For some reason I never tasted any lasagna that lit my fire. They mostly seemed too dry and simply some kind of red meat sauce on flat noodles, with nothing special to get excited about. My sweetheart, Peggy, said she loves lasagna and that she used to make it to the delight of family and friends. I still wasn't convinced that I wanted to make it. Then, upon reading my guru J. Kenji Lopez Alt's dissertations on Bolognese Sauce and Lasagna Bolognese in his great food science book, The Food Lab©, I knew I had to rethink everything.
To cut to the chase, we first made his recipe for Bolognese Sauce, and later modified it to improve it. It is yummy and also quite a long process to make the stuff ... so one makes a lot at one time, using it for different meals in different ways. Peggy and I first had it with Ziti pasta ... only a small amount but enough to know the sauce is seriously good. Finally the day came when I was willing to pretty much use Kenji's recipe for making Lasagna Bolognese. Per usual I simply had to impose a few of my own preferences in making that dish.
Do make any side dishes for your meal, like a Caesar Salad, before making the lasagna.
The recipe below is 90% Kenji's and 10% mine and I will now explain why I varied somewhat from his recipe.
Kenji decided to forego the spinach. I wanted it for appearance and taste. I added the Ricotta cheese because I like lots of cheese in my pasta dishes. I used only 3/4 of the recipe of Bolognese Sauce instead of all of it because I didn't want to overpower the dish with the meat. Beyond that, I added one cup of plain marinara sauce to give slightly more tomato taste to the meat sauce, along with some added moisture. I added chopped chives for appearance and taste. I specified the amounts of salt and pepper to use, knowing guests could later add more if they wanted more. I added 1/4 cup of heavy cream to the Béchamel sauce to somewhat more moisten the lasagna, to avoid the drying effect of baking.
Peggy and I assembled the lasagna together and she gave it her blessing before baking based on content and amounts of each ingredient, slightly increasing the grated Parmegiano Reggiano from 4 ounces to 5 ounces. So, how did it come out? Well ... in a word, delicious! The recipe pretty much stands as is, with one minor point ... I had to increase the baking time to 55 minutes. Done.
If I decide to tweak the recipe in the future I will increase the mozzarella cheese to 16 ounces and cut the amount of milk to 1 1/2 cups instead of 2 cups. Why? The answer is I want even more cheese and slightly less moisture so the final baked lasagna holds together better when servings are removed from the baking casserole.
Ingredients: (Serves six to eight people)
3/4 recipe of Food Nirvana (really Kenji's, slightly modified) Bolognese Sauce
1 lb. of uncooked lasagna noodles
6 oz. of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
12 oz. of ricotta cheese
2 medium size garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp. of chopped fresh chives
1 tsp. of sea salt
1/2 tsp. of pepper
1/2 tsp. of ground nutmeg (freshly ground or grated is best)
5 oz. Parmegiano Reggiano cheese, grated
8 oz. of fresh milk mozzarella cheese
1 cup of marinara sauce
2 tbsp. of butter
4 tbsp. of flour
2 cups of whole (4% butterfat) milk
1/4 cup of heavy cream
Directions:
Make the Bolognese Sauce a day in advance and vacuum seal and freeze 1/4 of it for some later use. Refrigerate the remaining 3/4 of the sauce in a sealed container.
Set the oven at 375 degrees F.
Place an aluminum foil covered cookie sheet on the bottom oven shelf, reserving the middle shelf for later placement of the casserole of lasagna. This will catch any overflow from the casserole during baking.
Put the 3/4 recipe of Bolognese Sauce into a 2 quart bowl. Add 1 cup of plain marinara sauce and mix until incorporated.
Mix the Ricotta cheese and the chopped spinach in a 1 quart bowl.
Now it is time to make the cheesy, seasoned Béchamel (white) sauce.
Cut the mozzarella cheese into small chunks about 1/2 inch thick and set them aside.
Put the butter into a medium saucepan and heat it on medium heat, whisking lightly, until the foaming mostly subsides.
Add the flour to the butter and whisk well for one minute to form a lightly blond colored roux.
Add the minced garlic and the nutmeg to the roux and whisk and cook on very low heat for one minute.
Add the heavy cream while whisking the roux mixture.
Increase the heat to medium and add the milk slowly but steadily while whisking the mixture. Continue heating until the sauce reaches a low simmering temperature.
Add the mozzarella cheese chunks a few at a time and continue to heat on medium heat while whisking to melt the cheese.
Add the salt and pepper and chopped chives and continue whisking, heating on medium heat until the mixture again simmers, but do not let it come to a boil. You now have a seasoned Béchamel sauce with cheese and chives.
Remove the saucepan from the heat. Set it aside.
Prepare the lasagna noodles according to package directions, or try Kenji's trick for cooking dry pasta, as I did. I simply crisscrossed the dry flat noodles in a large, deep skillet and added enough water to cover them. Then I heated the water to a boil, shut off the heat and left the contents cool and absorb water for 30 minutes.
Drain the noodles and place them spread out on a dish towel or a few paper towels, stacked, with a towel(s) between each layer, for ten minutes, to absorb excess moisture. This method allows for gentle handling of the now soft flat noodles.
Grate the 5 ounces of Parmegiano Reggiano cheese and set it aside.
Mix together the Ricotta cheese and spinach mixture with the cheesy Béchamel sauce.
Spread 1/6th of the Bolognese and marinara sauce mixture around the interior bottom of a 9" x 13" baking casserole.
Spoon 1/6th of the combined Ricotta cheese and spinach and cheesy Béchamel sauce on top of the Bolognese Sauce in the casserole.
Hand sprinkle 1/6th of the grated Parmegiano Reggiano cheese on top of the sauces mixture in the casserole.
Place three of the soft, flat lasagna noodles on top of the casserole ingredients.
Repeat the above steps starting with spreading the next layer of the Bolognese Sauce mixture, and continue until you have used all 15 noodles and put the final layer of the other ingredients on top of the top noodle layer.
If you have an extra piece of flat noodle then cut it into six pieces, place them evenly on the top of the casserole and spread a small amount of marinara sauce or even some thin slices of fresh tomatoes on top of each piece.
Place the casserole of Lasagna Bolognese into the oven on the middle shelf, directly above the foil covered cookie tray.
Bake for 45 minutes.
Cover the casserole with aluminum foil, then bake for an additional 15 minutes.
Remove the casserole from the oven and place it on a wooden cutting board.
Let the lasagna rest for ten minutes.
Serve and enjoy! That is pretty much a guarantee unless you are a pure vegan.
A nice red wine like a Classico Chianti or a Pinot Noir and a side salad, like Caesar salad, go well with this lasagna.