Lasagne

A proper Gennaro Contaldo lasagne, which is mostly an exercise in leaving a ragù alone for three hours.

  • A crowd (or one person, four times)
  • Most of an afternoon
Lasagne, plated up

Built on Gennaro Contaldo's recipe, which I have never once regretted following. The actual work is small. The patience is the ingredient.

Ingredients

For the ragù

  • Olive oil
  • Salt and pepper
  • 500 g beef short rib
  • 400 g pork sausages
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 2 onions
  • 1 bottle red wine (you'll use half. the rest is for the cook.)
  • 1 basil plant (or 2 packs)
  • 1200 g tinned chopped tomatoes
  • 140 g tomato purée

For the béchamel

  • 100 g butter
  • 80 g flour
  • 1 litre semi-skimmed milk
  • 400 g parmesan (about 100 g goes in here, the rest between the layers)
  • ¼ of a nutmeg

To build it

  • 2 packs lasagne sheets
  • 2 balls mozzarella

Method

The ragù

  1. Squeeze the sausages out of their skins, cut all the meat into roughly 2 cm pieces, season with salt and pepper, and let it sit for 10 minutes.
  2. Brown the meat in olive oil with the crushed bay leaves over a high heat. While it colours, finely chop the onions.
  3. Pour in half the bottle of wine and let the alcohol cook off. Turn the heat down, add the onions, and cook until soft and translucent.
  4. Add the chopped tomatoes and the purée. Bruise the basil and stir it through. Now leave it to simmer for at least 3 hours. (yes, three. go for a walk.)

The béchamel

  1. Melt the butter, stir in the flour, and cook to a smooth paste. Let it cook out for another 5 minutes.
  2. Add the milk a splash at a time, stirring the lumps out as you go. Stir in 100 g of the parmesan, season with salt and pepper, and grate in the nutmeg. Keep stirring for about 15 minutes, until it thickens.

Building it

  1. Heat the oven to 180°C. Layer it up: ragù, sheets, ragù, béchamel, mozzarella, parmesan, and repeat. Finish with a generous blanket of cheese on top.
  2. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Pull the foil off and give it 5 more minutes to brown.
  3. Let it rest for 15 minutes before serving, or it'll slide off the spoon in a sad puddle.