Lasagna

What is the advantage of making the meatballs, just to chop them up later?

We had this for Sunday dinner and it is way too much work for the mediocre result. How did we get SO FAR from classic, authentic Lasagna pasticciate, consisting of nothing more than layers of freshly made bechemal and exquisite ragú bolognese made from beef,pork, and chicken livers? Find the recipe in the superb 1968 Time-Life The Cooking of Italy and be prepared to be blown away.

Thanks for mentioning the importance of the Antica Pasteria noodles, which are unavailable in the United States.

Made this 2x. Each effort received incredibly high praise. Choices which have become permanent are:

any drinking Cabernet for the red wine
preference for aged ground sirloin
substitute Belgian country sausage (more of an herb emphasis) for the Italian sausage mix
fresh mozzarella, of course

In step 1, use 1 tsp each of S&P
In step 2, use 1.75 tsp each of S&P
In step 5, use 1 tsp each of S&P

if not using fresh noodles, soak the dried noodles in hot water for 20 minutes, and then layer them.

I believe the point of cooking the meat in ball shape is to end up with more tender and flavorful meat involving fewer advanced glycation end products. When you "scramble" ground beef, the fat drains out by the time it is fully cooked, and it's all a bit crispy, grey and tough. The ball shape holds in a lot of the fat and moisture. You could get a similar effect by cooking it in loaf shape, but that would take longer. So basically, not a hamburger helper lasagna.

Man you guys complain way too much. Made this tonight. Amazing!

I made this the other day exactly as written for the guys I sing with. We all loved it. Glad I did it two days ahead of time and refrigerated it. It took all day to make and my Polish butcher thought I was nuts to buy sirloin at $10 per pound for meatballs to chop up in lasagna. I needed a bigger pan that went to the brim. I think the whole thing cost more than $50. The ricotta and sausage were homemade from the Italian place around the corner. It will be a while before I do it again.

This is Italian-American lasagna with tomato paste and meatballs: very different from the way it's made in Bologna, its traditional home. They use no meatballs, garlic, parsley, pecorin o romano or ricotta, and hardly any tomatoes at all. Just a classic ragù with béchamel and Parmigiano Reggiano.

I think people complain to much. If you can make a better recipe than do it.

My notes: 1) if you use no-boil noodles, soak them for 15 minutes on a baking sheet with warm water. This is a trick learned from the Italian wife of my father's friend, and it makes things very easy. 2) I add basil along with the parsley to the cheese mixture. 3) I substitute half of the amount of pecorino with Parmesan. For my taste, the cheese comes out tasting more balanced. 4) I've used beef, turkey, and pork in this recipe, and all have been fabulous -- all ground, no meatballs.

To 'Loves to Cook' re: re 'any Italian worth his salt would not use boxed - would make his own'......my Mother was Sicilian and always used boxed, her lasagna was similar to this recipe but she never used as much oil as called for, the sausage alone is greasy.

She always told me that onions sweeten the sauce and take the edge off the acidity of the tomatoes.

I recall making pretty good lasagna with boxed noodles. You would boil a huge kettle of slightly salty water, add the noodles and pour a tiny dollop of olive oil on top of the water, then drain the noodles as soon as they were done.

Then I'd lay out several perfectly clean linen towels on my kitchen table, and set each noodle to drain by lying it flat on a towel. In about five minutes, they had reached the perfect stiffness required for laying into the pan.

Is it really necessary to use a cup of olive oil, divided? I get that this is not low fat but it sounds like a lot for each time you're browning something. Would it change it much if, say, I use ¼ cup for those times?

Sauce recipe is similar to what I've been making for 25 years and is quite good. I generally don't use onion but have on occasion. I do think the order should be oil then pancetta then onion then garlic otherwise the garlic will overcook. I like a brief saute after adding tomato paste, so I add that before adding liquid. I promise that there are much better meatball recipes. For 3/4 lb of meat, only 1 egg is needed and IMHO, chuck is superior to sirloin for meatballs.

Except for the fresh lasagna noodles (which you should be making, not buying), this is the lasagna, with or without meat, that every Calabrese household in Bayonne, NJ made. Béchamel? You'd have to go way north for that. I'm happy to see that this is printed in the NYT.