Marcella shares some wisdom in her book (which I am still trying to get my hands on)
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking that the "
ragu must be cooked for no less than 3 hours!”
She describes:
"...what makes lasagne a triumph of Bolognese pasta mastery is the ephemeral lightness of the dough building up to many layers of nearly impalpable pasta interleavened by equally thin layers of luscious, but not overbearing filling."
Obtained a copy of the recipe
here.
Bolognese Sauce:
1 tablespoon oil
3 tablespoon butter
½ cup chopped onion
2/3 cup chopped celery
2/3 cup chopped carrot
3/4 pound ground beef chuck
salt & pepper
1 cup milk/stock
pinch of nutmeg
1 cup dry white wine
1 canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice
1. Put the oil, butter and onion in the pot, and turn the heat on to medium. Cook and stir the onion until is has become translucent, then add the chopped celery and carrot. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring the vegetables to coat them well.
2. Add the ground beef, a large pinch of salt, & a few grindings of pepper. Crumble the meat with a fork and cook until beef has lost its raw, red color.
3. Add the milk/stock and let simmer gently, stirring frequently, until it has bubbled away completely. Add a tiny grating – about 1/8 teaspoon – of nutmeg and stir.
4. Add the wine, let simmer until it has evaporated, then add the tomatoes and stir thoroughly to coat all ingredients well. When the tomatoes begin to bubble, turn the heat down so that the sauce cooks at the laziest of simmers, with just an intermittent bubble breaking through the surface. Cook, uncovered, for 3 hours or more, stirring from time to time. While the sauce is stirring, you are likely to find that it begins to dry out and the fat separates from the meat. To keep it from sticking, continue the cooking, adding ½ cup of water whenever necessary. At the end, however, no water at all must be left and the fat must separate from the sauce. Taste and correct for salt.
Béchamel Sauce:
3 cups milk
6 tablespoons butter
4½ tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1. Put the milk in a saucepan, turn the heat to medium-low, and bring the milk just to the verge of boiling, to the point when it begins to form a ring of small, pearly bubbles.
2. While heating the milk, put the butter in a heavy-bottomed, 4- to 6-cup saucepan, and turn the heat to low. When the butter has melted completely, add the flour and stirring it with a wooden spoon. Cook, while stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes. Do not allow flour to become colored. Remove from heat.
3. Add the hot milk to the flour-and-butter mixture, no more than 2 tablespoons of it at a time. Stir steadily and thoroughly. As soon as the first 2 tablespoons have been incorporated into the mixture, add 2 more, and continue to stir. Repeat this procedure until you have added ½ cup milk; you can now put in the rest of the milk ½ cup at a time, stirring steadfastly, until all the milk has been smoothly amalgamated with the flour and butter.
4. Place the pot over low heat, add the salt, and cook, stirring without interruption, until the sauce is as dense as thick cream. If you find any lumps forming, dissolve them by beating the sauce rapidly with a whisk. If all else fails, strain the mixture!!
Bench notes - adding warmed milk to the roux bit by bit really helps with getting a smooth mixture!
When you have prepared the ragu and the white sauce, all you need is to assemble it.
1. In a baking dish, smear the bottom with some ragu, add some white sauce and then layer the lasagne pasta sheet. Repeat this layering until you reach the top of the dish.
2. Be generous with the grated cheese.
3. Bake in the oven until the top is golden brown.
Not just Garfield's favourite food, its Master Prince's too. Well, all love it too!
