We know summer isn’t the time of year when you most want to turn on your oven. But on a day like today, it’s worth making an exception for one of the most important celebrations of Italian gastronomy:
International Lasagna Day. While the dish can contain a variety of fillings, one of the most successful is meat, which everyone loves and with which you can win over guests without complicating your life.
Like many dishes with fillings, the preparation of meat lasagna requires some foresight, because the result is much better when we prepare the filling inside the dish
progress. Allowing all the ingredients in the filling to settle and cool helps to intensify the flavors that will make our meat lasagna an unrivaled dish.
The word “lagana” comes from Roman times, although the practice of boiling a water and flour mixture dates back to the Middle Ages. Cheese was added to recipes in the 13th century, eggs were not added to dough until the Renaissance, and tomatoes first appeared in Naples in the 19th century. Lasagna was born in Bologna.
Meat We know this today, thanks to a recipe created by some of the city’s restaurateurs.
Ingredients for the Perfect Lasagna
Meat lasagna has three main ingredients: bechamel, tomato, and meat. In the latter case, as we have already discussed in our tips for making meatballs, it is ideal to choose meat with some fat so that the filling will be more juicy.and part of it
veal Ideal for this purpose is the lung sirloin, better known as “calf whistle”.
To make a meat lasagna perfect, it is important to consider the quality of the meat and tomatoes. / Stefan Tan – UNSPLASH
As for the tomatoes, we never use
tomato Industrial deep frying as it contains too much sugar which distorts the taste of the filling. The ideal option is to bet on tomato paste, which we can find in stores specializing in Italian products. But if that’s not possible, or we’d rather choose what’s within our reach, crushed tomatoes from the supermarket are also a great alternative.
For four to six servings of lasagna, we’ll need one onion, two
radish Medium, celery stalk, garlic clove, 600ml crushed tomato, 400g ground beef, 100ml red wine, oregano, 1 tablespoon of sugar, salt and a glass of water. In addition to pasta sheets that don’t need to be precooked so as not to complicate our lives, we also find them in the refrigerated section.
Meat Lasagna, Step by Step
As we mentioned before, in order to make the mincemeat, which is better done ahead of time, we must first combine the onion, garlic, carrots and
celery. First, fry the onion and garlic in a large frying pan or casserole until brown, and when they start to turn translucent, add the carrots and celery.
The meat lasagna filling should be prepared ahead of time. / Steven Tan / UNSPLASH
Once they are poached and a bit soft, we add the meat and chop it up by hand while stirring with a wooden spoon. When the color changes, it’s time to add the wine and we will let the wine evaporate.When this happens, we add sugar to the crushed tomatoes and pour it into a saucepan or casserole, to which we add a glass of water and
oreganoabout a tablespoon.
When it begins to boil, reduce the heat to medium, allowing the liquid to drain and the sauce to acquire a consistent appearance so that the flavors of the meat and tomato blend with the other ingredients.This is the most important step
recipe Because, in addition to preventing the sauce from being too liquid and giving us problems when assembling the lasagna, it will also help shape the main flavors of our dish.
The Importance of a Quality White Sauce
If we are making a meat lasagna, we make the sauce that morning, the other most important preparation so that our lasagna is impeccable.For this we only need 50 grams
butter, 40 flour and 600 ml. whole milk. Let the butter melt over medium heat and when it has become liquid we will add the flour little by little while stirring with a wooden spoon.
When making lasagna, lasagna preparation is also important. / Michelle Henderson – UNSPLASH
It’s important to be patient and stir properly so the mixture doesn’t burn and it doesn’t clump together.once we’re done
flourwe will proceed to add all the milk, the milk must be at room temperature and we will mix it in a container of choice, preferably a large frying pan with some metal sticks.
If it turns out to be too liquid when all the milk is added, we just let it evaporate and heat it up while stirring and the sauce bubbles. The fire should be kept on medium low so that there is no danger of burning.we must try to add salt
nutmeg or pepper to taste.
When assembling the lasagna
When we have all the prep work done we will proceed to add to the bottom of the source
oven A little tomato, if we don’t have crushed tomatoes left, fry so the first slices don’t stick together. To this we will add the first layer of filling, which does not need to be heated beforehand, and with which we will alternate the pasta sheets until it reaches the thickness we want.
When the lasagna is ready, we pour the bechamel over it and spread it with a palette.Now we just need to add
cheesethis can be one of the gratins we find in the supermarket, or we can choose our favorite previously grated variety.
We put it in the oven at 180 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. The ideal is to take it out when we see that the cheese has melted and is golden brown.We’ve prepared the perfect dish to celebrate
International Lasagna Day.
Phrase of the day:
“The civilization and culture of the people depend on the education of women” – Author Carmen de Burgos