How to Bake Lasagna alla Bolognese

Serves: 8

Preparation time: 3 hours

Cooking time: 45 mins

Ingredients needed to make Lasagna alla Bolognese:

• 1 ½ boxes (9 oz) no-boil lasagna sheets
• ½ recipe Bolognese sauce (recipe below)
• Butter, as required
• 1 recipe Besciamella (recipe follows)
• Extra virgin olive oil
• ¾ cup Parmesan cheese, grated

For the Bolognese sauce:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lb ground veal
• 1 lb ground pork
• 5 oz pancetta, diced
• 3 cans (28 oz) pelati tomatoes, pureed
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 3 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 handfuls fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and finely chopped
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 cup whole milk, warmed
• ½ tsp red pepper flakes, crushed
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 5 tbsp olive oil

For the Besciamella:

• 4 ½ cups whole milk
• ½ cup all purpose flour
• ½ cup butter
• Pinch of ground nutmeg
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Cooking instructions for Lasagna alla Bolognese:

• To make the Bolognese sauce, heat oil in a large skillet and throw in the carrots, onions as well as celery.
• Sauté them while stirring often until they soften and stir in the pancetta.
• Continue to stir fry for another 10 minutes over moderately high flame.
• Dump all the meat into the pan and stir them all together to mix well.
• Sprinkle the chopped parsley and crushed pepper flakes over the sauce and fold them into the mixture.
• Cook the mixture for a minute, stirring regularly and pour in a large splash of red wine.
• Cook the meat until the alcohol is cooked off and stir in the tomato puree as well as a dash of seasonings.
• Reduce the heat slightly and bring it to a simmer.
• Continue to simmer the sauce for next couple of hours, stirring from time to time, until the meat is cooked through.
• Whisk in the milk until well combined and remove from heat; set aside.
• To make the Besciamella, add ½ cup butter into a sauté pan and melt it over moderate heat.
• Dust the flour into it and cook, while stirring constantly, until well mixed and the raw smell of the flour disappears.
• Ladle the warm milk into the mixture while beating them together at the same time until all of it is incorporated to form a smooth sauce.
• Bring it to a boil and then reduce it to a simmer.
• Cook for 15 more minutes and stir in a dash of ground nutmeg as well as seasonings until they mix well; remove from heat and set aside.
• To make the lasagna, grease a baking pan with small knob of butter and spread the Bolognese sauce in a thin layer.
• Arrange few sheets of lasagna in single layer over it and cover it with another thin layer of Bolognese.
• Sprinkle some grated cheese on top and repeat the layers until they reach the rim of the pan.
• Smother the final layer of lasagna generously with Bolognese sauce and top it up with another layer of Besciamella sauce.
• Dot it with few butter cubes and sprinkle rest of the cheese over it.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees F for half an hour or until the cheese melts and the surface crisp up.
• Drizzle a lashing of EVOO over the baked lasagna and serve warm.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons