Batali's recipe is full of errors, but we used it as a starting point for ratios of pasta dough to ragu and besciamella. We modified the Ragu based on what we had on hand. I've got a mix of imperial and metric measurements here because our starting recipes are written for a US audience, but we tend to work in metric and use a scale rather than measuring cups.
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| Seared lasagne slice on bed of tomato sauce |
Ragu Bolognese
1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil3 Small Onions, chopped
4 ribs Celery
5 cloves Garlic
3/4 pound Country Style Pork Ribs
1 1/2 pound Meatball/meatloaf mix (equal pork, veal, beef)
6 ounces Tomato Paste
1 cup Whole Milk
1 1/2 cup White Wine
1 tsp Fresh Thyme leaves
Salt
Saute the vegetables until soft
Grind the meat and saute to brown.
Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for 1 1/2 hours, covered loosely
Process in food processor to remove chunks that would interfere with the layers.
Pasta
3 1/2 Cup Flour (we used Caputo 00 Pizza flour)4 extra large Eggs
2 1/2 Tbs Olive Oil
Whiz everything in a food processor until the dough comes together, adding a bit more flour if needed; finish on counter to get it to come together. It should be a soft, sticky dough but with a firmness like play-dough or soft clay. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate to hydrate.
We used a 13x4x4-inch pullman loaf pan (33x10x10 cm) because it provides the height we need and can just accommodate the ingredients above.
Roll the dough out with a pasta roller machine to it's thinnest setting; the width of the strip will be 15 cm (6 inch), and aim to make the strip twice the length of your pan.
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| Mercato Atlas pasta roller, hand cranked |
We used masking tape on the counter to mark out the finished dimensions, 20 x 66 cm. Roll with a rolling pin to make the strip even thinner, and widen it to 20 cm (8-inches), twice the width of the pan. Cut the strip lengthwise into 2 pieces and widthwise into 2 piece: you'll have 4 pieces that just fit your pan. Set the cut pasta aside on the counter and roll out the rest; it's OK that they dry out, but be aware that they will become a bit brittle.
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| Rolling the sheets thinner and wider by hand |
Besciamella
5 Tbs Butter (or a mix of Butter and Olive Oil)1/4 cup Flour, all purpose
3 cups Milk
2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Nutmeg, freshly grated
Heat the butter, add the flour and cook to make a pale roux.
Add the Milk and whisk until you have a smooth sauce.
Add the seasonings and cook about 5 minutes to eliminate the raw flour.
Assembly
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| 30 sheets, besciamella, ragu |
Warm the Besciamella to make it easier to spread. Add a 20 ml layer of besciamella (about 1 heaping Tbs) to the bottom of the pullman pan to keep things from sticking.
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| First layer |
Add a sheet of pasta. Use a disher to dollop with 40 ml of the Ragu, using a silicone pastry brush to even it out: it will be quite thin. Add 20 ml of Besciamella and swirl to even it out. Repeat for the remaining 29 sheets, ending with Ragu and finally Besciamella.
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| Last layer |
Put the lid on the pullman pan to keep it from drying out. Let it sit overnight in the fridge to hydrate: we need the starches to hold everything together.
Cook
Early the next day, put the pullman pan on a half sheet pan to catch any drips, and bake covered for 90 minutes at 160C (325F) convection (180C / 350F without). Let it cool again to firm up.Place the cold pullman pan in a bath of hot water to loosen the sides from the pan, then run a thin blade around the sides: we want the bottom sheets to come out instead of sticking to the pan. Firmly invert the pan onto a cutting board.
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| Lasagne removed from pan, layers visible on the side |
Slice into 3 cm wide slices, and sear on a hot cast iron surface covered with a bit of oil. It will develop a beautiful crust. Flip over each slice and sear it too. Check the internal temperature, it should be hot enough to serve at this point; if not, turn down the heat and warm through.
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| Cutting the slab reveals the layers more clearly |
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| Searing on cast iron to brown and give a crunch |
Dollop some red sauce on the plate, gently place the grilled slice on top, and serve.
What Worked, What Didn't
We were delighted the finished lasagne came out of the loaf pan readily: it was an attractive square shape when cut into slices for service.
We liked the way all the thin layers looked, like the pages of a book.
The searing emphasized the layers and provided a satisfying crunch, in contrast to the softer interior.
Despite being a behemoth of a lasagne it was surprisingly delicate on the palate.
There was too much oil, some of it bubbled out of the loaf pan and onto the sheet pan.
It was a little drier than we'd like, we'd prefer something a bit more creamy.
Our sheets weren't all the same sizes because I cut the dough into eight roughly even balls before rolling, so it was hard to get them to be the size we needed for rolling to double-width.
Hand rolling the pasta was an enormous amount of work, quite the workout, but our sheets would not have been nearly as delicate if we had just used the pasta roller's thinnest setting.
Next Time
Use a bit less oil when sauteing the vegetables.
Divide the dough into 8 equal portions and measure them to be sure each sheet can be rolled out to the same size. This will give you 32 sheets -- close enough.
We'd like more moisture, so increase the besciamella from 20 ml to 30 ml; we'd need to decrease the Ragu accordingly, dropping it from 40 ml to 30 ml: so 30 ml (2 Tbs) of each part of the sauce; a #30 disher would be useful here. It would be easiest to combine the besciamella and Ragu when layering, so a #16 60 ml disher would be appropriate.
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