Today on The Stay At Home Chef I'm showing you how to make
The Most Amazing lasagna
This is one of my most popular recipes and for good reason. Today we're
doing a little update so I can show you how to make the best lasagna ever.
We're gonna start by cooking 1 pound of lean ground beef and 1 pound of Italian sausage
in a large pot over medium-high heat. I'm gonna break this up and get it it
cooking. We'll let it cook for about six or seven minutes until the meat is browned
What we're making is a bolognese sauce which is a tomato based meat sauce
that will go with our lasagna. And let me tell you this is good on its own. Now if
you use a lean ground beef there shouldn't be much grease to drain. You do
want a little bit in there but if there's excess you can drain that off
Then we'll add in one white diced onion and saute this for about another five to
seven minutes until the onions are soft. Then we'll add in five cloves of minced
garlic and 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds and get this cooking for just about one minute.
Now the fennel is a little bit of a controversial ingredient but just
remember that fennel is usually an ingredient included in sausages so I
like to add it to my bolognese sauce just because I feel like it really
enhances the flavor and adds a little something extra. Then add in a 28 ounce
can of crushed tomatoes and a 15 ounce can of tomato puree which is called
tomato sauce or passata. You'll also need two six ounce cans of
tomato paste and my trick for that is to actually open both sides that way you
can just take off one side and then you can just press it right through.
Don't forget to grab the other side and you need two of them so make sure you get
both in there. Next add in 1/2 cup of white or red wine or you can also use
chicken broth or beef broth. Any of those will work. Then add in two tablespoons of sugar
to balance out the acidity in the tomatoes, 1/2 cup of fresh basil
1/4 cup of freshly chopped parsley, 1 teaspoon of dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon of salt and a 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper. Then we'll stir this all
in and let it simmer. The flavor will develop into a more complex sauce as it
simmers. I recommend letting it simmer for at least one hour but if you can
swing it, you can simmer it over low heat for up to three to four hours. You can
also make the sauce ahead of time and freeze it for later use. I do that all
the time. Now before we're ready to assemble our lasagna we'll need to
compile the rest of the ingredients for our other layers. Now I don't like the
texture of those no-boil lasagna sheets so what I do is take regular ones and
place them into a 9 by 13 pan and then cover them with warm water and just let
them sit and soak. They'll be ready to use in about 30 minutes. Now you could
always boil them on the stove but I prefer this method. It's just more
convenient. I don't have to bring a large pot of water to a boil I don't have to
babysit them or drain them I can just put these in the pan and set them to the
side and get everything else ready. Now you can make lasagna with either a
bechamel sauce or a ricotta mixture. I like to use the ricotta so you'll need
about 30 ounces of whole milk ricotta. To that you'll add 1 large egg,
2 tablespoons of freshly chopped parsley, 1/2 a teaspoon of salt, and 1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg
and then we'll stir this all together. Now in addition you'll also
need 1 pound of either sliced or shredded mozzarella cheese and 1 cup of
freshly grated parmesan. When you're ready to assemble preheat an oven to
375 degrees Fahrenheit and lightly grease a deep-dish 9 by 13 pan. I'm gonna grab
some lasagna pasta sheets and pat them dry real quick then we'll spread about a
1 cup of the meat sauce into the bottom of the pan and then create a bottom layer
of these pasta sheets to cover. So I break one of the pasta sheets in half
and cover up this gap there at the end. Then we'll layer on about a third of the
ricotta mixture you kind of want to press that out and spread it into an even
layer to cover the pasta sheets. Then we'll top that with a layer of that
sliced mozzarella cheese or you can use shredded. Let's cover this here
The benefit of using a sliced cheese is that then I can layer on the sauce a little
more easily and spread it out just like you did with the cheese in an even layer
and then we'll sprinkle on about 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese
Then you're gonna repeat this layer so we'll add in more pasta sheets and I have the
two extra to cover the gaps,, more of the ricotta cheese mixture, the mozzarella
cheese, the meat sauce, Parmesan cheese...Then if your pan is deep enough do one
more layer just like that. Now don't sweat it if you can't fit all three layers.
A deep-dish lasagna pan can fit three but if you're just using a regular
9 by 13 you'll only be able to make two layers and that will work too. Now once
you get to the top to finish it off you'll do one final layer of the pasta sheets.
Then you should have used all of your ricotta so instead of adding
ricotta you're gonna top it with the rest of the meat sauce because you don't
want the noodles to dry out. They need some sort of moisture on top. Then top
with the remainder of your mozzarella cheese. Then we'll sprinkle on the
remaining Parmesan cheese. Now if you wanted to make it ahead of time at this
point you just pop it into the fridge. You can leave it in the fridge covered
for up to 48 hours before baking which really comes in handy but if you're
ready to bake it right away you'll spray some aluminum foil with a little bit of
nonstick spray so it doesn't stick to the cheese and then loosely cover your
lasagna pan. Then we're gonna bake this in the 375 degree oven for 25 minutes
After 25 minutes you'll remove the aluminum foil and continue baking for
another 25 minutes. So 50 minutes baking total. At that point your cheese should
be warm and bubbly and brown and then you are ready to eat!
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