Lasagna Bolognese with Four Cheeses

Traditional Lasagna Bolognese has only parmesan cheese, a family revolt led to the addition of mozzarella, ricotta and best of all… mascarpone… 

Ingredients

For a 9” by 13” pan

Ragu (aka meat sauce)

  • 2 cloves of garlic

  • 1 medium carrot roughly chopped

  • 1 medium rib celery roughly chopped

  • ½ small onion, roughly chopped

  • 1 -28 ounce can Marzano whole tomatoes in puree

  • 2 Tbsp unsalted butter

  • ¾ lb ground beef - 85 percent lean

  • ¾ lb ground pork

  • ¾ lb ground veal

  • 1½ cups whole milk

  • 1½ cups dry vermouth

  • 2½ Tbsp tomato paste

  • 1 tsp table salt

  • ¼ tsp ground black pepper

Béchamel

  • 4 Tbsp unsalted butter

  • ¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour

  • 4 cups whole milk

  • ¾ tsp table salt

Pasta Lasagna dishes are usually 9” x 13” then they taper

  • 1-2 boxes of oven ready or no-boil lasagna noodles

  • Note: Helpful when they fit the dish without cutting

  • Barilla has 13” noodles (need 18 total)

  • De Cecco has 9” noodles (need 24 total)

  • Better yet, find 6-8 fresh whole Lasagna sheets

Cheeses

  • 2 x 6-8-ounce balls of dry Mozzarella (1½-2 cups)

  • 12 ounces of Ricotta

  • 4 ounces of Mascarpone (buy 1 tub)

  • 1 4-6-ounce block of Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Adjust oven rack to middle position, heat oven to 425 degrees.

Ragu - Meat Sauce

  1. Process garlic, carrot, celery, and onion in a food processor until finely chopped, transfer mixture to a bowl.

  2. Process tomatoes and puree until finely chopped.

  3. Heat butter in a heavy-bottomed pot/large pan until foaming; add garlic, carrot, celery, and onion and cook until softened, but not browned, about 4 minutes.

  4. Add ground meats and cook, breaking meat into 1-inch pieces, about 1 minute.

  5. Add milk and stir, breaking meat into 1/2-inch pieces; bring to simmer and cook, further breaking meat into smaller pieces, until almost all liquid has evaporated - 20 to 30 minutes. Break up any remaining clumps of meat.

  6. Add vermouth and simmer until liquid has evaporated - 20 to 30 minutes.

  7. Stir in tomato paste (!!!), about 1 minute; add tomatoes, salt, and pepper.

  8. Bring to a simmer and cook until the sauce is slightly thickened, about 15 minutes.

Note: If meat tastes bland add tomato paste

  1. You should have about 6-7 cups of meat sauce.

  2. Transfer meat sauce to a bowl to cool off, about 30 minutes.

Béchamel

  1. While meat sauce simmers, melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat until foaming;

  2. Add flour and cook, whisking constantly, until combined, about 1½ minutes; mixture should not brown.

  3. Gradually whisk in milk; increase heat to medium-high and bring to full boil, whisking frequently.

  4. Add salt, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally with heatproof rubber spatula or wooden spoon, making sure to scrape bottom and corners of saucepan.

  5. You should have about 3 1/3 cups.

  6. Transfer béchamel to bowl and cool, about 30 minutes.

Note: Harder than it looks, periodically we run short and double the recipe

Cheeses

  1. Slice the mozzarella thinly

  2. Combine 4 ounces of mascarpone with 12 ounces of ricotta

  3. Grate the Parmesan

Assemble

  1. Butter the baking dish

  2. Create a thin layer, ¾-1 cup of meat sauce on the bottom of the lasagna dish.

  3. Place 3-5 noodles in a layer on top of the sauce, not overlapping and not touching the dish

Note: Oven-ready noodles must absorb liquid to become soft.

  1. Spread 1-1¼ cups of meat sauce over the pasta, to the edge of noodles but not to the edge of the dish

  2. Drizzle 1/3 cup béchamel evenly over the meat sauce.

  3. Lay thin pieces of mozzarella intermittently on top of the Béchamel sauce

  4. Place pea-size dollops of the ricotta-mascarpone mix in between the mozzarella pieces

  5. Sprinkle Parmesan over both.

Note: Put the bare minimum of cheese, otherwise you will overwhelm the other flavors, and the lasagna will fall apart when you cut it.

  1. Repeat layering of noodles, meat sauce, bechamel, and cheeses 3 (or 4?) more times.

  2. Place the final 3 noodles on top

  3. Completely cover the top with remaining béchamel, allowing it to spill over noodles.

  4. Lay pieces of mozzarella intermittently on top

  5. Sprinkle evenly with remaining Parmesan cheese

Bake

  1. Spray large sheet of foil with nonstick cooking spray and cover lasagna

  2. Bake until bubbling, about 30 minutes. Remove foil, increase heat to 450 degrees, and continue to bake until the surface is spotty brown, about 15 minutes.

  3. Cool for 30 minutes; cut into pieces and serve.