A classic lasagne from Southern Italy.
The music, Connect is here
Lasagne is a special occasion constant across Italy. The regional variations are very different, and I find the differences interesting. I have a series of 4 regional lasagne: two meat and two vegetarian. This is the farthest south I go. Belmonte Castello is a small mountain village in Lazio, near Monte Cassino. The recipe was my mum's, from her mum, from her..etc, and is very similar to the lasagne alla napoletana; the main difference being this one uses ground meat instead of meatballs.
The other big difference is that southern lasagne only has 3 layers, whereas northern lasagne have about 5. The southern filling is much thicker.
In this series
INGREDIENTS
celery
carrot
garlic
pork mince
chopped tomatoes
tomato purée
oregano
mozzarella
ricotta (or Provola)
parmesan
eggs
salami di Napoli - or di Calabria
fresh Italian fennel sausage
dry lasagne sheets
Watch the video
METHOD
Cook the lasagne in boiling water for around 4-5 minutes, then put it in ice cold water to stop it cooking
Lay the sheets out on dish cloths and cover them to dry
Wash, top and tail the carrot and chop very finely - don't peel carrots; there is so much goodness in them: a good scrub does the trick
Same goes for the celery - finely chopped
Finely slice the garlic
Heat olive oil in a pan and add the sofritto (the veg)
Add some salt, pepper, a touch of chilli flakes and stir
Cook for abut 15 minutes till it's soft
Add the pork mince, stir it through and cook till it's browned and the water from it is cooked off
Add the tomatoes - I wash out the tin in hot water and add that to the pan
Give it 10 minutes, then add a good squish of tomato purée
After 10 minutes, add the oregano
Cook it slowly for about 2 hours (Altogether now... the longer the cooking, the deeper the taste)
Meanwhile, heat some oil in a frying pan and cook the fresh sausage. Just 5 minutes on each side
Hard boil the eggs (I used 4)
Lasagne - Assemble!!
A bit of olive oil in your oven dish
A layer of the sauce (let's call it a sugo)
Layer of pasta
Layer of...
Sugo
Sausage
Eggs (hard-boiled and chopped up)
Mozzarella
Ricotta
Parmesan
Layer 2
Sugo-sausage-eggs-mozzarella-ricotta-parmesan
And the diced salami
Layer 3 - the top layer
Sugo-sausage-eggs-mozzarella-ricotta-salami
A good coating of Parmesan
40 minutes at 180ºC
Southern lasagne is cut up as soon as it's out of the oven
The music, Connect is here