It’s just a small pinch of nutmeg. It may be more an Italian than Italian-American thing, but I do see it in many Italian-American recipes. It’s not a lot…use it spraringly like you would cloves.
There are a million lasagna incarnations, but my personal favorite and the one I consider perfect is a classic Lasagna Bolognese. No cheese except a little Parmesan grated over the top, bechamel sauce for the white layer and yes, made with a generous pinch of nutmeg. To me, bechamel isn’t bechamel without fresh grated nutmeg.
I make the noodle dough first to let it rest for 30 minutes while I chop vegetables for the bolognese sauce.
The bolognese is a simple one made with beef and sometimes a mixture of beef and ground lamb, together with chopped onion, carrot, parsley root, celery, tomato paste, home canned paste tomatoes, fresh parsley, thyme and basil. Simmer with a strong beef stock and red wine till reduced.
While the sauce simmers, I roll out the noodles, cook them and then make the bechamel.
Assemble the lasagnas starting with a noodle layer, ending with bechamel and then grate the Parmesan over the top.
I make 3 at a time and freeze two for future meals. Lasagna 3 times a year for me is plenty.
Smooth tomato meat sauce, with lean beef and tender bacon, and maybe some carrots and other assorted vegetables cooked well into it. Oregano, onion, garlic, black pepper, a hint of rosemary.
Cheddar cheese - just a tiny bit sprinkled in among some of the layers, and a modest amount on top to toast in the oven.
I don’t really care how many layers… not enough to make it ridiculously tall. Must be at least two inches thick.
Cheddar cheese might be OK on a cracker or two, but that’s it. Cheddar in something that is supposed to be a meal is out of the question. Cheddar in Lasagne? Unimaginable.
Otherwise, yeah, favorite lasagne runs the spectrum. Does’t even have to have meat. Start with the basics: Noodles, tomato sauce, the three classic cheeses (with some egg mixed in), and then go from there.
That’s even beyond the basics for me. I (like Aspenglow) use only one cheese: parmesan. It’s better than any variation I’ve had that included ricotta, cottage, mozzarella, whatever.
At any rate, I’d say the basics are pasta, and alternating layers of a tomato or meat-based layer, and a contrasting layer (could be bechamel; could be cheese; could be spinach, whatever.)
I haven’t made lasagna in a long time. Can’t remember if I make it with bechamel or a garlicky tomato sauce; I seem to recall eggs figuring into it somehow.
I definitely know I like to use crumbled Italian hot sausages as the meat ingredient, rather than ground beef, bacon, or Bolognese.
Son’s vegetarian girlfriend is visiting later this month…I should make a fresh spinach lasagna, which I also love.
Is that allowed? (and by allowed, I mean do any restaurant make it that way?)I really really *want *to like lasagna. It looks sooooooo good, even in the commercials for those frozen ones. I’ve tried several times to set my aversion to cheese aside and taste it, hoping all the other yummy stuff will cancel that part out but nope, I just *cannot *get past the ricotta.
Yes, there are many versions without ricotta. You’ll have to read the menu, but if you go anyplace that specializes in Northern Italian food, it generally comes with bechamel instead of a heavy cheese layer. (But it is sprinkled with Parmesan on each layer.) Just search for “lasagna bolognese.” I find about 15 restaurants in my area who serve it. That’s also the typical style, in my experience, with any Italian restaurants outside the US. Here we do a southern Italian version, influenced by immigration patterns to the US. It’s apparently based on a Neapolitan lasagna called lasagne imbottite, or “stuffed lasagna.”
Hard to imagine it being as good with only Parm, but I’m willing to try it and see. Can you PM me some? (Hey, won’t it be great when we can actually do that???)
i suppose it’s called something different, but I will sometimes substitute eggplant slices for pasta when I’m making a real vegetarian dish. Gives it a bit more heft.
Cinnamon in a meat sauce is awesome. Trust. Next time you make a batch of Bolognese add 1/8th tsp cinnamon. It will change your life.
My lasagna uses ricotta because I miss the texture it gives if you use bechamel. I also put a sprinkle of nutmeg in the ricotta.
My meat sauce recipe has two kinds of italian sausage, ground beef both garlic and onion (I know heresy) 1 grated carrot 28 oz of crushed tomatoes (or whole canned tomatoes I crush myself depending on what I have on hand) diced tomatoes for texture, 2oz tomato paste, a cup of red wine, salt, a spice mix that’s a bit heavy on oregano and has some fennel seeds in it, a bit of brown sugar and the tiny bit of cinnamon.
I layer sauce, noodle, ricotta, sauce, mozzarella, sauce, noodle, ricotta, fresh parsley, sauce, noodle, ricotta, noodle, sauce, mozzarella more parsley. So it’s not exactly even layers.
I use cinnamon in plenty of meat dishes and sauces (all sorts of Mexican stuff, Cincinnati chili, Greek and Turkish stuff, Southeast Asian food, etc.). I just don’t like it in a bolognese (though, oddly, I find it fine in pastitsio). I suspect it’s a matter of expectations, just like how ricotta is required for some people in a lasagna, or Italian sausage, or oregano and those types of Italian spices. I also just like Italian food at it’s simplest vs the more heavily spiced styles. Like pasta with grown butter, sage, and a grating of Parmesan is just about the perfect way to enjoy pasta. Or Maria Hazan’s spaghetti sauce recipe which is just tomatoes, butter, and half an unsliced onion.
Fair. For me some things need to be heavily spiced (lasagna being one of them). Maybe it is about expectations as you said. In my mind there is “Italian Italian food” which is the stuff I discovered as an older teen or adult, and then there is “American Italian” which is the stuff I grew up on. The Italian Italian I also like to be very simple. The rest I want to be spiced to high heaven. Lasagna falls into the later category for me.
I believe so. Funny thing is, I like highly spiced foods, but, for some reason, with my Italian food, I like it more straightforward (probably because the ingredients are so delicious on their own). I’ll eat any kind of lasagna you put in front of me (hell, I will eat any food you put in front of me), but the concentrated umami bomb that is a lasagna bolognese is the only lasagna that won my heart. (And damn you all to heck. Now all I want for dinner is lasanga. Think that may just be in the cards.)
Are you talking about how you parcook them first before layering them? They do sell “oven ready”/“no boil” noodles, as well, that don’t require cooking. I’ve also found that for the saucier styles of lasagna, even regular ol’ lasagna sheets work just fine without pre-cooking.
(Hey, won’t it be great when we can actually do that???)