This is a great version of this dish. It usually has 7 thin layers of sauce, bechamel and cheese. I make pasta sauce in large batches and freeze it in containers.
Then reheat from frozen without adding any more liquid and heat through.
The thicker the better.
You do need a pasta maker but any decent home cook has this these days. I probably spend 30 minutes or more cutting, rolling, blanching and trimming each sheet to fit perfectly. You could do it a lot rougher but you then can't fit 7 layers in. Thick sauces and thin pasta is the key.
A friend of mine makes a similar 5 layered Lasagna using the packet pasta sheets that don't come up the sides. And its good too. But I like this one, particularly when its reheated. The thin alternate layers work really well and the sheets on the bottom and up the sides make it sort of like a pie. And done right this has a firmer more eatable texture. The layers don't slide apart or end up as a plate of mush.
Ingredients
1kg Pasta sauce (see this site)
400g Fresh pasta dough
1.2kg Bechamel sauce (thick)
50g Parmesan cheese
120g Mozarella cheese
100g Cheddar cheese
-----------------------------------
Thick Bechamel sauce
200g salted butter
190g flour
800ml Milk
200ml pouring cream
80g Parmesan cheese
15ml Sherry
Method::
First roll the pasta dough out on the thickest setting. To prevent drying out roll out to the 2nd thinnest setting as and only when required. Otherwise the pasta dough will harden and crack.
Coat a 2L glass baking dish with oil. Roll out the pasta dough on the 2nd thinnest setting. Trim 2 sheets to fit the the length of the dish including the ends. Using a rolling pin, roll out to widen and thin right out. Cook these sheets for 40 seconds in boiling salted water and layout to cool on a wet tea towel. Line the bottom and side of the dish with these sheets. Trim neatly and precisely to fit. Use scissors and cut in the corners.
Weigh the pasta and bechamel sauces and use a third in each layer. Heat the pasta sauce till warm so it will spread easier. Smooth a thin layer of pasta sauce keeping it tucked in a bit from the edges. Each layer will get more smoothed to the edges as you do each layer above it.
Continue with custom lengths of pasta rolled thin and cook each as before. Trim to fit and lay onto the meat sauce. Continue making a bechamel layer and then meat layer and so on till the last layer is a layer of bechamel sauce. 3 meat layers, 3 bechamel layers. Use wet fingers to smooth out each bechamel layer.
Bake at 180° covered with foil for 30 minutes. Turn off the oven and open the door and allow to cool. Refrigerate overnight to set the texture.
Top generously with a mixture of cheeses, cover loosely with a sheet of baking paper and then foil and bake at 180° for 30 minutes. Remove the paper and foil and then turn oven down to 110° and keep cooking for another 30 minutes or more. Use absorbent paper to mop up any oil pools that form from the melted cheese.
I like soft melted cheese but you can grill for a few minutes at the end to get a more browned cheese.
Freezes perfectly in lunch size plastic containers. Makes a fabulous microwave lunch. If frozen heat a 350g piece on 50% power for 2 minutes, stand for 5 minutes and heat on 80% for another minute and let stand 2 minutes.
You do need a pasta maker but any decent home cook has this these days. I probably spend 30 minutes or more cutting, rolling, blanching and trimming each sheet to fit perfectly. You could do it a lot rougher but you then can't fit 7 layers in. Thick sauces and thin pasta is the key.
A friend of mine makes a similar 5 layered Lasagna using the packet pasta sheets that don't come up the sides. And its good too. But I like this one, particularly when its reheated. The thin alternate layers work really well and the sheets on the bottom and up the sides make it sort of like a pie. And done right this has a firmer more eatable texture. The layers don't slide apart or end up as a plate of mush.
Ingredients
1kg Pasta sauce (see this site)
400g Fresh pasta dough
1.2kg Bechamel sauce (thick)
50g Parmesan cheese
120g Mozarella cheese
100g Cheddar cheese
-----------------------------------
Thick Bechamel sauce
200g salted butter
190g flour
800ml Milk
200ml pouring cream
80g Parmesan cheese
15ml Sherry
Method::
First roll the pasta dough out on the thickest setting. To prevent drying out roll out to the 2nd thinnest setting as and only when required. Otherwise the pasta dough will harden and crack.
Coat a 2L glass baking dish with oil. Roll out the pasta dough on the 2nd thinnest setting. Trim 2 sheets to fit the the length of the dish including the ends. Using a rolling pin, roll out to widen and thin right out. Cook these sheets for 40 seconds in boiling salted water and layout to cool on a wet tea towel. Line the bottom and side of the dish with these sheets. Trim neatly and precisely to fit. Use scissors and cut in the corners.
Weigh the pasta and bechamel sauces and use a third in each layer. Heat the pasta sauce till warm so it will spread easier. Smooth a thin layer of pasta sauce keeping it tucked in a bit from the edges. Each layer will get more smoothed to the edges as you do each layer above it.
Continue with custom lengths of pasta rolled thin and cook each as before. Trim to fit and lay onto the meat sauce. Continue making a bechamel layer and then meat layer and so on till the last layer is a layer of bechamel sauce. 3 meat layers, 3 bechamel layers. Use wet fingers to smooth out each bechamel layer.
Bake at 180° covered with foil for 30 minutes. Turn off the oven and open the door and allow to cool. Refrigerate overnight to set the texture.
Top generously with a mixture of cheeses, cover loosely with a sheet of baking paper and then foil and bake at 180° for 30 minutes. Remove the paper and foil and then turn oven down to 110° and keep cooking for another 30 minutes or more. Use absorbent paper to mop up any oil pools that form from the melted cheese.
I like soft melted cheese but you can grill for a few minutes at the end to get a more browned cheese.
Freezes perfectly in lunch size plastic containers. Makes a fabulous microwave lunch. If frozen heat a 350g piece on 50% power for 2 minutes, stand for 5 minutes and heat on 80% for another minute and let stand 2 minutes.
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