Lasagne from Scratch

Cooking Skills: Pasta 2

Chapter 7 · Lasagne from Scratch

Skill goal

Build a lasagne from fresh sheets, a thick ragù and a white sauce.

The basics

Lasagne is an assembly job. If the three components (pasta, a rich sauce, and a white sauce) are each right, the dish will be. The pasta is the egg dough from chapter 1; the ragù and the white sauce are from Cooking Skills: Pasta 1.

Rule	Why
Thin sheets (1 to 1.5 mm)	They swell and soften in the oven and get thick if rolled thickly
A thick ragù, a pourable white sauce	A runny ragù makes the dish soupy, a stiff white sauce doesn't soak the sheets
Cover the sheets with sauce	Any exposed pasta dries out and goes crisp
Cover with foil first, then uncover	Steams the pasta, then browns the top
Rest for 15 minutes	Lets it set so the layers don't slide apart
Steaming hot in the middle	Meat and egg dishes must be cooked through

Try it

Level 1 · Start here

Fresh lasagne sheets

45 minutes plus restingenough for a 20 x 25 cm dish (4 layers)the base of everything in this chapter

Fresh sheets are the egg dough from chapter 1, rolled thin and cut to the shape of your dish. They are softer and silkier than dried, and they cook in the oven without any pre-boiling if the sauce is generous.

Ingredients (4 portions)

200 g plain flour (or "00")
2 Lion-marked medium eggs
1 pinch fine salt
2 tbsp fine semolina (or extra flour), for dusting

Make the dough as in chapter 1: flour, salt and eggs, knead 8 to 10 minutes, rest for 30 minutes.
Cut into 4 pieces and roll each to 1 to 1.5 mm (setting 6 on a machine; on a board, so thin you can see your hand through it).
Cut into rectangles about the width of your dish and 12 to 15 cm long. Dust with semolina and lay out in a single layer, or interleave with baking paper.
To pre-boil (optional, see experiments): drop into salted boiling water for 1 minute, lift out into cold water and lay flat on a damp cloth.

Trim to fit

Overlap the sheets by 1 cm, and trim to fit the corners. Odd offcuts are fine in the middle layers.

Level 2 · Classic

Lasagne al forno

1 hour 30 minutes plus resting6 portionsragù, white sauce and fresh sheets

Build it in layers: sauce, pasta, sauce, pasta. It needs the ragù and white sauce from Cooking Skills: Pasta 1, both made ahead. The ragù should be fairly thick, not runny, or the lasagne is soupy.

Ingredients (6 portions)

1 batch batch of fresh lasagne sheets (above)
500 g ragù (the beef ragù from Cooking Skills: Pasta 1, chapter 8, or a good shop-bought jar)
600 ml white sauce (Cooking Skills: Pasta 1: 50 g butter, 50 g flour, 600 ml milk)
50 g parmesan, grated
1 pinch nutmeg
1 tsp butter, for the dish

Heat the oven to 190°C fan (210°C conventional, gas 6 to 7). Butter a 20 x 25 cm dish. Make the white sauce, season with nutmeg and a little of the parmesan, and keep it loose enough to pour.
Spread a thin layer of ragù on the bottom, cover with a layer of sheets, then ragù, a layer of white sauce and a sprinkle of parmesan. Repeat for 4 layers of pasta.
End with a layer of pasta, a generous layer of white sauce and the rest of the parmesan.
Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden and bubbling at the edges.
Check it is steaming hot in the middle (70°C for 2 minutes with a probe). Rest for 15 minutes before cutting, so it holds its layers.

No pre-boiling

With plenty of sauce, 1 mm fresh sheets cook in the oven. If your sheets are thicker, pre-boil for 1 minute.

Level 2 · Vegetarian

Lasagne verde (spinach lasagne)

1 hour 45 minutes plus resting6 portionsgreen sheets with a spinach and ricotta filling

A meat-free lasagne. The sheets are spinach dough from chapter 3, and the spinach and ricotta filling replaces the ragù.

Ingredients (6 portions)

200 g plain flour (or "00")
2 Lion-marked medium eggs
80 g cooked spinach, squeezed completely dry, finely chopped
1 pinch fine salt
2 tbsp fine semolina (or extra flour), for dusting
500 g ricotta, drained
300 g frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed completely dry
600 ml white sauce
80 g parmesan, grated
1 pinch nutmeg, salt and pepper

Make the spinach dough as in chapter 3 (the egg beaten with the squeezed spinach). Rest for 30 minutes, roll to 1.5 mm and cut into sheets.
Mix the ricotta, 300 g spinach, half the parmesan and the seasoning for the filling. The filling itself contains no raw egg.
Heat the oven to 190°C fan (210°C conventional, gas 6 to 7). Layer the sheets, filling and white sauce in a buttered dish as in the lasagne al forno, ending with white sauce and parmesan.
Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Uncover and bake for 20 minutes until golden and bubbling. Rest for 15 minutes.

