This delicious lasagna comes from celebrity chef Mario Batali's kitchen. It's all from scratch, right down to the homemade spinach pasta sheets.
Batali features two sauces in this recipe: ragu bolognese and besciamella. A ragu bolognese is a thick meat sauce, prepared here with ground veal, pork, and pancetta. The besciamella sauce, also known as bechamel in French cuisine, is a basic white roux sauce made with butter, flour, and milk. This is a good technique to have on hand since besciamella is a standard base for other cream sauces. Here, the besciamella is just lightly seasoned with salt and freshly grated nutmeg.
Buying pre-made lasagna sheets will save time in the kitchen, but it won't beat the taste and texture of homemade lasagna noodles. For this recipe, they're rolled out extra-thin to allow for a lot of layering. If you want, you can make the noodles ahead of time, separate them with parchment paper, and freeze them in an air-tight, plastic-wrapped container to inhibit freezer burn.
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 medium onions
- 4 ribs celery
- 2 carrots
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 pound ground veal
- 1 pound ground pork
- 4 ounces pancetta
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 1 cup whole milk
- 6 ounces tomato paste
- 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
- 5 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 cups whole milk
- 1-2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly-grated nutmeg
- 3 quarts water
- 1 tablespoon sea salt
- 1 cup packed fresh spinach leaves (3.5 ounces)
- sea salt (to taste)
- freshly ground pepper (to taste)
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
- 5 large eggs
- all-purpose flour for dusting
- 6 quarts cold water
- 2 Tbsp sea salt
- ice to make ice bath
- 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 8 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano