Lasagne

 

Makes generous 6 servings (serving a crowd?)

  • 1 teaspoon butter
  • olive oil
  • 1 medium to large onion, chopped
  • 1 large stalk of celery, finely chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • ½ bell pepper, chopped
  • two 28oz cans of whole tomatoes
  • 1 bay leaf
  • ½ a stick of cinnamon
  • salt
  • pepper
  • 1 lb ground chuck
  • 1 lb bulk sausage
  • 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
  • ½ teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 6 slices of bacon (see notes)
  • 10 oz frozen spinach
  • dash nutmeg (optional)
  • 1 lb mozzarella
  • 1 lb ricotta
  • 4 oz pitted black olives (Calamatas preferred), sliced in half
  • 12 oz dry lasagne noodles (12 standard noodles, but not that no-boil crap) or 5 sheets of fresh frozen pasta sheets if you can find them

Special equipment

A lot of time and patience. While the recipe is simple, there are a lot of ingredients, it requires a lot of prep time, will make a mess of your stovetop, but you’ll find it’s it well worth it.

Method

Start with the sauce: sauté the onion, celery, garlic and bell pepper in a teaspoon of butter and a teaspoon of olive oil. Add tomatoes, bay, and cinnamon stick, season with salt and pepper as desired, cover, and simmer until thickened, breaking up the tomatoes while you stir.

Preheat the oven to 350°, and bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boil for the noodles while you prep the other ingredients:

Brown the ground beef on medium high heat. Season with salt, pepper, the oregano and rosemary. Drain off the grease and set aside.

Brown the sausage in another frying pan in about 2 teaspoons of olive oil, and season with the red pepper flakes and freshly ground pepper to taste. Drain off the grease and set aside.

Defrost the spinach in your microwave, add a dash of nutmeg if desired, and set aside.

Chop the bacon (this’ll give you the chance to discard some of the fattier portions) and fry until not quite crisp. Drain and set aside.

Slice the mozzarella thinly. Set aside.

Noodles done? Oven ready? Now you can assemble. Grease a 13x9 inch pan with olive oil, and lay down with one layer of noodles. Everything else is up to your whim. Lessee, half the bacon, half the spinach, half the ricotta, some sauce, some olives, half the beef and a layer of noodles? Then half the sausage, half the mozzarella, rest of the spinach, some sauce, rest of the olives, noodles. What’s left? Sausage, ricotta, beef, noodles, sauce and mozzarella. Whadwemiss? Rest of the bacon? The order doesn’t matter. Start with a layer of noodles at the bottom and end with sauce and a cheese at the top, and you can’t go wrong. Bake for about 45 minutes in your 350° oven.

Notes

Recipe is very closely based on Canzoneri’s which we’ve been making for years. Once you taste this, no other lasagne will equal.

Try to refrain from a can of plain ole black olives. Have some fun with Calamatas, niçoises, or maybe something oil-cured. Using olives with the pits and depitting them yourself means you’ll get a greater variety of shapes, colors, and ripeness and so greater variety of flavors

It’s a lot more fun (and cheaper) to use bacon ends trimmed of their fat than boring processed strips of bacon. ‘Sklonk’ bacon our family always called it.↩

Suggestions

Our vegetarian version is as well received as the regular lasagne. Here are our current substitutes for the meat layers: 16 oz of whole button mushrooms, quartered and sautéd with the oregano and rosemary; 16 oz of oyster mushrooms, slivered, eacute;d with garlic, and finished with little lemon rind; 12 oz of marinated artichoke hearts, drained; a 14oz tube of Impossible Meats brand savory sausage, browned just as is with nor further seasoning (we were very impressed), some freshly grated Parmesan, and top it off (so they brown) with a generous sprinkle of pinenuts. Even the most carnivorous of your guests will enjoy it fully.

A double recipe brings an 8 quart full-length steam pan not quite to overflowing. Layer the noodles 4 across and 2 down, alternating the pattern with each layer. As this recipe takes a lot of time and freezes very well, go ahead and make a huge quantity. It won’t last long.↩

Gluten-free noodles have come a long, long way since we started serving this dish. No longer do we have try fry slivers of eggplant or squash. Go ahead and use grocery-store GF noodles. Our personal favorite is Taste Republic's GF sheets. Four are perfect for a layer in a 13x9 pan, and they come in packs of 12 so you'll get 3 layers.