Level 3 · Roast

Roast vegetable lasagne

1 hour 45 minutes6 portionshealthier, with plenty of vegetables

Roasting the vegetables first drives off their water and concentrates the flavour. Skipping this step makes a watery lasagne.

Ingredients (6 portions)

1 batch batch of fresh lasagne sheets
2 courgettes, sliced
2 red peppers, deseeded and chopped
1 aubergine, cubed
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tin chopped tomatoes (400 g)
2 garlic cloves
600 ml white sauce
60 g parmesan, grated
1 handful basil leaves

Heat the oven to 200°C fan (220°C conventional, gas 7). Toss the courgettes, peppers and aubergine with the oil and salt, spread over 2 trays and roast for 30 minutes until soft and browned.
Warm the garlic in a pan for 1 minute, add the tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the roasted vegetables and basil.
Lower the oven to 190°C fan (210°C conventional, gas 6 to 7). Layer the sheets, vegetable sauce and white sauce in a buttered dish, ending with white sauce and parmesan.
Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes, uncover and bake for 20 minutes more. Rest for 15 minutes.

Experiments

Experiment

Fresh or dried sheets

Is the effort worth it?

Make two small lasagnes in loaf tins, one with fresh sheets and one with dried (no-pre-cook) sheets, using the same sauces.
Bake them together.

Look for: The fresh sheets are silkier and more tender; the dried ones are chewier but still good. Fresh is nicer but not necessary.

Experiment

Pre-boiled or not

Do the sheets need a pre-boil?

Pre-boil half the fresh sheets for 1 minute. Layer two small lasagnes, one with each.
Bake for the same time.

Look for: With 1 mm sheets and plenty of sauce, there is little difference. With thicker sheets, the unboiled ones stay firm.

Experiment

Layer thickness

How many layers?

Make one lasagne with 3 thick layers of pasta and one with 5 thin layers.
Compare the cut slices.

Look for: More thin layers hold together better and give a better ratio of pasta to sauce.

Experiment

Resting

Cut now or wait?

Cut one slice straight out of the oven, and one after 15 minutes.

Look for: The rested slice holds its shape. The hot one slumps and is easily burnt on the tongue.

Tasting notes

What I tried	Method or amount	What I saw	What I thought	Will I do it again?
Fresh sheets
Lasagne al forno
Lasagne verde
Roast vegetable lasagne
Fresh vs dried
Pre-boiled or not
3 vs 5 layers
Rested vs not

Troubleshooting

Problem	Likely cause	What to do
Watery lasagne	Runny ragù or wet vegetables	Simmer the ragù thicker; roast the vegetables
Dry, crisp edges	Pasta not covered with sauce, or no foil	Cover with sauce, then foil
Lasagne slumps	Not rested	Rest for 15 minutes
Hard sheets in the middle	Sheets too thick, or not enough liquid	Roll thinner or pre-boil for 1 minute
Cold middle	Dish too deep, or oven too cool	Bake longer under foil; check with a probe
Burnt top	Oven too hot or too high	Lower the shelf and cover with foil

Food safety: lasagne

Lasagne contains minced meat, eggs and dairy, so it must be steaming hot all the way through (70°C for 2 minutes with a probe) before serving. The dough contains raw egg and raw flour. The Food Standards Agency advises against eating or tasting uncooked flour or dough, because raw flour is not treated to kill bacteria such as E. coli. Don't taste the dough or any filling that contains raw egg, wash your hands, the board and your tools after handling raw dough, and use Lion-marked eggs. Cook fresh pasta thoroughly. Pregnant women, children under 5, people aged 65 and over, and anyone with a weakened immune system should be especially careful.

Cool leftovers quickly (cut into portions so they cool faster), chill within 1 hour and eat within 24 hours, or freeze portions. Reheat until steaming hot throughout, and only once.

Uncooked fresh pasta, which contains raw egg, should be kept in the fridge (0 to 5°C) and cooked within 24 hours, or frozen straight away. (There is no pasta-specific official guidance, so this is a cautious rule based on the Food Standards Agency's general advice on chilling and freezing homemade food.) Freeze it in a single layer on a tray, then bag it, and cook from frozen.

Cooked pasta is a starchy food, and like rice it can grow bacteria if it is left warm. There is no pasta-specific official guidance, so this course uses the cautious rule: cool it quickly (within about an hour), put it in the fridge, and eat it within 24 hours; freeze it if you won't. Reheat until steaming hot all the way through.

Checkpoint: can you do this now?

I can roll and cut fresh lasagne sheets.
I can assemble lasagne with a thick ragù and a pourable white sauce.
I can make a vegetarian lasagne.
I know to rest it for 15 minutes.
I know how to check it is hot all the way through.

Next chapter

Cooking Skills: Pasta 2, chapter 8 is Sauces for Fresh Pasta: brown butter and sage, pesto from scratch, walnut sauce and a light tomato sauce.