Beef Lasagna

Ingredients

For The Ragu:

• 3   ounces 

  (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter
• 1/4  cup  extra-virgin olive oil
• 2   medium celery stalks, finely chopped (1-1/3 cups)

  
  
• 2   medium carrots, peeled and finely chopped (2/3 cup)

  
  
• 2   small yellow onions, finely chopped (1-1/3 cups)

  
  
• 1   pound boneless beef brisket or chuck, finely diced or ground (2 cups; see tip)

  
  
• 1   pound boneless pork shoulder, finely diced or ground (1-1/2 cups; see tip)

  
  
• 8   ounces  pancetta, finely diced (1-1/4 cups)

  
  
• 2   cups dry red wine

  
  
• 1/2  cup canned tomato puree

  
  
• 1/4  cup tomato paste diluted in 1/2 cup water

  
  
• 2   cups  homemade or low-salt canned beef or chicken broth; more as needed

  
  
• 1   cup whole milk

  
  
   Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

To assemble:

• 3/4  pound fresh lasagne noodles (store-bought or homemade)

  
  
• 1/2  ounce (1 tablespoon) unsalted butter, cut into small cubes, plus more for the pan

  
  
• 1   cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

  
  
•  Double recipe of Basic Cream Sauce

Fresh Egg Pasta

• 10   ounces (2-1/4 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour; more for kneading and rolling

  
  
• 1   teaspoon kosher salt

  
  
• 1   tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

  
  
• 4   large eggs, lightly beaten

  
  

Basic Cream Sauce

• 1 1/2  ounces (3 tablespoons) unsalted butter

  
  
• 3   tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

   
• 1 3/4  cups whole milk, heated

  
  
• 1/2  teaspoon kosher salt

  
  
• 1/8  teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

  
  
•  Small pinch freshly grated nutmeg

 

Directions

1.

Make the ragu: In a 5- to 6-quart Dutch oven, melt the 6 tablespoons butter with the olive oil over medium heat. Add the celery, carrots, and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and lightly golden, about 15 minutes. Add the beef, pork, and pancetta and cook, breaking up the meats with a spoon and stirring often, until the meats lose their redness, 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in the wine, tomato puree, and tomato paste and simmer vigorously until the liquid is almost evaporated, 15 to 20 minutes. Add the beef or chicken broth and the milk, cover with the lid ajar, reduce the heat to low, and simmer gently until you have a rich, concentrated sauce, about 2-1/2 hours. Check every 30 minutes to see if more liquid is needed, adding more broth if necessary to prevent scorching. Season to taste with salt and pepper, if needed. Let cool. Skim off the fat from the top, if desired. You should have about 6 cups.

2.

Cook the noodles: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Prepare a large bowl of ice water. Slip the noodles, two or three at a time, into the boiling water and cook them until they're tender and pale, 3 to 5 minutes (thinner noodles will cook more quickly). To make sure they're done, taste a small piece. If it's still tough, it needs a little more cooking (fresh pasta should not be cooked al dente like dried pasta).

3.

Carefully scoop the noodles out of the water with a large wire skimmer and slide them into the ice water to stop the cooking. When they're cool, layer them between clean dish towels until you're ready to assemble the lasagne (they'll keep this way for up to two hours).

4.

Assemble the lasagne: Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Choose a baking dish that's about 9x12 inches and 3 inches deep, or about 10x14 inches and 2 inches deep. Butter the baking dish. Spread 1/2 cup of ragu in a sparse layer on the bottom of the dish. Then cover with a slightly overlapping layer of cooked noodles, cutting them as needed to fill the gaps. Spread one-third of the remaining ragu (about 1-1/2 cups) over the first layer of noodles. Drizzle on one-third of the Basic Cream Sauce (about 1 cup) and spread it with a spatula or the back of a spoon. Sprinkle with 1/3 cup Parmigiano. Add a new layer of noodles, overlapping them slightly.

5.

Repeat the layers as instructed above, until all of the filling ingredients are used, to make a total of three layers (you may not need all the pasta). Dot the top with the butter cubes.

6.

Put the baking dish on a baking sheet and bake until heated through and bubbling at the edges, 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

Make Ahead:

1.

