Do you remember Garfield - fluffy sunA cat with a great appetite? But why are we talking about a cat? Because Garfield’s favorite dish was lasagna. He devoured her for both cheeks and was ready for any madness for her.
And for good reason:Properly cooked lasagna - tasty, juicy, soft and piquant. In addition, this dish can have several embodiments, therefore it is perfect for gourmets who refuse meat for one reason or another.
How to cook lasagna at home, so much so that even the connoisseurs of this dish were delighted with it, and will be described in this article.
Where, when and how did this wonderful dish come about?
The birthplace of lasagna is considered to be Italy - a countrygave the world pasta and pizza. However, the British are ready to argue with this statement. They believe that the authorship of the recipe belongs to their masters of culinary skill.
The arguments of both parties are very reasonable.
Let's see what arguments Italians and the British bring to confirm the authorship.
Motherland - Italy
The following facts speak in favor of the Italian roots of the dish:
- The inhabitants of Rome adopted a recipe for preparing a round flat cake (namely, that is how lasagna looked before) from the Greeks. The Romans cut the finished cake into strips and styled them Lagani.
- The second version also sees the trace of the Greeks in the origin of the dish, but at the same time claims that the name came from a pot, a pot furnace in which the dish was prepared - Lasanon.
Years passed, and the name was modified to the familiar for modern man Lasanum.
Motherland - England
The arguments of the English, who consider lasagne to be their dish, have the following grounds: in the XIV century in England there was the dish Loseyns. The recipe is even mentioned in one of the oldest books in the country.
Regardless, authorship still remainsbeyond Naples. It was there that the first mention was found on how to cook delicious lasagna at home. The recipe indicated that the layers of dough, boiled until half cooked, must be shifted with a mixture of cheese and spices.
For almost eight centuries of existence, the recipe for cooking lasagna has undergone numerous changes, but one thing remained unchanged - an excellent soft and pleasant taste of the prepared dish.
Now about how to cook lasagna at home, probably, every hostess is thinking.
Dough preparation method for lasagna
The following recipe will help you learn how to cook lasagna sheets at home. Home sheets, of course, more troublesome, but less costly and, more importantly, more useful than the store.
What will be required:
- 400 grams of wheat flour;
- 3 eggs;
- 50 milliliters of olive oil;
- a teaspoon of salt.
Cooking lasagna at home! Step-by-step recipe for dough for lasagna is presented to your attention below.
Step one. At the same time mix all the ingredients.
Step two. Knead the dough. Of course, it is ideal to do this with a mixer, but it can also be done manually. The dough should be cool. The whole process will take half an hour - when kneaded by hand.
Step three. We send the dough in a cold place for twenty minutes. This will help him become more elastic.
Step Four. To prevent the dough from sticking to your hands, knead it, adding a little flour. After that we roll into a layer 2 millimeters thick.
Step five.Within one minute, boil the sheets of lasagna in salted water. Finish all the dipping sheets in cold water and oil. Boiled sheets lay on a sieve to water glass. So that they do not dry out during the preparation of other components, you can put them on a damp towel.
That's all: the sheets for lasagna are completely ready. Things are small - stuffing and sauce, but by this time we will be back a little later.
Cooking recipe based on ready-made lasagna sheets
Of course, prepare the dough for lasagna at homeconditions are not difficult, but, you see, it takes a lot of time, which many housewives simply do not have. That is why large supermarkets are rushing to help, offering a fairly large assortment of ready-made products.
This recipe contains information on how to easily make lasagne at home using ready-made store sheets.
What will be required:
- 700 grams of beef or calf meat;
- 1 onion;
- 1 large Bulgarian pepper;
- 800 grams of blanched tomatoes;
- 100 grams of tomato paste;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- 50 grams of flour;
- 50 grams of butter;
- 600 milliliters of milk;
- a quarter of a teaspoon of ground nutmeg;
- 500 grams of hard cheese;
- 250 grams of dough;
- to taste we take seasonings - oregano, basil, Provencal herbs.
The above set of products allows you to achieve a delightful classic lasagna taste "Bolognese".
So, how to cook lasagna at home? Step by step recipe read on!
