (see note 4)

Ingredients

  • 9 lasagna noodles
  • Sauce:
    • 1 Tbsp of clarified butter
      • subst: vegetable oil
    • 1-2 lbs ground beef
    • 1 medium onion (finely diced)
    • 1 carrot (finely diced)
    • 1 celery stalk (finely diced)
    • ½ cup of red wine
    • 1 oz of anchovies
    • 1 tsp fennel seeds (ground)
    • 1 tsp black pepper (ground)
    • 2 oz tomato paste
    • 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
    • 4 cloves of garlic (minced)
    • 1 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes
  • Cheese Mixture:
    • 15 oz ricotta
    • 1 egg
    • ¼ cup of pecorino romano
    • 8 oz low-moisture mozzarella cheese (shredded)[1]
      • opt: additional for topping
    • salt & pepper

Instructions

  • Sauce:
    1. Preheat oven to 375°F
    2. Cook noodles per box instructions (don’t forget to salt water). Cool with cold water and set aside when done.
    3. In a large pot on medium-high heat, add he butter and place ground beef and sausage. Mash the meat in and cook until there is a decent sear on the bottom. Stir and repeat until meat is browned.[2]
    4. Stir in the ground pepper and fennel seed.
    5. Remove meat from the pot and set aside.
    6. Add onions, celery, and carrot to the pot and cook until onions are translucent.
    7. Add wine and scrape the bottom of the pan to scrape up the fond that has cooked onto the bottom.
    8. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant.
    9. Add in the tomato paste and stir in. Cook until the paste has slightly caramelized.
    10. Add in the crushed tomatoes.
    11. Remove the pot from heat and, using an immersion blender, puree the sauce until desired texture is reached.[3]
    12. Add in red pepper flakes.
    13. Return the pot to heat, reduce the heat to medium-low, add back in the ground beef, and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
  • Cheese Mixture:
    1. In a medium bowl combine the pecorino romano, ricotta, mozzarella, and egg with a generous amount of salt and pepper.
  • Assembly and Cooking:
    1. In a 9½x11-inch baking pan, lay ¼ of your meat sauce mix followed by 3 cooked noodles.
    2. Add another ¼ of the meat sauce followed by a ⅓ of the cheese mix followed by another 3 noodles.
    3. Repeat previous step.
    4. Put the remainder of your meat sauce followed by the remainder of your cheese sauce.
      • optional: top with additional mozzarella
    5. Add additional salt and pepper on top.
    6. Cover and place in oven for 25 minutes.
    7. Uncover and place in oven for another 25 minutes.[4]
    8. Remove from oven and let sit for 15 minutes.
  1. No pre-shredded cheese. It’s also recommended that you use low-moisture mozzarella. If you use something like buffalo mozzarella it will make the layer flat and soggy rather than stringy.
  2. Ideally, this should create a fond on the bottom of the pan. This is a caramelized layer of grease that will be deglazed by the wine and mixed into the sauce to give it additional rich flavor.
  3. If you don’t have an immersion blender or simply don’t want to be bothered with this step, it’s completely fine to skip this. It will give your sauce a slightly less smooth texture which plenty of people actually prefer. I prefer it to be smooth but you can make it however you like.
  4. Feel free to broil on high for a minute or two to get that browning on the top. Be careful not to brown it too much because it might make the top layer of cheese a bit chewy and difficult to work with.