Molto Bene Lasagne alla Bolognese

Lasagna is a classic crowd pleaser. My version is taken from the The Silver Spoon, which is basically Italy’s answer to the Joy of Cooking. It touts itself as the bible of Classic Italian cooking. I haven’t made all that many recipes directly from it yet, but just flipping through it makes me hungry and it provides all kinds of inspiration. This recipe is decadently delicious and in very little need of alteration.

Although I do highly recommend investing in the book, I found an easy to download pdf copy of the recipe that was published on Budget Travel.

To start, let me comment that this recipe claims to serve four people. Perhaps they mean 4 large Italian men that haven’t eaten in ages -- like hours. I have easily fed twice that many people with this recipe. This is particularly if you are also serving anything else along side. A simple salad, garlic bread, and wine is simple and lovely.

As for the recipe itself, I really don’ think I changed it all that much. However, I did up the quantity of béchamel used. The recipe calls for one quantity of béchamel, but I think another half quantity will give you a more luscious texture – and really isn’t that what we all want? I probably do also use more cheese than called for. I love nutmeg, so I tend to go a little heavier with that as well.

I also prefer the Bolognese sauce to be a little on the saucier side and just a tad more heavy on the tomatoes. I don’t mean that I go for a Chef Boyardee, sloppy-joe style lasagna. However, I do think a little more moisture is called for here, so I use more of the strained tomatoes. I also often like to mix in some canned diced tomatoes for a little more chunky effect. The liquid in the tomatoes come in also can help up the moisture content of the sauce. (On rare occasion, at this point I will find that I’m still not happy with the moisture level. If I’m completely out of all other liquid tomato products, I have mixed in a tiny bit of jarred tomato sauce - and I do mean a very tiny bit. But ssssssssshhhh! Don’t tell the Italians!)

While we’re on the subject of the Bolognese, the recipe calls for “a scant 1/2 cup dry white wine.” Let’s be honest, no cup of wine of mine has ever been scant. I kept myself from going over-board so that it wouldn’t make the sauce to thin. (I want there to be more liquid, but I don’t want it to be too thin either.) As always, a mélange of spices were also mixed in – a little onion powder, a little garlic, powder, probably some oregano, and of course the requisite salt and pepper.

Let me turn you on to a little cheat for when you’re pressed for time – No-boil lasagna noodles. You don’t have to pre-cook these at all; just layer them dry, straight from the box. I know Barilla makes them, and I think I even found a generic version at Von’s the last go around. These will save you like 30 min. (Although for fun, one day I’d like to take the scenic route and try making the noodles myself.)

Now lets move on to methods of layering. My personal preference is put a little sauce on the bottom, then set down a layer of noodles. I think this particularly important if you’re using the no-boil variety. From there I layer as recommended, with a meat layer followed by a béchamel layer, and sprinkle on the Parmesan, and repeat.

I then like to finish with another layer of pasta, and final flourish of béchamel and parmesan.

I can go either way on the copious use of butter. If you’re feeling decadent and devil-may-care, by all means go for it. It feels just gloriously sinful to dot butter all around the lasagna with your fingers. However, if you trying to keep this dish in same solar system as healthy, I’ve also just dotted a little but of butter across the top layer and it came out absolutely fine.

One more tip. Make sure your timer works. One of the great things about lasagna (just as with other casseroles) is that it’s pretty much a completely make-ahead dish, so you can just tend to your guests until the timer rings to call you back to the kitchen. However, if the damn timer doesn’t work, the plan fails. I bring this up because my kitchen timer decided to crap out on me the night I made this lasagne for a group of couples from G’s business school. The result was a lasagna with a lightly crisped top. Not inedible, but not exactly what I wanted to serve when I was aiming for that happy roar from the crowd. Thankfully, I think I redeemed myself a little when I made this for Supper club in March. Mmmmm . . . deliciously bubbly cheese, and un-crispy noodles. YUM!

P.S. When I googled this recipe trying to find an easy link for your reference, I happened upon another woman’s blog entry describing her experience with dish. Her blog is actually completely dedicated to this cook book- Exploring the Silver Spoon. Check it out if you’re interested. Funny thing is that she has a lot of the same tricks up her sleeve.