In Italy, lasagna is a real hit. This classic of national cuisine has long been popular all over the world. After all, lasagna combines minced meat, vegetable garnish, and pasta, all under a delicate creamy sauce. And although the dish at first glance seems rather difficult to prepare, the process of creativity in the kitchen will not take much time and will bring real pleasure.
Modern lasagne is a thin layer of wheat dough, lightly dried, boiled and baked in layers in the oven. Different fillings are placed between the layers of the dough, the most common of which is minced meat. Mandatory ingredients are Bechamel sauce and hard cheese.
By the way, initially the lasagna looked like an ordinary round flatbread made from white wheat flour (without fillings and sauces). The flatbread comes from Ancient Greece, and its historical name is laganon. Later, this recipe also fell in love with the ancient Romans, who began to cut this type of bread into strips, calling it lagani. Today in Italy, similar flat and wide layers of wheat pasta (which in different countries are called tagliatelle, and in some regions of Italy they are called lagana) are used to make lasagna.
Classic recipe
Ingredients:
- pork, beef or chicken meat (you can mix) - 500 g;
- medium onion - 1 pc.;
- garlic - 2 teeth.;
- tomato. pasta - 100 g;
- medium tomatoes - 3 pcs.;
- sweet pepper (orange / yellow) - 1 pc.;
- cheese - 180 g;
- lasagne layers - 10 pcs.;
- rast. oil - 40 ml;
- salt and sugar.
Steps of cooking a dish step by step:
- Peel and chop the onion, fry in oil in a skillet. Sprinkle with sugar until golden brown.
- Chop the meat in a meat grinder. Add to the onion so that it is slightly stewed. Try to knead each piece so that lumps do not form. Add some water, tomato paste and fry for another 2 minutes.
- Send the washed and diced tomatoes there, put out a little and turn off the heating. Add salt and sugar to taste. Cover with a lid and wait 3 minutes.
- Grate cheese in a separate bowl.
- Wash and peel fresh pepper, chop into thin strips.
It's time for the sauce.
Bechamel sauce
Structure:
- milk - 800 ml;
- flour varieties - 80 g;
- drain. oil - 80 g;
- salt and black pepper - pinch at a time.
Step-by-step cooking recipe:
- Melt butter, add sifted flour to it and darken it a little in oil.
- Slowly pour milk at room temperature and beat with a whisk to dissolve all the curds.
- Salt and be sure to pepper. Constantly stirring, bring to the state of heavy cream.
- Set aside to cool. The sauce is ready after it has cooled.
Assembling lasagna:
- At the bottom of the baking sheet, you can put baking paper or foil, grease with any oil.
- Pour the sauce on the bottom. Spread one layer of dough over the entire surface. Pour the sauce over again.
- Spread out some of the minced meat. Scatter some of the bell pepper evenly. Spread a pinch of grated cheese over the entire sheet.
- Again a layer of dough, and on top of it sauce. And again minced meat, pepper, cheese.
- Repeat layers until the outermost layer remains. Grease it thickly with sauce so that empty places do not shine through (they will dry out and not bake).
- Spread the bulk of the grated cheese on top.
- Bake in the oven for 35 minutes at 190-200 ° C. A golden crust should form on the climbing.
- Remove the Italian dish on the table, let it brew for about 10 minutes. Cut into portions and arrange on plates.
How to make dough plates
Plates are sold ready-made in the grocery department. They are even, one pack is enough for one dish, and they do not need to be boiled. But if you can cook them at home, then the lasagna will be even tastier.
Ingredients:
- eggs - 2 pcs.;
- premium flour - 400 g;
- sunflower oil. - 45 ml;
- salt.
Cooking recipe step by step:
- Sift all the flour directly onto a wooden board. In the center, break the eggs into the hole and pour in vegetable oil. Salt.
- Stir with your hands until completely homogeneous. Knead until a soft but firm dumpling dough is formed.
- Cover with cellophane and leave to rest for 30 minutes on the table.
- Divide the whole piece into 8 pieces and roll out in layers so that they are the same size as the baking sheet.
- Sprinkle with flour and leave on the table for another 1 hour. The dough should dry out. If you need to dry faster, you can heat the pan (without oil) and dry quickly on both sides on it (but do not fry until dark brown).
- For storage, fold the lasagna sheets into a bag and send to the freezer.
- You can cook the sheets right there by boiling them in boiling water for no longer than 1-1.5 minutes.
Vegetable lasagna classic
For lovers of healthy food, vegetable lasagna is suitable. It tastes just as good, but less high in calories.
Structure:
- zucchini - 200 g;
- eggplant - 200 g;
- tomatoes - 350 g;
- cheese (if possible, parmesan) - 60 g;
- grows up. oil - 30 ml;
- butter, butter - 60 g;
- fresh green onions - 1 bunch;
- bell pepper - 2 pcs.;
- flour varieties - 50 g;
- seasonings, salt and pepper;
- milk - 600 ml;
- sheets - 8 pcs.
How to cook step by step:
- Rinse the leeks under running water and chop into rings.
- Wash and peel the eggplant and zucchini. Cut into 1 cm thick cubes.
- Rinse and peel the bell pepper, chop into strips.
- Heat the oil in a skillet and fry the chopped vegetables for about 8-10 minutes.
- Rinse the tomatoes, pour over with boiling water and remove the skin. Grind into cubes and send to vegetables for 2-3 minutes.
