- Hi, I'm Ayo and I'm a private chef
but more importantly than that,
I love lasagna.
There's meat, there's cheese, pasta,
What's not to like?
You're used to seeing me on "Dollar Dish"
and being forced to cook things with no budget whatsoever.
But today "Tasty" has let go of the reins
and I get to make three kinds of lasagna.
One that takes six minutes,
one that takes 60 minutes
and one that's going to take me six hours.
I got a budget, y'all.
All right, so let's get into it.
So this is our six minute microwave lasagna.
Not gonna I had a lot of attitude about this girl,
not really into the whole mug cooking thing
but if you are a lasagna head like me
and you just need to fix in a pinch, this is the way to go.
So for our first step
we're gonna use the oven ready lasagna sheets.
Basically what you wanna do is break your lasagna
into pieces that will fit into whatever mug you're using.
So from my mug, I'm gonna break my little halves
into more halves and maybe one more half.
So I'm just gonna continue breaking up my pasta,
so then I'm gonna add them to this microwave safe bowl
and I'm going to cover them
in about a cup and a half of water
and cook them for three minutes.
And you wanna make sure you cover your noodles completely.
Now I'm gonna go put these in the microwave
for three minutes.
Now I'm gonna strain them.
You should be really careful
'cause the bowl's probably like very hot.
So for our next step we're just gonna make a really quick
ricotta feeling.
So I'm gonna add my spinach to my ricotta,
so I'm just gonna give this a quick stir
and now all we have to do is assemble.
So first we have a tablespoon of marinara,
and I spread it around at my microwave noodles.
And I just wanna create like as even a layer as possible.
So you can get a little bit of noodle for everybody.
And then our ricotta mixture, you just spread it around.
So now it's time to add our cheese.
I'm really into the Italian blend
'cause it's a lot of bang for your buck.
There's a lot of different cheeses.
There's Romano, there's Parmesan, there's mozzarella,
a little bit of everything in one bite.
And then we just keep on layering.
Marinara, noodle, ricotta, cheese,
marinara, noodle, ricotta, surprise, cheese.
It's kinda like saying Hakuna Matata, right?
Marinara, pasta, ricotta, cheese.
And we definitely wanna end on cheese
because we want the top of this to be like super ooey gooey.
So obviously this is probably gonna take you
more than six minutes to put it together
but it takes six minutes to cook.
So now I'm gonna take this to the microwave
for three more minutes.
So it's been microwaved
and I'm not gonna lie, it smells pretty good.
I'm a little surprised.
So I'm gonna tear up some pieces of fresh basil
and just put them right on the top.
A little color, little herb.
I really like basil.
So then I'm also going to add more cheese
because what does lasagna always need?
More cheese.
And then finally, I'm gonna add a little bit of dry basil
across the top
and this is totally optional
but y'all know I like colors,
so this is just me being extra.
Time to taste it,
cheese pull.
It's actually pretty good.
It is really shocking how tender those noodles get
in six minutes,
it's cheesy.
You taste it, you would not think if anything else
this is lasagna
and it's good, six minutes, who knew?
So now we're getting into our 60 minute lasagna.
We're gonna make roll-ups because they're super cute.
They're really tasty
and they're also individually portioned.
So basically we wanna be able to get a hearty meal
on the table very quickly.
Also our roll-ups are gonna cook a lot faster
than the traditional layering method.
So we're gonna add our onions to a hot pan
with a little bit of olive oil
and just cook them until they're softened,
about five to six minutes.
So after my onions have softened
I'm just gonna add my fresh thyme
and I'm gonna add my minced garlic
and I'm just going to cook them until fragrant,
about one minute.
I can smell them, so now I'm going to add my sausage.
When you add your sausage,
you wanna make sure you break it up
into very small pieces for your sauce.
I use Italian sausage because even though we're making
a little bit faster,
I wanted to keep it as close to tradition as possible.
Okay, so our sausage is cooked.
So now I'm gonna add our jar of marinara sauce.
And if you really wanna create a good depth of flavor
in a short amount of time,
you wanna really invest in a good jar of marinara sauce.
I'm just gonna let this simmer for about five minutes.
So now it's probably the easiest step of our whole process
which is just make your noodles.
I'm going to add a little bit of salt
to my boiling pasta water.
You wanna have this water at a rolling boil
and get your noodles done as fast as possible.
You also wanna cook them about two minutes less
than the package directions
because we're also gonna put them in the oven.
I know a lot of you are about to be upset with me,
brace yourselves, I am going to add olive oil to the pot.
I'm aware that this is a Cardinal sin
but because we're doing roll-ups,
it's just necessary to break the rules.
We do not want the lasagna noodles to stick together
as we roll them up.
Okay, so our noodles are looking good
and I'm just going to strain them over a bowl
or over your sink,
if you're at home, over your sink.
