Lasagna Bolognese

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Total Time

A lot

Rating

(0)

Ingredients

8 servings

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 large or 2 slim carrots, coarsely chopped
2 ribs celery, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 pounds ground beef or 1 pound each beef and pork
1 1/4 cups tomato paste (from 2 6-ounce cans)
2 cups red wine
Water as needed
2 bay leaves
A few sprigs thyme, tied in a bundle
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon fine sea or table salt
1 to 2 tablespoons water, if needed
1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon fine sea or table salt
1 clove minced garlic
Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
1 2/3 cups grated Parmesan cheese

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Preparation

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Step 1

Day 1: Make the bolognese sauce: In a food processor, pulse onion, carrots, celery, and garlic until finely chopped. Heat a moderate-sized Dutch oven (4 to 5 quarts) over medium-high heat. Once hot, coat the bottom of the pan with two to three tablespoons of oil. Once it is hot, add the chopped vegetables and season them generously with salt and pepper. Cook the vegetables until they are evenly brown, stirring frequently, about 15 minutes.

Step 2

Add the ground beef and season again with salt and pepper. Brown the beef well and again, don’t rush this step. Cook for another 15 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the red wine, using it to scrape up any stuck bits in the pan. Cook the wine until it has reduced by half, about 5 more minutes. Add water to the pan until the water is about 1 inch above the meat. Toss in the bay leaves and the bundle of thyme and stir to combine everything, bringing it to a low simmer.

Step 3

Simmer for 3 to 4 hours, adding water as needed to keep the sauce from drying out. You’ll have about 8 to 8 1/2 cups of sauce but will only need 4 for the lasagna. Discard the thyme and bay leaves and put half in the fridge for lasagna assembly tomorrow and the other half in the freezer for up to a couple months.

Step 4

Day 2: Make your pasta: Combine all of the pasta ingredients in a food processor. Run the machine until the mixture begins to form a ball. You’re looking for a dough that is firm but not sticky. If needed, add water a drop at a time until it comes together. Place the ball of dough on a lightly floured surface and invert a bowl over it. Let it rest for an hour.

Step 5

Roll out the pasta dough using a pasta maker or rolling pin and cut it into desired shapes for lasagna layers.

Step 6

Cook the pasta: Bring a large pot of water to boil. Boil the pasta pieces for 1 to 2 minutes each. Remove with a skimmer, swish them in ice water, and lay them out on an oiled platter.

Step 7

Make your béchamel: Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and stir it into the butter until smooth. Cook the mixture together for a minute, stirring constantly. Gradually add the milk, whisking constantly until smooth. Add the salt, garlic, nutmeg, and pepper, and bring the mixture to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes.

Step 8

Assemble the dish: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a 9×13-inch baking dish, spread a generous 1/4 cup of the béchamel. Add a layer of cooked noodles, patching and slightly overlapping them as needed. Ladle 1 cup bolognese sauce over the noodles, drizzle 1/2 cup béchamel, sprinkle with 1/3 cup parmesan cheese. Repeat the process three more times and then add one more layer of pasta.

Step 9

Sprinkle with remaining parmesan cheese. Bake the lasagna for 30 to 45 minutes until bubbly and browned on top. Let it rest for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Chef’s notes

This is a beast of a dish, and worth every second you put into it. I recommend making the meat sauce a day or longer before you need it; then, do everything else on the second day. Give yourself more time than you could possibly need on the second day, so that you can make the dish from a place of leisure and love, and not one that is frenzied and not particularly fun. You’ll be glad you did. This is a perfect project for a lazy winter weekend, something two people could then eat dreamily all week.

You will have double the bolognese sauce that you need because I cannot in good conscience let you spend several hours simmering a sauce that will only make enough for one lasagna. You can freeze the extra or… make another lasagna.

A note on authenticity:

This is the kind of dish that gets, ahem, passionate cooks out in droves. I’ve been told that you cannot call it bolognese if you simmer it for less than __ hours or that it can/can’t have tomato/milk/wine/only beef in it. Others will pfft over the lack of color on the crust (I had a word with my dinky oven about it). I absolutely love this about cooking — the way we care so deeply about the way our food is made, and how much I’m lucky enough to learn about the different ways people approach the same dish. But, my other favorite part about cooking is that it’s just you in the kitchen and you can make your food the way you alone like it. Feel free to tweak this to your taste by replacing portions of the beef with other meats, using less tomato paste or wine if desired or replacing some wine with milk.

A new bolognese:

In 2020, I added a new bolognese recipe to the site. These days, I often make this lasagna with it instead. The biggest differences are that it uses white wine instead of red, and much less of it, it adds a little milk, and there’s no thyme. You will use the whole bolognese volume here.

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Lasagna Bolognese

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