Region: Italy, Campania
Category: Pasta-Baked
Season: Winter
Difficulty: Labor Intensive
Does lasagna need any explanation? There are many different lasagne and, in fact, I wrote a book several years ago devoted exclusively to lasagne from all the regions of Italy, called Lasagne (Little, Brown & Co.). This recipe is one of your basic lasagna, nothing fancy, just the rich, deep tastes of a luscious lasagna that you could eat all week. If you don’t have a butcher and must rely on the supermarket, you can find the pork skin called for on one end of piece of packaged salt pork or you can cut it from piece of pork shoulder roast which is usually sold with its fat and skin.
Yield: Makes 6 servings
Preparation Time: 1:30 hours
1 pound ground beef
2 mild Italian sausage links (about 1/2 pound), casing removed and crumbled
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
Two 4-inch squares pork skin
One 28-ounce crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 cup water
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1/2 pound lasagne
Extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling
1 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced
1/2 pound ricotta cheese
Freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese for sprinkling
1. In a skillet, brown the ground beef and sausage over medium-high heat, about 8 minutes. Remove the meat squeezing out excess fat with a spoon and ladle. Set the meat aside. Discard all but 1 tablespoon of accumulated fat.
2. In a skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat, then cook the onion, pepper, garlic, and pork skin until the onion and pepper are soft, about 10 minutes. Add the meat, tomatoes, wine, water, bay leaf, oregano and cook until denser, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes. Discard the pork skin.
3. Assemble the lasagne by lightly oiling the bottom of as many 9 x 9-inch aluminum baking pans as needed (probably 2 or 3). Layer the lasagne in the following order until the ingredients are used up: a sheet of lasagne, sauce, mozzarella, ricotta, sauce, and parmigiano cheese.
4. Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
5. Cover the baking pans with a piece of tented aluminum foil and bake until the cheese is melted and the sauce on the sides of the pan are bubbling vigorously, 40 to 45 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes before serving, or refrigerate until later once it has cooled, or freeze once it has cooled for a future baking.
Variation:
Note:
Posted: 12/27/2006
