The Best Homemade Lasagna Recipe

Although it is a common perception that lasagne are only part of Italian cuisine, many people do not know that this heavenly dish actually originates from Greece. Lasagne is actually the name for a hard, flat, wide pasta, which is used for the preparation of this dish. Personally, I love the freedom and creativity that lasagna preparation offers.It is really easy to combine different ingredients and flavours and you actually can not go wrong.  Cooking for a family of five is sometimes a very demanding job, and during the recession that is currently present, and very expensive task. For that reason I like to make monthly menus and plan ahead. This way I always think about the leftovers of food and how I can use them for the next lunch.
So yesterday I cooked spaghetti bolognese, and how we often have sauce leftovers I use it the next day to prepare homemade lasagne. Children love them, and although the preparation of homemade pasta requires more time and effort than some other dishes, I believe that you will agree with me (after you try my for homemade lasagna recipe) that is worth the effort.

To prepare homemade pasta for lasagne you will need:

• about 800 g of flour
• one egg
• two table spoons of oil (you can use olive or sunflower oil)
  
• one tea spoon of salt
• about 200 ml of water

The reason for the "about" word in the ingredients list is the fact that I usually do not measure anything with a scale. When you are preparing homemade pasta it is all in the feeling you have under your fingers when you press the dough. It needs to be smooth, soft and not sticky, so if it feels to hard just add a little bit more watter, and if it is too sticky add flour.

After you have mix up all the ingredients keep pressing the dough until it is nice and smooth under the fingers. Then shape it into a ball, wrap in plastic foil and leave it to rest for about 10-15 minutes.

Next step is to roll out and shape the pasta. I use the machine for dough for rolling and shaping, but if you do not have one, you can roll out the dough with an ordinary kitchen roller and cut it out with a knife to a size you need. Personally, since I do use the machine for the dough, I do not bother too much with the fact that all pieces of dough are not the same size and shape. However,it is important for all pieces to be the same thickness (about 2-3 mm) so they all cook evenly.

For this homemade lasagna recipe I use two types of sauce: bolognese sauce and bechamel sauce. If you do not like bolognese or if you are preparing a vegetarian dish, you can use any other sauce instead of bolognese, but I suggest that you always combine it with bechamel because this sauce is what homemade lasagne are all about. 

Like I already mention, I ussually have bolognese leftovers but if you do not have it you can prepare this sauce rather quickly.

Red sauce:

Take one onion, cut it into small cubes and fry briefly in a little oil until it softens. Add about 300 grams of ground pork, salt, pepper, and cook for about ten minutes. Toward the end of cooking, add two ounces of tomato puree and bring to boil.

White sauce:

Melt one cube of butter over low heat (about 50 grams). Do not boil the butter, it needs to be just slightly melted. Add two tablespoons of flour and fry briefly until golden. Add two ounces of milk and a little water if necessary (if you think the sauce is too dense). Season with salt and pepper. Personally, I add a mixture of spices very specific for Croatia called Vegeta, but if you do not have it, it is sufficient for you to season the usual way. While cooking, stir the sauce constantly with a whisk to avoid clumps.

Now when you have your pasta and your sauces ready it is time to assemble it all together and prepare for baking. The pan you use for baking should be flat (I use lasagnera from AMC).

For this part you need to prepare one dish of boiling watter and butter the pan you will bake the lasagnas in. Take the pasta you have prepared and place it briefly into boiling water. Fresh pasta tends to stick together so I do not place all the pasta into water at once, I take just 8 pieces that I need for one layer. It actually needs to be in boiling water for a very short time, it will rise to the surface after approximately 7-10 seconds so this process will go rather quickly:

• boil first quantity of pasta
• take it out and place it in the pan
• cover it with red sauce
  
• add about three spoons of white sauce
• boil second quantity of pasta
• take it out and place it over the sauces
• repeat the procedure until you no longer have any pasta left (I usually have three layers of pasta)
• finish it with only white sauce and sprinkle with parsley
• bake for 45 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius