Meat Sauce:
250 grams ground beef
250 grams ground pork
1/2 C. water
1/4 C. olive oil
1 C. onion, chopped
1 C. carrots, cut into small cubes
1/2 C. green pepper, chopped
100 grams fresh button mushrooms, sliced
200 grams bacon, chopped
250 grams Italian sausage, chopped
150 grams Del Monte tomato paste
500 grams Del Monte tomato sauce
28 oz. canned stewed tomatoes
1/2 t. dried basil
1/2 t. dried oregano
1 t. Italian seasoning
2 bay leaves
2 t. salt
1 t. pepper
3 T. sugar
2 C. water
Cheese:
150 grams Parmesan, grated
300 grams Mozzarella, shredded
200 grams Emborg Pasta Cheese - Gouda and Maasdam
White sauce:
1/2 C. butter
1/2 C. flour
4 C. (1L.) milk
1/2 t. salt
Lasagna Noodles:
2 1/2 C. bread flour or 00 flour
3 eggs
1 T. olive oil
1/2 t. salt
Meat sauce
Add 1/2 C. water to the ground beef and pork so it will not be lumpy.
Heat olive oil. Saute onions, green pepper, mushrooms and carrots over low heat until soft - 10 minutes.
Still over low heat, add the ground pork and beef. Cook until the juice evaporates.
In a frying pan, cook the bacon and Italian sausage until oil from the bacon comes out. Add to the sauteed ground meat including the oil.
Add the tomate paste, tomato sauce and canned stewed tomatoes.
When it boils, season with salt, pepper, sugar, oregano, basil, bay leaves and sugar.
Add water.
Simmer for 2 hours and stir every 20 minutes.
Add about 1/2 C of water if it is too dry.
Season with additional salt and pepper if you want.
Set aside the meat sauce.
White Sauce
Melt butter in a sauce pan.
Remove from heat then add the flour. Stir until well blended.
Put back on the stove and cook until bubbly while stirring continuously.
Remove from heat again and add milk a little at a time stirring continuously then put back the pan on the stove.
(This step ensures you will not have lumps in your white sauce. You also do this when making gravy or any kind of sauce that you need to add flour.)
Lasagna noodles
Pour the flour on your work surface and make a well in the center.
Add the eggs, olive oil and salt.
Use a fork to stir the liquid ingredients then slowly incorporate the flour.
Knead until smooth.
I used the "dough" function of the breadmaker for 5 minutes.
Cover the dough with cling wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes to an hour, room temperature.
Divide the dough into four and flour lightly.
Get one portion of the dough, flatten into a circle and pass through the machine at its widest setting.
(Cover the rest of the dough with a tea towel so it will not dry out.)
Fold the dough into thirds (like an envelope), flatten, dust with flour lightly and pass the dough again.
Repeat this process until you reach the 2nd to the last setting of the pasta machine.
Do this procedure for all the remaining dough.
Remember to dust both sizes with flour so it will not stick to each other after passing through the machine.
Cut into desired size according to your baking pan.
Take note, boiled pasta sheets double in size.
Boil 5 liters of water. Add 1 T. salt and olive oil.
When the water is boiling rapidly, drop the pasta sheets. Cook 4 pieces at a time. Stir so it will not stick to each other. It will take about 2 minutes.
With a wire skimmer, remove the pasta sheets and submerge in cold water.
Remove and lay on a table with table cloth or on a tray.
How to layer the lasagna:
Use two 9x13 glass or ceramic pans.
Spread 2 C. sauce into the pan.
Top with noodles then spread the meat sauce again followed by the white sauce (about 1/2 C.) then sprinkle 2 T. parmesan cheese, 2 T. pasta cheese and 2 T. mozzarella.
Repeat this process until the pan is almost full. Last layer should be the noodles topped with white sauce and cheese.
Baked at 325 F (convection oven) or 350 F (regular oven) for 30 minutes, covered with foil.
Remove the foil, increase the heat to 350 F (convection oven) or 375 F (regular oven) and bake for 15 minutes more.
Remove from the oven. Let it sit for an hour before slicing so the layers will not fall apart.
Whew! This is a difficult recipe but worth all the effort. It took me 3 days!
Day 1 - cook the sauce.
Day 2 - cook the noodles and white sauce and assemble the layers.
Day 3 - bake the lasagna.
Shey was my sauce teacher while Mona was my noodles teacher.
My obsession with lasagna started when Shey let me try the lasagna she cooked! I could not forget the taste. It was imprinted in my mind. I thought about it everyday for almost a month until I decided to experiment.
It will be another 5 years until I cook this again.
