Lasagna with minced meat at home

What dishes of Italian cuisine are most often heard and known to all? Of course, this risotto, pasta and lasagna. In some ways, the latter can be attributed to pasta, since it is also based on pasta.

Sheets are made from the same dough as spaghetti mixed with durum wheat flour. Lasagna is mainly characteristic of the national cuisine of Bologna, and in different regions has its own distinctive features. Is it difficult to cook such a dish by yourself?

Classic Lasagna with minced meat: a recipe with photos

Before talking directly about the traditional algorithm for creating lasagna, which came from the region of Emilia-Romagna, you should pay attention to the characteristic feature of Italian cuisine. If you begin to disassemble classic recipes, you will not find any exact numbers. The fact is that the Italians are picking up the ingredients by eye, focusing more on taste and proportions. It is for this reason that there are a great many recipes for lasagna with minced meat (and its lean modifications), among which the only true one cannot be pointed out. What can be said with precision is the need to use layers of dough (sheets), Béchamel sauce, filling and cheese. From the specified number of components, 4 servings are obtained.

Composition:

• Lasagna sheets - 6 pcs.
• Minced meat - 400 g
• Fleshy Tomatoes - 500 g
• Onion - 1 pc
• Bechamel Sauce - 500 ml
• Salt, pepper - to taste
• Vegetable oil - for frying
• Butter - for the form
• Mozzarella - 100 g
• Parmesan - 40 g

Cooking:

1. If you use shop sheets and sauce, you will not have any particular difficulties with the combination of all the ingredients in a common dish. First you need to find out whether pasta requires pre-boiling: the manufacturer always indicates this moment on the package. In most cases, sheets are supplied on the shelves that can be immediately put into shape.
2. If this is not the case, or you made the dough yourself, you have to boil it. Boil the water in a large deep saucepan, put the whole sheet, cook for 3-4 minutes, then carefully transfer to a cutting board. To prevent the sheets from sticking together, you can add 2-3 tbsp to the water. olive oil, or boil them alternately.
3. Now comes the turn of the filling: chop the onion, passe it in hot oil for 1-2 minutes, until transparent. Oil should be a little bit, only to cover the bottom of the pan completely. After that, in the pan you need to put the stuffing, salt it and cover with a lid. On high heat, fry the meat, stirring constantly, until it is golden brown.
4. As soon as the meat comes to half-ready, wash the tomatoes and remove them from the skin. Crush them with a knife, transfer them to the frying pan, reduce power to medium. Stew until the tomatoes are turned into a homogeneous mass. To save time, you can use tomato paste: you need 150-200 g of the finished product.
5. Process the glass rectangular shape with butter: it is important to lubricate both the walls and the bottom well, otherwise it will be very difficult to remove the lasagna afterwards. Cover the bottom with boiled leaf, if necessary add to it the butt to the butt more pieces or whole sheets, so that there is no empty space. Pour a little Bechamel sauce on top, spreading it in a thin layer. The sauce should be decomposed stuffing from meat and tomatoes, and then cover it with a new sheet of dough.
6. Alternate the "dough, sauce, filling," you need until then, until the ingredients run out. The last should be a sheet that overlaps with Béchamel sauce and grated mozzarella. If desired, it can be inserted between the layers, if you want to get a curvaceous cheese yarn in the cut.
7. Place the form in an oven preheated to 200 degrees, after 15 minutes. reduce the temperature to 180 degrees and bake the dish for another 20 minutes. After this time, the lasagna should be sprinkled with grated Parmesan, and the latter should be allowed to grab a crisp for 5-7 minutes.

Submission is carried out using a portion of the wooden blade, squares (classic form) are decorated with green leaves of basil.

Lasagna with minced meat and mushrooms in the oven in a hurry at home

Due to the fact that the mushrooms themselves are very nutritious, so as not to make the dish too nourishing and difficult to assimilate, experts advise to take chicken mince, and to replace traditional Bechamel with green pesto sauce.

