Emilia Romagna GP 2020: Lasange Bolognese

Inspired by Marcella Hazan’s “Classic Menu in the Bolognese Style” I decided to make a few dishes for the Emilia Romagna race at Imola in the Bolgna region.

Lasagne Bolognese with homemade pasta and bolognese sauce
Spinach Sauteed with Garlic and Olive Oil
Breaded Fried Fennel

I cannot tell you how in love with this lasagne I am. It is a multi-step process and an all-day affair, but it is also one of the most delicious things I have eaten in my life.

The lasagne is the show-stopper, but the sautéed spinach with olive oil and garlic and the fried fennel were a great pairing and wonderful ways to show off simple ingredients.

Baked Lasagne with Meat Sauce

From Marcella Hazan’s tome: Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

Full amount of Bolognese Meat Sauce recipe (below)
Homemade pasta (below)
Béchamel sauce
3 cups milk
6 Tbsp butter
4 ½ Tbsp flour
¼ tsp salt
Remaining ingredients
1 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp butter plus more for greasing  9x12 inch pan
2/3 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1. Prepare the meat sauce (as directed in recipe below)
2. Prepare the pasta (as directed in recipe below)
3. Prepare the Béchamel sauce:
Put the milk in a saucepan, turn on the heat to medium low, and bring the milk just to the verge of boiling, it should form just a ring of small, pearly bubbles.  While the milk heats, put the butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan, and turn the heat to low. When the butter has melted completely, add the flour, stirring it in with a wooden spoon. Cook while stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes. Do not allow the flour to brown. Remove from the heat.
Add the hot milk to the flour-butter mixture, no more than 2 tablespoons at a time. Stir steadily and thoroughly. As soon as the first addition in incorporated, add more, and continue to stir until you have added ½ a cup of milk. Once this is incorporated you can add the remaining half cup all at once, stirring well until the mixture becomes smooth. Place the pan back over low heat, add salt, and cook  stirring without interruption until the mixture thickens into a sauce as dense as thick cream. Keep the sauce slightly runny – about the texture of sour cream for this lasagne recipe.
4. To prepare the pasta for the lasagne: Cut larger sheets of pasta into 10 inch strips. Set a bowl of cold water near your stove, and lay some clean, dry cloth towels flat on a work counter. Bring 4 quarts of water to a rapid boil, add 1 tablespoon salt, and as the water returns to a boil add 4-5 pieces of the cut pasta strips to the pot. Cook very briefly, just seconds after the water returns to a boil after you dropped in the pasta. Retrieve the strips with a colander scoop or slotted spatula and plunge them into the bowl of cold water. Pick up the strips, one at a time, rinse them under cold running water, and rub them delicately, “as though you were doing fine hand laundry”. Squeeze each strip very gently in your hands, then spread it flat on the towel to dry. When all the pasta is cooked in this manner, and spread out to dry, pat it dry on top with anther towel.
(Note: Marcella makes a note here that she understands how finicky this is… but it is necessary. )
5. Preheat oven to 400°F
6. Thickly smear the bottom of the lasagne pan with butter and 1 tablespoon of béchamel. Line the bottom of the pan with a single layer of pasta strips, cutting them to fit the pan, edge to edge, allowing no more than ¼ of overlap.
7. Add a layer of meat sauce and a thin layer of béchamel, sprinkle on some grated Parmesan, then add another layer of pasta cutting again to fit. Repeat spreading layers of sauce, cheese, and pasta. Build up at least 6 layers of pasta. Leave enough space to spread very thinly over the uppermost layer a combination of the two sauces. Sprinkle with Parmesan and dot with butter.
8. Bake on the uppermost rack of the preheated oven until a light golden crust is formed on top, about 10-15 minutes. Do not bake longer than 15 minutes altogether.
9. Remove from the oven and allow to settle for about 10 minutes, then serve at the table directly from the pan.

Bolognese Meat Sauce

From Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan

1 Tbsp vegetable oil
3 Tbsp butter
½ cup chopped onion
2/3 cup chopped celery
2/3 cup chopped carrot
1 pound ground beef
salt & pepper
1 cup whole milk
whole nutmeg (for grating)
1 cup dry white wine
1 ½ cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cup up, with their juices

1. Put the oil, butter, and chopped onion in a large dutch oven or other pot that retains heat well. Turn the heat on to medium and cook stirring often until onion becomes translucent, then add the chopped celery and carrot. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring the vegetables well to coat them.
2. Add the ground beef, a large pinch of salt, and a few grindings of pepper. Crumble the meat with a wooden spoon, stir well, and cook until the beef has lost its raw, red color.
3. Add the milk and let it simmer gently, stirring frequently, until it has bubbled away completely. Add a tiny grating – about 1/8 tsp – of nutmeg, and stir.
4. Add the wine, let simmer until it has evaporated, then add the tomatoes and stir thoroughly to coat all ingredients well. When the tomatoes begin to bubble, turn the heat down so that the sauce cooks at the “laziest of simmers”, with just an intermittent bubble breaking through to the surface. Cook, uncovered, for 3 hours or more, stirring from time to time. While the sauce is cooking you may find that it drys out a little or the fat separates from the meat. To keep it from sticking to the pot, continue the cooking, adding ½ cup of water whenever necessary. At the end, there should be no water left and the fat must separate from the sauce. Taste and correct for salt.

Homemade Pasta

Adapted from Helen Rennie’s YouTube Channel

Equipment
KitchenAid pasta maker attachment or tabletop pasta maker

 300g 00 flour or all-purpose flour
185g wet ingredients (2 large eggs + 3 large egg yolks + water to reach 185g)
2 tsp diamond crystal kosher salt or 1 tsp table salt

1. Add flour and salt to a food processor to combine.
2. Add eggs and water, process until it all begins to come together in a ball.
3. Remove to a clean counter with all the bits of flour from the bottom of the processor bowl.
4. Start by kneading for one minute without adding any additional flour, it will be sticky and feel a bit wet, but give it at least a minute before adding anything.
5. Rub all the stuck bits that will inevitably be on your hands back onto the dough and knead them in.
6. After one minute and adding back in any stuck bits, if it is still sticking to your hands consistently then add just a little flour and keep kneading.
7. Knead by hand for 8-12 minutes. Knead in small movements, if you try to fold the dough completely in half each time it will not cooperate, the video linked above is helpful as a demonstration.
8. Once fully kneaded and feeling supple, wrap in plastic wrap and let rest for at least 30 minutes.
9. Split pasta dough ball into four equal pieces. While rolling one portion of the dough, keep the remaining pieces in plastic wrap so they do not dry out.
10. Using a KitchenAid pasta maker attachment on speed 2 and setting 1 on the pasta roller, feed one piece of flattened dough through the roller. Once it has gone through, fold the dough into 3, rotate, and feed through again. Rotating the dough is what makes it rectangular in shape. Repeat this process two more times until you’ve fed all sides of the dough through at setting 1, and it is a nice rectangular shape. Now change your roller setting to 2 and feed the dough through the roller once. Keep flouring your hands and the roller if the dough is sticky.  Keep feeding the dough through on each roller setting (only once) until you’ve reached setting 7. Dust each sheet well with flour and lay on a well-floured counter until ready for the next step.