Dear friends,
I thought of a typical Italian dish, lasagna, which is not that difficult to prepare and is also a wonderful complete meal. I wanted to purposely propose a simple preparation and at the same time give you some information on how to prepare the béchamel sauce and the ragù alla bolognese, which is quite different from the Ligurian ragù of our house. For the latter I will give you on another occasion the recipe of what my grandmother used to make…

Baked Lasagna Bolognese Style (Serves 6)

Fresh lasagna pasta: 600 grams
Or 300 grams of dried lasagna pasta (do not pre-cook)

For the sauce:

– 400 grams of high quality minced meat, 50% beef and 50% pork
– 250 grams of peeled tomatoes
– 30 grams of flour
– 150 grams of grated parmesan
– 100 grams of olive oil
– A glass of dry red wine
– A small carrot
– An onion
– A celery stalk
– Salt and pepper

For the béchamel sauce:

80 grams of butter, 50 grams of flour, half a litre of milk, a pinch of nutmeg and a little salt

If you use fresh pasta:
Cook the pasta in plenty of salted water, remove it when still al dente and immediately place it in a bowl with cold water and ice so that it does not continue to cook.
If you use the special dry pasta for lasagna
You can use this type of pasta but, in this case, prepare the béchamel sauce a little more liquid.

To prepare the sauce:

Spread the minced meat in a low ovenproof dish, sprinkle it with flour and place it in a hot oven at 200 degrees for 20 minutes. Once cooked, drain the liquid and fat that have come out during cooking.
In a saucepan, fry the onion, carrot and celery in oil and, when they have browned, add the meat. Stir well and, once it has heated up, add the red wine, let it evaporate and then add the lightly chopped peeled tomatoes and their liquid. Add salt and pepper and cook for a good half hour, adding water if necessary.

To prepare the béchamel sauce:

Heat the milk and butter in a saucepan. When the butter begins to melt, add the flour and start stirring, adding more milk if you notice that it is drying out too much. It takes 10 minutes at most to make the béchamel.

Preparation of the lasagna:

In a baking dish, preferably ceramic or glass, put a little oil on the bottom and cover it with a layer of pasta, making sure to leave this lower layer of pasta hanging over the pan. Add a layer of sauce, a few spoonfuls of béchamel and a little parmesan, continuing like this for at least two more layers of pasta (these should fit into the pan without overflowing). Then cover the top layer with the pasta that you had allowed to hang over so as to close the lasagna inside and put the remaining sauce on top, a little béchamel, a little oil and plenty of parmesan.
Bake in the oven at 200° for 30/40 minutes.