Homemade lasagna noodles followed by the actual lasagna

So I told you I was making homemade lasagna right? The only missing ingredient that was left to prepared was the lasagna noodles. 2 years ago, David gave me for my bday my awesome pasta machine! He got me an eletrical one since it had more pasta molds that a manual machine (basically can only make flat pasta). I have used my new toy quite often but the clean up part usually unmotivates me... It can be a LOT easier to just pop open a bag of premade pasta!

 So, back to tonight. I was sure that I had a lasagna fit for my machine... low and behold, after taking it out of the box, and setting it up... out of the 10 I have... none for lasagna! I have a lasagnete one but it is not wide enough. So only one solution left. Taking out the rolling pin! That's right, I worked out my arms people :) but it was all worth it.

Lasagna noodles

Ingredients:

2 eggs

2 cups of flour

1 tbsp of olive oil

1 pinch of salt

1 tbsp of warm water if needed

 Place the flour on the cutting board (or countertop) making a volcano (mountain with a hole in the middle). In that hole, you break the 2 eggs and mix them lightly in order to break the yolks. I was going to take a picture here but I suffered from technical difficulties! My hole was not big enough and my second egg started overflowing as a real volcano would do! So I desperately tried to catch it and therefore my hands became part of the egg and flour mix... basically a goue! I couldn't see my fingers from all the dough that was on them! Trust me, I was laughing at myself for being so stupid, thankful that David wasn't home yet to laugh at me, and my hands were quite a sight to see. Quick trick if your hands become full of sticky dough, rub them together, the dough will stick to each other and fall off your hands. Helped a lot in my case. So... please excuse the lack of picture for this step!

So, the real method is to slowly add the flour from the sides into the eggs and start mixing the dough. In order to not get sticky hands, try not touching the eggs until they are nicely mixed.

Knead the dough as if it was bread for about 15 mins. Add the water if it is too dry.

When the dough is nice and kneaded, form a ball and refrigerate from 30 mins to 1 hour covering it with a damp cloth. This gives time for the flour to set. Really helps a lot! I never did this step before but it does make a difference.

So when the dough has rested, take it out and start rolling it.

 Until you get a nice thin layer. I cut my ball into 4 pieces since my board is too small for the whole dough.

 When I got a decent thickness and size, I cut them lengthwise. I was laughing at how different my pieces looked but since I don't have a hand pasta machine, that's the best I could do!

 Final count. 12 "pieces"
 So there you go. Lasagna noodles ready to roll! :)

Since I won't be cooking my lasagna until tomorrow I actually pre-cooked my pieces in order for the egg to not go bad on me. Fresh pasta calls for about 1 to 2 mins in the boiling water, but I just left it 30 sec as it will cook in the lasagna again tomorrow. I don't want it to be mushy.

Actual lasagna recipe

Making lasagna involves different steps. Actually, there isn't any authentic true italian lasagna. It is a dish that varies from region to region and has evolved over the years. In italia, you can barely find a ricotta and meat lasagna as in America it is almost a must do. So it really depends on what you prefer and how you like it. I do a mix of a few recipes and mostly do it as my mom does it, who learned it from her nonna. It is a simple recipe but does involve many different steps and can be time consuming. It is all worth it in the end though!

Ingredients:

Meat tomato sauce (recipe below)
Bechamel sauce (recipe below)
12 to 15 pieces of lasagna noodle
oil
pecorino romano cheese
mozzarella cheese
ricotta and spinach mix (recipe below)

I'll explain this recipe by section, as I find it is easier to do so.

Meat tomato sauce

Ingredients:

500gr of ground beef
1 small onion
2 garlic cloves
1 780gr can of whole tomatoes
2 400gr tomato sauce cans
spices (fennel, italian spices, basil, parsley, salt, pepper)
1 tbsp of sugar
1/2 cup of white wine
oil

Mince onion and garlic cloves.

Add oil to a large pot and heat. When ready, add the onion and garlic. Sweat for a few mins. Add meat and cook for about 8 mins until brown.

Add white wine and reduce (usually takes a few mins). I just love adding wine to sauces as it gives it this fruity taste. :)

Add the tomato sauce and whole tomatoes roughly diced (I don't add the tomato juice from the whole tomato can... just too watery). Add the spices.

Let simmer for about 1 hour. I actually put the lid on and remove it towards the end in order for the water to evaporate. In America, tomato sauce usually involves tomato paste. Since I don't have any and it is not that common here, I use tomato sauce and let it reduce at the end (basically the way tomato paste is made). Otherwise the sauce is too liquid and the lasagna is hard to cut and stay together.

Bechamel sauce

Ingredients:

3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
pepper
1 cup of hot milk
1 tsp of nutmeg

Heat butter until melted. Add the flour to the butter and whisk until a roux forms.

Add slowly part of the hot milk. Whisk. Add the remaining milk and pepper (nutmeg too if you have). It will form a dense mixture.

Ricotta cheese mix:

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 cup ricotta
fresh parsley
100gr frozen spinach, thawed

Mix eggs, ricotta and parlsey together.

Take the spinach and remove the excess water by squeezing it in your hands or using paper towels. This is really important otherwise your lasagna will be watery and taste too much like spinach. Add spinach to mixture.

Assembly

So here is the fun part! Making the lasagna! I love taking pictures and seeing the slow evolution of the final product :) So please excuse the excess of pictures here.

Brush oil in your oven lasagna dish.

Add 1/3 of the meat tomato sauce and layer it.

Add lasagna noodles as best as you can to cover the sauce. The trick is to overlap them slightly but since I was short on noodles... I did my best to cover the sauce with my ackward pieces.

Add ricotta and spinach mixture.

Add another layer of noodles. Best looking one for me here!

Add the bechamel sauce layer

Add another 1/3 of the meat tomato sauce

Add the last noodle layer and the pecorino romano cheese.

Add the tomato sauce and the mozzarella cheese. I used a mix with emmental because it browns better in the oven :) I would have used my homemade mozzarella but there just wasn't enough of it!

So there you have it! A yummy homemade lasagna! I'll post final cooked pics after lunch time.