Composition:

• Lasagna Sheets - 10 pcs.
• Olive oil - 100 ml
• Pine nuts (kernels) - 25 g
• Fresh basil - 30 g
• Parmesan - 20 g
• Garlic cloves - 1 pc.
• Minced chicken - 300 g
• Champignons - 200 g
• Salt, pepper - to taste
• Soft cheese (any) - 180 g
• Tomato paste - 120 ml

Cooking:

1. The main point that determines the final result is the sauce. Peel and chop the garlic clove, tear the basil leaves with your hands, combine with the pine nuts, chop in a blender bowl, or shake the pestle well. Add olive oil and grated parmesan, again pestle or turn on the mixer. Leave the sauce for 30-60 minutes.
2. Mix the minced chicken with seasonings, put in a frying pan, add a little water and simmer for 10-15 minutes. After that, add tomato paste to the meat and stew for 10 minutes under a lid on low heat. Chop the champignons and fry them in a dry non-stick pan.
3. Shut the bottom of the baking dish with sheets of dough, spread the pesto sauce, mushrooms and minced meat on top, put a new sheet of dough and repeat the procedure. On the last sheet pour the grated soft cheese.

Bake the lasagna in an oven preheated to 190 degrees for 30 minutes, then reduce power to 160 degrees and bring another 20 minutes to readiness.

Diet vegetable lasagna: a quick recipe

If you look at the composition of any lasagna recipe with minced meat, you can safely say that this dish is extremely difficult to associate with a healthy diet: both the fat content and the meat with pasta are hard to digest. Someone, however, can afford a rare indulgence in the form of 1 piece, but someone has to look for an alternative. Dietary variants of lasagna exist, and they are not always inferior to the classic version.

Composition:

• Lasagne sheets - 8 pcs.
• Eggplant - 150 g
• Squash - 200 g
• Large tomatoes - 3 pcs.
• Sweet pepper - 2 pcs.
• Milk - 200 ml
• Butter - 20 g
• Wheat flour - 1 tbsp.
• White cheese - 150 g
• Hard low-fat cheese - 100 g
• Herbs to taste

Cooking:

1. Cut the eggplant into cubes, sprinkle with salt abundantly, leave for 20 minutes. Then rinse well with running water and transfer to a colander. Peel and chop zucchini, do the same with tomatoes. Peppers are recommended to chop thin rings.
2. Heat oil with flour, add milk, boil down to density. At the very end, enter half the amount of grated cheese and herbs.
3. Put eggplants and zucchini in a frying pan, stew with water until soft, add tomatoes, cover with a lid. Within 10-15 minutes tomite to get the most uniform mixture.
4. Cover the glass or ceramic form (bottom) with sheets of dough, spread the milk-butter sauce on top, spread the vegetable mixture (together with fresh peppers) over it, cover with a new sheet of dough. Alternate until all the ingredients run out.
5. Last sheet of dough, cover with grated cheese. Bake the dish for 20 minutes. at a temperature of 190 degrees, and then sprinkle with grated cheese and cook another 15 minutes.

Such lasagna is quite possible to include in your diet as a hearty lunch, because it is much easier to digest by the body than the classic meat version. And due to the presence in the recipe of eggplants and zucchini, the dish is no less satisfying.

How to prepare sheets for lasagne at home?

It is not always possible to buy special sheets of dough in the store: you can only meet them in large hypermarkets, and not every manufacturer produces them. But this should not scare you: at home, sheets for lasagna can also be made, but they will still be different from the purchased ones. First of all, they will require pre-boiling.

Composition:

• Wheat flour - 250 g
• Large Egg - 1 pc.
• Ice water - 2 tbsp.
• Olive oil - 1 tbsp.

