Lasagna

Ingredients Directions The benefits of the dish History of the dish

Nutrition Facts
Calories: 152
Protein: 15
Fats: 8
Carbohydrates: 4

Information
Time: 2 hours
By: Nii
Ratings 4
Your ratings:

Today HozOboz offers you a great classic lasagna recipe. It’s usually made of beef but veal will be a great option as well. If you’ve never cooked it before, be ready that it may be rather challenging. However, that’s only first time, because once you’ll get the way to make this yummy thing, you’ll be able to cook with you eyes closed. So, step by step recipe for classic lasagna is our agenda today.

Historic reference on the origin of lasagna

Lasagna is flat-shaped pasta of square or rectangular form. First and foremost, it’s typical for Bologna, Italy. Lasagna is a pasta dish with various filling (meat, fish, vegetable etc.), filled with sauce (usually béchamel sauce). Originally, the word ‘’lasagna'' brought the meaning of a casserole for cooking. The thing is, although the dish is thought to be Italian, the word ‘’lasagna'' derives from greek ‘'λάσανα'' that means hot layers or plates. The word was borrowed by romans but they said it like ‘’lasanum’'' and had a meaning of a boiler or pot fro cooking.

The first lasagnas were cooked in Emilia-Romagna region of Italy but it became more popular throughout the whole country and beyond its borders. In the ancients times, lasagna was made in stone ovens in a special pan without a grip. Several thin dough layers were put in it along with vegetable rage and parmesan cheese. In other regions (Liguria, for example) different sauces like pesto are used.

Health befits of consuming lasagna

As you might have noticed, lasagna may vary, but this one is made with meat is very healthy due to the high content of protein (twice as much than fats, and tree times more than carbohydrates). Furthermore, protein is known to be a building material for human body cells.

Amazing satiety is another advantage of this dish. Eating a piece of lasagna, and you won’t be hungry soon. You’ll have neither heaviness in your stomach not feeling of overeating. However, this distinctive feature works not only for lasagna, but almost for all Italian cuisine. Classic Lasagna is the best proof.

The list of ingredients for lasagna

1,5 kg of beef or veil
2 L. of milk ( + glass forcemeat)
a glass of tomato sauce
2 tablespoons of olive oil
a tablespoon of dried herbs (basil, rosemary, thyme)
a teaspoon of salt
1/3 teaspoon of black pepper
80 grams butter
80 grams of flour
100 grams of Parmesan cheese
lasagna sheets

Lasagna recipe

Cut the meat into small slices.
Wash the meat and cut into slices.
Then mince the meat since classic mince lasagna presupposes the presence of forcemeat.
Make the forcemeat for lasagna.
Heat the olive oil in a stewpot.
Place the stewpot on the heat and pour in olive oil.
Put the forcemeat in the stewpot. Stirring with a spatula, cook it on low heat for 20 minutes or until the juice evaporates from the meat.
Place the meat in the hot pan and cook for about 20 minutes.
Pour a glass of milk in the stewpot. It will provide more dense aroma. The stir it and cook for 10 minutes.
Add a glass of milk and cook for 10 minutes.
Then add tomato sauce. You may use tomato purée or the ready made bolognese sauce or any other.
Add ready-made or homemade sauce.
Now, it’s time for dry herbs: basil, rosemary, thyme. In case you have fresh ones use them but not so much. Add some salt and pepper.
Then add some herbs, salt and pepper.
Cover a pan with a lid and cook on low heat for 10-15 minutes more.
Now, cover the stewpot its a lid and cook for about 10 minutes.
Put some butter in a large pan and melt it.
To make béchamel sauce, melt some butter in a pan.
Add flour. Constantly stir it with a wooden spatula.
Pour some flour and fry it with butter, stirring it.
You will get such a substance.
The substance should look like on the photo.
Then add some milk. Start with a tablespoon then add one more, and so on, constantly stirring.
Slowly add milk and keep stirring.
Keep adding milk until it’s up. Don’t forget to stir and you’ll get a large amount of béchamel sauce. You may add a half glass of white wine if you like, just to give it a special taste and aroma. In case you didn’t prevent the sauce of thickening use blender.
You may pour some wine into the sauce. Avoid thickening using blender if needed.
Grate some Parmesan cheese.
Grate the parmesan.
Put 4-5 tablespoons of béchamel sauce on the bottom of the baking dish. Then put a lasagna sheet. Some chefs boil these shits previously until they’re half cooked, but HozOboz recommends you not to do it.
Form the lasagna: put a few spoons of sauce in the dish and cove it with raw lasagna sheets.
Then put the half or the third of all meat depending on how many lasagna layers you want to have.
Place a half of all the amount of meat if you want to have to layers.
Sprinkle the meat with Parmesan cheese.
Then add some parmesan.
Now, add some béchamel sauce.
The sauce goes in.
Then repeat with lasagna sheets.
Repeat with lasagna sheets.
Again - forcemeat and parmesan.
Now, it’s time for meat again, and Parmesan, of course.
Béchamel sauce goes in, then everything with lasagna sheet.
Pour more sauce and cover with one more sheet.
Grease to thoroughly with béchamel so that the sheets are totally covered with it. This is necessary since otherwise the lasagna sheets will dry and become rigid. In fact, you should never spare sauce for lasagna. Then parmesan again.
Then grease lasagna with sauce one more time and grate some cheese onto it.
Put it in the oven for 30-40 minutes until the sheets become soft and béchamel sauce gets rouge.
Cook it for 40 minutes that the surface redden.
Then cool it a bit to make it easier to cut and it’s ready to be served.
Ready lasagna should be cooled and only afterwards be cut and brought to the table.

So, now you see that classic lasagna preparation is not that exhausting and hard as you could imagine. Of course it’s not ''cooked-in-15-minutes''' kind of dish but come one, you feel that incredible taste? By the way, the great advantage of lasagna is that it can be freezes any time and then beaten again any time you want. For example, you may cook it on weekend (better make it in foil pie dish) and keep in the refrigerator.