You can prepare the ragu up to four days ahead and refrigerate it, or freeze it for up to one month. Reheat gently until the sauce is warm enough to spread for assembling the lasagne. The assembled, unbaked lasagne will keep for at least a day in the refrigerator. Alternatively, you can freeze it for up to four months (make sure you wrap the dish tightly with plastic). Thaw the lasagne in the fridge and bring it to room temperature before baking.

Tips:

1.

To chop the ragu meat, cut each piece into 1/4-inch slices, Then cut the slices into thin strips lengthwise and and dice the strips crosswise. Alternatively, you can pulse the meat in food processor, but be careful not to chop it too finely or into a paste.

2.

If time is short and you can't find fresh pasta sheets in your local stores, use 1 pound good-quality dried lasagne noodles, cooked according to package instructions.

Fresh Egg Pasta

1.

Make the dough: Put the flour and salt in a food processor fitted with the plastic dough blade. Pulse three or four times to blend. With the processor running, pour the olive oil down the feed tube and then slowly pour in the eggs. Continue processing until the dough clumps around the blade, about 10 seconds. It will be a little wet and sticky.

2.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead it by hand until it's smooth, about 2 minutes. If it seems very sticky and too wet, add a little more flour and continue kneading for 1 more minute. Shape the dough into a ball and dust it lightly with flour. Wrap tightly with plastic and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes (or refrigerate or freeze).

3.

Roll out the dough: Unwrap the dough ball and cut it into four equal pieces. (Let refrigerated dough come to room temperature; defrost frozen dough in the fridge and let it come to room temperature.) Take one piece and leave the other three covered in plastic. Flatten the piece of dough with the palm of your hand until it's about 1/2 inch thick and shape it as close to a rectangle as possible.

4.

Dust the flattened piece lightly with flour and pass it through the machine rollers at the widest setting.

5.

Fold it in three, like a letter. Dust the dough with more flour and pass it through again, still folded, starting from a short side. Repeat this step two or three times, folding the dough in three each time and dusting with flour as needed.

6.

Then without folding the dough, repeatedly pass it through the machine rollers, reducing the space between the rollers after each pass (dust the dough with flour on both sides before each pass).

7.

When the dough becomes so long that it's difficult to manage, trim the uneven ends and cut the dough in half crosswise to make two more-manageable lengths of dough. Continue passing each piece through progressively narrower settings. If you're making pasta sheets for lasagne, stop on the second- or third-narrowest setting; the pasta should be slightly translucent but not so thin that it will tear. For other types of pasta, like fettuccine, linguine or ravioli, continue to the thinnest setting.

8.

As you finish rolling each sheet, set it on a lightly floured kitchen cloth and cover with another cloth to prevent the dough from drying out. Or, if not using within an hour or so, layer the sheets between parchment, plastic wrap, or waxed paper to keep them from sticking together and refrigerate or freeze.

Make Ahead:

1.

The pasta dough can be refrigerated for 24 hours or frozen for up to 1 month, either before or after rolling into sheets.

Tip:

1.

Because each machine is different, it's difficult to say at what exact setting to stop. For lasagne, you want the pasta to be no thicker than 116 inch, but not so thin it will tear. It's usually best to stop a setting or two before the final (thinnest) setting--#5 or #6 on a KitchenAid attachment, #7 or #8 on an Atlas machine.

Basic Cream Sauce

1.

In a 2-quart saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the flour and cook, whisking constantly for 2 to 3 minutes. Do not let the mixture brown. Slowly whisk in the hot milk and bring just to a simmer, whisking frequently. Reduce the heat to low and cook, whisking often, until the sauce has thickened to a creamy, gravy-like consistency and no longer tastes of raw flour, 6 to 8 minutes for a single batch, 10 to 12 minutes for a double batch. Remove from the heat and whisk in the salt, pepper, and nutmeg. If not using right away, transfer to a bowl and press a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the sauce to keep a skin from forming. Plan to use the sauce within 30 minutes because it thickens if it's left to sit for too long. If that should happen, add a little warm milk and whisk well to thin it.

Source: http://www.recipe.com/beef-and-pork-ragu-lasagne/

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About Gabriella William