Cooking:

1. If possible, use durum wheat flour. It not only affects the texture and taste of the dough, but is also much more useful than bleached flour. It allows the Italians to eat pasta every day without harm to the figure.
2. Sift the flour onto a cutting board, make a depression in the hill and break an egg into it. Pour in olive oil and water, knead the dough. You need to work very quickly, but you will have to knead for 5-7 minutes. The dough should not stick to the hands: the formed lump does not crawl, but does not crack.
3. It is important to understand that the dough should be dense, but not steep, so if you work with small eggs, take 2-3 pieces. on the specified amount of ingredients. Add some flour if necessary.
4. Cover the dough with cling film, leave for 40-50 minutes. Now divide into 6-8 equal parts, using a rolling pin, give a rectangle, the thickness of which does not exceed 1.5 mm.

It is better to prepare sheets immediately before working with lasagne, however, if necessary, you can dry them and freeze them.

Traditional Lasagna Sauce Recipes

If it is possible to imagine lasagne without minced meat, it is unlikely without sauce. We have already mentioned that experts advise using Bolognese or Béchamel as recognized as classic for this dish. However, it is not always possible to find them on the shelves, and, in addition, one cannot guarantee the high quality of the product offered by the manufacturer. So if you want to get the perfect lasagna at home, do it yourself.

Bechamel is a milky sauce, which is prepared on the basis of flour and fresh milk calcined in butter. The main difficulty is to make the consistency homogeneous. How to achieve this?

Composition:

• Butter 82% fat - 70 g
• Wheat flour - 50 g
• Milk - 800 ml
• Nutmeg - Pinch

Cooking:

1. Milk should be cold - this is an extremely important point, so before you start working with the main ingredients, put the milk in the refrigerator for 1.5-2 hours.
2. But butter, on the contrary, needs to be warmed: cut it into large pieces, put in a deep ladle, melt. After that, enter into it the sifted wheat flour and mix.
3. Make sure that the oil does not boil, but only remains hot - work at a low temperature. Pour in (in small portions) milk, continuing to stir the sauce: the process is long, but it does not tolerate haste - if too quickly and add a lot of liquid, you will immediately form lumps.

Boil down the sauce to the desired thickness, at the very end pouring nutmeg and salt into it. In the finished Béchamel often add a raw egg, fried onions, spices, cheese, etc. Prepare it immediately before use, because it is not intended for long-term storage.

Bolognese sauce (or Bolognese) is almost a classic tomato sauce, to which is added minced meat. However, not everything is so simple: in addition to these components there are a lot of seasonings and vegetables, as well as alcohol. The finished product is incredibly aromatic, with a whole bunch of echoing flavors.

Composition:

• Minced meat (beef tenderloin) - 300 g
• Milk 3.2% fat - 100 ml
• Butter - 60 g
• Large tomatoes - 4 pcs.
• Carrots - 1 pc.
• Celery sticks - 2 pcs.
• Onion - 1 pc.
• Garlic cloves - 3 pcs.
• Dry white wine - 50 ml
• Greens to taste
• Cooking:
• The most important thing in this sauce is its thickness. Therefore, choose fleshy tomatoes, devoid of water. They need to peel, remove the core with the seeds, then lower them into a hot pan with butter.
• Crush the onion and rub the carrots, add to the tomatoes, and then add the shredded celery sticks to the same place. Then put the mince, fry on high heat until golden brown.
• Add greens and seasonings, pour in the wine, after 15 minutes. cover and simmer on low heat. In 20 minutes. It is necessary to pour in the milk for 60-90 minutes. continue to bring the sauce to a uniform thickness. If the moisture disappears, you can add boiled hot water.

Be sure to follow the consistency and constantly mix the sauce: the components should not burn, thereby violating the integrity of the dish.

In conclusion, I would like to note that lasagna is not always fatty mozzarella and parmesan. The latter is used only in the classic recipe with Bechamel sauce and is often replaced with any hard cheese (for example, Dutch), and instead of mozzarella you can take soft pickled suluguni or even salty cheese.