Lasagna Bolognese (not really though)

One of my favorite food-bloggers tackled this monstrous task of making a real lasagna bolognese, and she ended up with this epic looking thing that made my mouth water. How does lasagna with fresh homemade pasta, a slow-cooked beef tomato sauce and real grated parmesan sound? Amazing right? 

Sorry guys, I didn't make that.

What I did make was super scrumptious, but a far cry from Smitten's monumental undertaking. Perhaps some day I will be classy enough to own a pasta maker and determined enough not to cut corners (I call it being creative in the kitchen!), but for now baby just wanted her some lasagna (faux)bolognese (pronounced bowl-oh-naise, by me).

The béchamel sauce I made was not as thick as needed because I ran out of AP flour and experimented with a little potato starch instead...still was tasty but could have been thicker. Also, she said to add nutmeg "to taste" and I really flew the coop here and palmed a bunch of nutmeg into the sauce. It may be too much for others, but I LOVED the nutmeg flavor in the lasagna. It comes through and mixes really well with the cream and tomato sauce.

I did follow a few of her very detailed rules, one being that you should make the sauce the day before. The sauce is super important in this dish because there is no mozzarella (gasp!), no ricotta (gasp! gasp!) and no sausage. Gasp for me because I love me some sausage.

The sauce cooks down really slow and just uses tomato paste, water and wine as the base (no crushed tomatoes), so the sauce takes a long time to thicken and blend. The flavor is huge, and the quantity I made was more than twice what I needed. It filled up an entire Coaticook container!! leftooovers!

I also skimped on money invested in this piece by just using the meat I had in my freezer, which was pork not beef. Still tastes pretty damn fine, but ground chuck is viewed as the traditional "bolognese." Also didn't have enough to buy real parm, so I got some pre-ground old stuff for a $1.71. Also just used some really old lasagna pasta I had saved, but that I suppose didn't matter much in the end. All said, my substitutions and skimping still made a damn fine meal, and I would recommend going this route with lasagna  once or twice because A) it's cheaper and B) you get to say "bowl-oh-naise" again and again.

Lasagna Bolognese
(adapted from the Smitten Kitchen recipe)

A package of lasagna noodles (I got egg based pasta, yum-bo!)

1 large onion, chopped
2 slim carrots, chopped roughly
2 stalks of celery
3 garlic cloves
3 tbs olive oil
2 pounds ground chuck (I used pork)
2 cups of nice red wine (or not nice, wtvr)
water as needed
2 6-oz cans of tomato paste
2 bay leaves
some sprigs of thyme
salt and pepper

4 cups of whole milk
1/2 cup of unsalted butter
1/2 cup AP flour
nutmeg
1 garlic clove
pepper

Parmesan cheese, shredded


So first up, the sauce...
To prep the sauce, mince the carrots, onion, garlic and celery in a food processor until very fine. Add to a heavy bottomed pot with the olive oil, salt and pepper and cook around 15 minutes, until thoroughly browned. Next up, add in that meat and brown again for another 15 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook for 3-4 minutes, then add the wine and scrape down the pan. Add some water, about a cup or two and the bay leaves and thyme.

From here, you have to let it cook down for about 3-4 hours, and as the water burns off you add more water, no more than 2 cups at a time. add salt and pepper and flavor to your liking as you go. This makes A LOT of sauce, so I would say freeze a portion of it when done.

For the lasagna, get the noodles ready to go, boiling them and then running them under cold water. Lay them aside. Set the oven to 400 deg and then get to work on the béchamel.

Start by melting the butter in a heavy bottomed pot, then add the flour. Whisk this thoroughly until it becomes a thick paste, or roux. Very slowly begin to drizzle the milk in a bit at a time, whisking the whole time. You have to be careful with the first two cups you add and make sure the sauce thickens very slowly. Once you've added 2 cups, the sauce should be nice and thick, and then you can be more liberal with the milk. Make sure you whisk continuously, and add the nutmeg, garlic and pepper at the end.

Assemble the lasagna as follows: noodles, then a cup of the bolognese sauce, a half cup of béchamel and some of the parm. repeat. There should be five layers in total. the top can be covered in béchamel sauce and parm, and then bake that sucka for 35-40 minutes.

NUM NUM!