Lasagna was invented back in the 13th century, and since then it has become popular in many countries of the world. Think of Garfield the cat from the American comedy of the 2000s who worshipped this juicy meat dish with a delicate sauce, and the whole audience along with him.

The word “lasagna” means not only the name of a popular Italian dish but also pasta in the form of a thin sheet of dough. Actually, they are the basis for a classic hearty dinner in Italy. Today we’ll tell you what else you need to make a real lasagna, decide on the filling and sauce, and share a detailed step-by-step recipe!

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Top ingredients

If you’ve tried lasagna at least once, you probably know that it’s made by alternating different layers and then baking it. So what are the ingredients that make up this delicious dish?

• Thin layers of dough are the first and most important. You can make them yourself or buy them in the store.
• Meat stew. It is usually made on the basis of minced meat and tomatoes.
• Béchamel sauce. It is made from simple ingredients: milk, butter and flour. It is also important to supplement the sauce with spices: nutmeg, salt and pepper.
• Cheese. Parmesan is a classic, but various variations of the recipe use mozzarella, ricotta or other cheeses.

What to do with the prepared lasagna sheets

Many Italian brands of pasta are increasingly appearing in our supermarkets, so it is not difficult to find and buy the right ingredient.

The first thing to do is to pay attention to the cooking instructions. Some sheets for lasagna should be boiled in advance, while some are immediately placed with the rest of the products in the form and sent to the oven.

If required, cook the dough in boiling salted water for 3 minutes. No longer is necessary, the product should remain slightly stiff. There is a chance that the sheets will stick together during cooking, so it is better to cook them in portions, adding a little vegetable oil to the water.

After cooking, place the sheets on a paper towel so that the excess liquid is absorbed and the dish does not turn out watery.

How to make your own dough

Dough for lasagna is made in the same way as for pasta – from durum wheat. To make the base of the dish tender and tasty, you can make it yourself! When kneading dough, it is best to take wheat flour of two varieties – the highest and the second, connoisseurs of lasagna say that in this case, the dough turns out more delicious.

Ingredients:

• wheat flour – 350 g
• chicken eggs – 4 units
• olive oil – 1 tbsp.
• salt – 1 pinch

Method of preparation:

1. Sift the flour onto a work surface. Make a pile in the center and make a depression.
2. Add a couple of pinches of salt. Then beat the eggs into the egg well, mix together with a fork until smooth.
3. Moving from the center of the cavity to the edges, gradually mix in the flour and egg mixture. When the egg mixture has slightly thickened, you can begin kneading the dough.
4. Knead the dough for 10-15 minutes until it is elastic and smooth. At this point add the olive oil.
5. Form the pliable dough into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. The ready dough can be kept in the refrigerator for about a day, use it if necessary.
6. Dust a work surface with flour. Divide the dough into two parts. Roll out the first piece to 0.5 cm thickness. Continue to gently roll out the dough until it reaches a thickness of 0.1 cm. Do the same with the second part of the dough.
7. Using a regular or shaped knife, cut the dough into pieces of the desired size. For convenience, you can make a template from cardboard so that all the pieces are the same.
8. The resulting sheets for lasagna put on a work surface dusted with flour, cover with clingfilm and leave for half an hour. Done!

Boil the dough in boiling salted water for 30 seconds before arranging the rest of the lasagna layers.

Successful lasagna toppings

Meat filling. Take any minced meat or sausage products, add finely chopped vegetables if desired. Ingredients are fried with spices, then stew for about 15 minutes with tomatoes in their own juice or with tomato paste. A classic variant is ground beef supplemented with tomatoes.

Seafood. Such a stuffing can be made from boiled mussels, shrimp and calamari. For convenience, you can use a ready-made seafood cocktail. Then the seafood is stewed with the addition of a glass of water and tomatoes, for spiciness you can add parsley and nutmeg to the stuffing.

Vegetables and mushrooms. Mushrooms, eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers and onions go well together. Vegetables and mushrooms are roasted, then stewed together with tomato paste or tomatoes, and then in some variations mixed with béchamel sauce.

Cheese and spinach. You can choose any cheese, but it is more interesting to complement it with spinach. First, the green leaves should be washed and dried, and then fried in a pan for 2 minutes. After that, you can use in the stuffing along with the cheese.