For those of you who are freaking out
about the oil in the pot,
prepare to be upset again,
we are making a more Americanized version
of lasagna this time,
so we're using ricotta for our fillings.
I'm going to be adding spinach, mozzarella, Parmesan,
basil, parsley and egg yolks.
The egg yolks are to bind our filling together
so when we roll it up and put it in the oven,
everything holds together.
So the ricotta filling is actually my personal favorite
which I'm sure right about now,
the other chefs in the community are like what?
I prefer ricotta to the bechamel
because I like the texture it gives,
it feels like a harder feeling.
All right, now we are just going to mix it up
and then I'm gonna season it up just a little bit.
I'm gonna add a little bit of pepper.
Yeah.
Our filling's done and we have our casserole dish.
So now I'm gonna add about a cup of the sauce
to cover the bottom of our casserole pan.
You just wanna get a thin layer at the bottom
to prevent our noodles from sticking.
So now it's time for the fun part.
I'm gonna add about a half cup of the ricotta filling
to each of my lasagna noodles.
I feel like there's no real special way to do this.
You know, you just can't be shy, you just get in there.
So I'm gonna use this offset spatula
just to smooth it out a little.
One tip I do have for this process
is when you're filling it with your ricotta filling,
I leave just a little lift at the end,
so when I close up my lasagna roll-up
it fits tight to the last part.
Also, as we roll our noodles,
it's gonna push the filling forward a little bit.
So you're just giving yourself a little bit
of extra room to catch that extra filling.
Oh my God, so cute.
So this is what you're looking for.
You want there to be filling, you want it to be visible
but you don't want it leaking out of your noodle.
And now I'm just gonna set it in my pan.
So I'm just gonna repeat this process seven more times.
Now we're gonna top it with some sauce
and some more cheese
and for aesthetic purposes,
I'm really big on going across the top of them.
So now I'm gonna top my roll up with obviously
more cheese.
My favorite part of the lasagna is definitely the cheese.
You would think it would be the pasta
because you know, Southern girls Southern carbs.
But no, I love graded Parmesan cheese.
It's like happy little snowfall.
All right, so these look great.
I'm gonna go put these in the oven at 400 degrees
for 20 minutes.
Okay, so our lasagna rolls are out of the oven
and this smell incredible.
And now it's time.
This is good.
It is really easy.
It's definitely something my mom could make,
y'all know, Bia can cook.
So that is a testament to how simple this is.
If you booked me the neck lasagna is what you would get.
Something that takes time.
Something that has multiple layers of flavor.
So stick around for the six hour lasagna.
So this lasagna have all the traditional flavors.
We gonna make it a little extra.
We're gonna do 10 layers
because if you're gonna spend six hours making it,
why not make it epic, right?
So our first step is gonna be adding a little olive oil
to our pan
and we're going to cook our pancetta.
And this is going to be the beginning of our bowling game
when you're rendering the pancetta
which is just fancy thick cut bacon,
you really wanna make sure you get it nice and crispy
and get all of the fat out of it.
And then we're gonna cook all of our veggies in that fat.
So this is the first step in really layering
that depth of flavor.
All right, so my pancetta is nice and crisp.
Look at that, that golden brown deliciousness.
I'm gonna remove the pancetta from the pan
while we cook our mirepoix.
Basically you wanna take the meat out
so it doesn't keep cooking and get too crispy.
You still want all the fat and flavor
that it left in the bottom of the pan.
So now I'm going to add my onions,
carrots, celery,
which are the three components of a mirepoix.
I'm gonna add my thyme and my garlic
and we're just gonna cook these for a little while
and coat them in all that fat.
And I'm just gonna saute these until soft.
Next step is adding our proteins.
A big thing for me when doing Italian food
is to make sure you have the right ratio
of like meatiness to fat.
So we are using a half pound of ground pork
and a half pound of ground beef.
I feel like pork has more flavor and it's very fatty
and then beef is very meaty.
So the pork and the beef mixed together
just gives you the best of both worlds.
So we're just looking for this to get brown
and give us those good crusty bits on the bottom of the pan.
So now our meat has browned
and it's time to deglaze.
The point of deglazing is just get anything
that may have been left over around the pan
and basically, you're just gonna add about a cup of wine.
Once it has reduced by about half
you won't smell the liquor anymore
and you wanna make sure when you're deglazing,
you're scraping up like any brown bits on the side.
I believe in French, it's called the Fond
and you just wanna get it into your sauce.
Every little bit of flavor helps.
So now we're gonna move on to the tomatoes.
This is actually a trick I learned from an Italian chef
that I used to work with.
Basically giving you the feel of like real slow cooked
crushed tomatoes but from a can.
So basically what you wanna do
is take your whole peeled tomato
and just squish it in your hand.
Just really getting in there, love it.
And that's it.
And basically it creates like a chunkier version
of the typical crushed tomato sauce.
That's my last one
and we have this beautiful, chunky tomato sauce.
