Lasagna With Fresh Pasta

I got a sweet present for Christmas. Not trying to brag here, but I have the best in-laws. It's the pasta attachment for my KitchenAid. I'm super excited about making pasta for the upcoming year. I made some ravioli to test it out. It was so much fun, though the pasta was a little thick for ravioli. Since now I know what to do, I decided to make lasagna for the family.

Here are the instructions for making pasta. The ingredients are just flour, salt, and eggs. The first time I made it the eggs spilled out. Make sure to make a big enough well in the middle of the flour.

Knead the dough just enough to mix the egg with the flour. 

Then the fun part! Watching the dough roll out kind of reminds me of a weaving machine or a newspaper press.

You have feed it three or four time through to make sure the dough is nice and smooth. 

The first few times I fed  it too much dough and my pasta came out extremely long.

To make the lasagna, boil the pasta for two minutes. I cut up my pasta sheets in half, then in thirds length wise to fit my pot. Meanwhile prepare the vegetables for the ragú. I didn't think chopped tomatoes were necessary because of the tomato sauce, but I ended up adding some at the end for color.

Cook the vegetables with olive oil for three minutes. Then add the ground beef and cook for a few minutes until the meat is browned. Stir in the bacon. Then add tomato sauce and red wine. Season with oregano, salt  and pepper.

Make the white sauce by melting the butter in a large sauce pan. Stir in the flour and cook for a minute. Then add the milk and stir until it boils. Add the ricotta cheese, salt & pepper, and nutmeg. 

Assemble the lasagna by adding a layer of ragú, a layer of white sauce, and a layer of pasta. Repeat again, then top with another layer of ragú and white sauce and sprinkle on the Parmesan. You can bake it now or freeze it until later. 

To bake it frozen, bring the casserole dish to room temperature or set it in an inch of warm water to take off the chill. Bake it covered at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Take off the foil and bake for another 15 minutes at 375 degrees to brown the top.

Making it ahead of time worked out well. We had a much needed relaxing day after our adventures in NYC, with board games, reading, and TV while the lasagna cooked in the oven.

Here's the ingredient list:

Lasagna

Serves 6

1 tbsp oilve oil

1/2 onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tomato chopped

1 tbsp chopped parsley

1 lb ground beef

2 slices of bacon, cooked and chopped

2 cups tomato sauce

1/3 cup red wine

1 tsp dried oregano

4 tbsp butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 1/4 cup whole milk

3/4 cup ricotta

1/3 tsp ground nutmeg

salt & pepper

8oz lasagna, cooked

1/2 grated Parmesan

Make the ragú: Cook vegetables with olive oil for three minutes. Add the ground beef and cook until browned. Stir in bacon, tomato sauce and red wine. Season with oregano and salt & pepper. 

Make the white sauce: Melt the butter on medium low heat. Stir in the flour and cook for a minute. Add the milk, stir until it boils. Stir in the ricotta. Season with nutmeg and salt & pepper. 

Assemble with one layer ragú, one layer of white sauce, and one layer of pasta. Repeat. Then add a layer of ragú and a layer of white sauce. Top it off with Parmesan.

If frozen, preheat the oven to 350 and cook for an hour covered, 15 minutes uncovered. If not frozen, cook for 45 minutes at 375 degrees.