- Season the lasagna filling with salt before turning off the stove. Mix.
- To prepare white sauce, melt butter in a 1-liter saucepan and sift flour to it. Stir with a spatula, slowly pour in cold milk and salt. Without stopping, whisk, simmer the sauce until medium thick for about 2 minutes.
- Grate a heat-resistant baking sheet with any oil. Place dough sheets on the bottom in one layer. Drizzle with sauce.
- Spread the mixture of vegetables on sheets, then a new layer of dough and Bechamel.
- Repeat until you run out of ingredients. The last layer is white sauce. Cover the top with cheese.
- Cover with foil and place in a hot oven for 30-35 minutes. First, set the temperature to 200 ° C. After 25 minutes, removing the foil, the heat in the oven can be reduced to 180 ° C.
Diet lasagna
Traditional meat lasagna is high in calories, but even on a diet, you can afford this Italian dish if you replace a number of ingredients with lighter ones. For example, Bechamel sauce will completely replace kefir, and minced meat is either completely eliminated or replaced with chicken. Dilute the filling with fresh vegetables and use light cheese.
Structure:
- dough layers - 7-8 pcs.;
- chicken fillet - 300 g;
- medium carrots - 1 pc.;
- celery stalk - 1 pc.;
- tomatoes - 2 pcs.;
- tomato paste. - 40 ml;
- garlic - 3 teeth.;
- kefir 1% - 350 ml;
- suluguni cheese - 150 g;
- pepper and salt;
- grows up. oil - 15 ml.
Step-by-step cooking recipe:
- Rinse chicken fillet under water and grind with a meat grinder.
- Send the meat to a heated skillet, lightly oiled.
- Peel the carrots and chop them into cubes, do the same with the celery. Pour the tomatoes over with boiling water and, after removing the skin, chop.
- Put the vegetables in a pan to the meat, fry, stirring constantly, for 6 minutes.
- In a saucepan, mix the tomato paste with a couple of tablespoons of water, peeled and crushed garlic, salt. Add kefir and stir (do not heat). Spice up. It is the perfect low-calorie spicy substitute for the classic Bechamel sauce.
- On a baking sheet with high walls, pour the sauce all over the bottom, lay out the sheets (if possible, make them from whole grain flour).
- Pour the sauce over the sheets and spread the filling, spread a little grated cheese on top.
- Repeat the layers again until the filling ends. Pour over the sauce and sprinkle with a cap of their cheese.
- Heat the oven to 170 ° C, put the dish with the food inside and do not open the door for half an hour. Serve in portions.
Pasta lasagna
For lasagna, ordinary pasta, hollow inside, is quite suitable. For example, long feathers or horns. In shape, the unusual dish will slightly resemble a pasta casserole, but in taste it will be a classic lasagna.
Ingredients:
- high-grade pasta varieties - 300 g;
- medium onion - 2 pcs.;
- medium carrots - 1 pc.;
- minced meat - 600 g;
- tomato paste - 40 ml;
- medium tomatoes - 3 pcs.;
- salt and seasonings;
- cheese - 180 g;
- butter, butter - 80 g.;
- flour varieties - 30 g;
- fat cream - 300 ml.
Recipe:
- To prepare the filling, peel the onions and carrots, chop with a knife and grater. Fry vegetables until soft.
- Add minced meat and a little water to the pan. Simmer the ingredients for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Finish with chopped tomatoes and tomato paste. Salt and season well. Simmer until an almost uniform sauce is formed, about 15 minutes.
- For Bechamel, fry the flour in the sink. butter and combine with boiling cream. Add salt and seasonings, whisk until desired consistency.
- Boil the pasta in salted water, but not until cooked through.
- Pour the Béchamel sauce over the dish. Pour in some of the pasta and cover with minced meat with vegetables. Again a layer of sauce, grated cheese and pasta. Minced meat. For the crust, cover the top layer with cheese.
- Bake for 30 minutes at 200 ° C.
Lasagne with mushrooms and cheese
Ingredients:
- sheets - 8 pcs.;
- champignons - 400 g;
- onion - 1 pc.;
- garlic - 3 teeth.;
- mozzarella - 100 g;
- parmesan - 30 g;
- milk - 500 ml;
- butter, butter - 80 g;
- wheat flour. - 30 g;
- salt.
Cooking steps:
- Rinse the mushrooms thoroughly and chop. If champignons are not used, then they must first be boiled in two waters for 25-30 minutes.
- Peel and chop the onion. It's the same with garlic.
- Grate both types of cheese.
- Melt 40 g of butter and brown the mushrooms on it, add the onion after a while. Cook the dish until half cooked. Lastly, add garlic to the filling and turn off the stove.
- Bechamel sauce is made with butter, fried flour and warm milk. Not forgetting to stir, thicken the sauce with uniform heating and season according to your own taste (ground pepper and salt).
- Spread the lasagna in the traditional order: sheets, sauce, mushrooms, mozzarella, sheets, sauce, mushrooms, mozzarella, etc.
- Do not close the last layer, just pour over the sauce and cover with Parmesan.
- Bake for 25 minutes at 200 ° C.
The secret of dough sheets
Store plates for casseroles are permissible not to boil before cooking, but carefully place on layers, thickly greasing with sauce. He will nourish them, and they will not be tough.
Homemade sheets are best boiled in boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Cook the frozen workpiece for 2-4 minutes. Then pat dry with paper towels.