Now I'm gonna add them to my meat mixture.
The wine has reduced and it looks ready to go.
I'm just gonna mix these in
and then I am going to add one cup milk
and one cup chicken stock.
And as this reduces, your chicken stock is gonna develop
this really rich flavor.
So we're gonna let this go low and slow
and really come together
over the course of the next three hours.
So let's leave this and begin working on our pasta noodles.
Okay, so now we're gonna add our flour to the mixing bowl
and I'm gonna add my salt.
And basically we're just gonna turn the mixer on
for like 10 seconds to incorporate the salt in the flour.
And now I'm gonna add my eggs
and we're gonna let this go for about five minutes
until it gets smooth and elastic.
Okay, this pasta is done.
So I'm gonna wrap this in plastic
and let it rest for about an hour.
Okay, my pasta's done, she's rested
and now I'm gonna cut this dough ball into six pieces
and roll them through our pasta extruder.
And what you wanna do is start on your widest setting
and just keep processing it through until you get to
either your smallest or second smallest setting.
What you want is some paper thin sheets of pasta.
I will say the thinner it gets,
the more gentle you kinda need to be with it.
Okay, so this one's looking really good.
I'm gonna repeat this process about six more times
and then I'm gonna just very quickly cook these
in boiling water
and then we'll move on to our bechamel.
Now bechamel is actually one of the mother sauces,
it's one of the first things you learn in culinary school
and what it is is a really good milky base
to carry on a lot of other flavors, mostly cheese.
And when you add cheese to it,
it's actually called the Mornay sauce.
So the first thing we going to do
to get our bechamel sauce together is melt this butter.
And I'm gonna whisk in this flour.
I just wanna cook this enough to get that raw flour taste
out of it, about three or four minutes.
Now we're gonna add our milk.
The reason you want your milk to be room temperature
is because when it's cold,
there's more chances for your root to get chunky
'cause we want like a nice creamy sauce.
Nobody wants a mouth full of like flour and butter.
And I'm just gonna let this go
until it starts to thicken up.
You don't wanna rush this process
'cause you do not want to scour the milk.
Scouring the milk means you cook it on too high
and it burns at the bottom and there's no fixing it.
I'm also gonna add some fresh nutmeg to this
any sauce I make with like a milk base
or a significant amount of cheese,
I always give it a pinch of nutmeg for extra flavor.
So we're almost there but we want this to be pretty thick
because remember we being extra.
So we're doing 10 layers.
So it needs to be thick enough to sustain those layers.
So you wanna get to almost a pudding like consistency.
It needs to be pretty, pretty thick.
Okay, this is looking good
and now it is time to build this epic 10 layer lasagna.
So the first thing we're gonna do
is add some sauce to the bottom of our pan.
We're just gonna do one even layer across the bottom
and after our sauce, we are going to add our noodles.
Remember we made these ourselves
so it's okay if the noodles go up
the size of your pan a little or you can cut them.
On top of our noodles, we're gonna do another layer of sauce
with some Parmesan.
I'm just gonna give it a nice sprinkle,
so I'm gonna add cheese in there.
And now we're gonna add another layer of noodles.
Now to this layer of noodle,
I'm gonna add in my bechamel,
the sauce came out amazing.
And now I'm gonna add my mozzarella cheese
and then we're gonna do another layer of noodles.
So now we're just gonna repeat this process four more times.
All right and last but not least,
we're going to top this beauty with fresh mozzarella.
It does not get more Italian
and more extra than fresh mozzarella.
This is probably my favorite part.
I'm also gonna add just a little bit more Parmesan cheese.
I really want the top to be like cheesy and gooey and melty.
And I'm just gonna cover it in the layer of white.
All right, I'm gonna put this lasagna in the oven
at 350 degrees for one hour.
Cover it for the first 30 minutes
and then uncover it for the last 30 minutes
because I really want the cheese to get brown.
Let's do it.
All right, this looks good.
And I am what, say it with me, so excited
because this is my personal favorite part.
I'm going to just tear some pieces
of fresh basil and use them as our garnish.
This thing smells amazing.
It smells like six hours worth of love and labor.
Here we go. Moment of truth.
Oh, that's what I'm talking about.
Look at that.
See how the extra pays off?
Oh my God, this looks amazing.
I mean, I made the recipe so, you know, let's try it.
Oh my God, this was so worth six hours.
You get so much more like oomph than the other two.
You taste all the work you put into the bechamel
a little bit of nutmeg, that little secret nuttiness.
There's so much flavor in the sauce.
This one is definitely my favorite
but you know, I like a little extra.
So today we made a six minute, a 60 minute
and a six hour lasagna.
So whether you're just cooking a little meal for one
or feeding a crowd,
you always have time for lasagna.
Thank you guys so much for watching my video.
Please encourage "Tasty" to give me more things
with a budget and I will see you next time.
(upbeat music)