Toppings: Bolognese Beef Stew
Шаг первый.Meat with a meat grinder grind into mincemeat. It is better to use a mixture of beef and veal. In this case, the dish will be softer and more tender. Why is it so important to scroll the meat yourself? Is it really impossible to cook lasagna at home from minced meat? It turns out you can not. Rather, it is possible, but the taste of the prepared dish is unlikely to please you, as the quality of the store product always leaves much to be desired. And since minced meat is the main part of the Bolognese sauce, it should be perfect.
Step two. Vegetables, including onions, garlic and Bulgarian pepper, finely chop.
Step three. Getting to the browning of chopped vegetables. Do it in a frying pan or stewpan with a thick bottom. Fry in sunflower or olive oil.
Step Four. When the onions become transparent, add scrolled mince to the vegetables.
Step five. While the stuffing reaches the state we need (determined by the shade - the stuffing should be grayed), let's do blanched tomatoes. It is necessary to remove the skin from them and knead in a puree.
Step Six. Combine minced meat with vegetables and chopped tomatoes, tomato paste and oregano.
Step Seven. Stew until until the extra juice is gone.
As a result, we get the perfect filling for lasagna - meat bolognese.
Now proceed to the preparation of the sauce.
Bechamel Sauce: A Step-by-Step Recipe
It is almost impossible to cook lasagna at home unless you know the basics of mixing bechamel sauce. But do not worry - the process is not as difficult as it may seem.
Step one.In a skillet melt fifty grams of butter. Add to it fifty grams of flour. Mix well and fry: the flour should have a beautiful golden hue. It is important to constantly monitor the condition of the ingredients in the pan, while not forgetting to stir: otherwise you can not avoid burning. When the flour will be golden, "ru" for lasagna is ready.
Step two. Now milk. It must be heated in another stewpan.
Step three. In a saucepan with a ready "ru" thin stream pour milk. Important conditions: minimum fire, constant stirring.
Step Four. Add nutmeg, knead again with a whisk and remove from heat.
That's all: bechamel sauce is ready.
Get down to assembling lasagna.
We collect lasagna
Ready sheets for lasagna lightly boil in salted water. After that, we begin to lay out the dish in layers.
Step one. Lightly coat the bottom of the baking dish with bechamel sauce. Sprinkle with a thin layer of grated cheese.
Step two. Top lay out a sheet of dough. Coat with bechamel sauce.
Step three. Spread the dough on a thin layer of bolognese.
Step Four. Fresh cheese and dough.
Step five. It should be about five layers, the last of which must be greased with sauce, sprinkled with cheese.
Close together lasagna topfoil and set to bake in the oven. The process of roasting at 220 degrees and the presence of foil will take half an hour. After this time, remove the foil and leave the dish to bake for another ten minutes.
Delicious, rosy and juicy lasagna is ready!
Lasagna with vegetable sauce and cream sauce
In the hot summer season, when meat is seen asheavy and fatty product, can be cooked lasagna with vegetables. It is similar to the meat will contain bechamel sauce. Well, ready to learn how to cook lasagna at home? The recipe is quite simple and will not make you stand at the stove for a long time. You will need about half an hour of free time. And from the moment the start of preparation to the long-awaited tasting will take only half an hour.
What is required for cooking vegetable lasagna?
For the basics:
- 12 sheets of ready-made or homemade pasta;
- 50 grams of hard cheese (better than parmesan).
For vegetable sauce:
- 1 medium-sized squash;
- 2 sweet bell peppers;
- 3 ripe tomatoes;
- 1 carrot;
- 3 cloves garlic;
- 1 head of onions;
- 50 milliliters of olive oil;
- a few sprigs of greens (parsley, dill).
- 50 milliliters of dry white wine;
- to taste we take spices: Provencal herbs, nutmeg, basil, oregano, savory;
- a teaspoon of sugar;
For sour cream sauce:
- 20 grams of butter;
- 10 grams of flour;
- half a glass of sour cream;
- a glass of meat or vegetable broth;
- salt and pepper ground.
Step-by-step recipe for vegetable lasagna sauce
If you are thinking about how to cook lasagnaat home, and you intend to cook it with vegetable lasagna, then the sauce recipe described below will be a real magic wand. Its advantage in matchless taste along with simplicity and speed of preparation.
How to cook at home lasagna? Photos used as illustrations and detailed recipes will help hostesses to build this culinary masterpiece! So let's get started!
Step one. Vegetables, including zucchini, tomato and pepper, peeled. So the structure of the sauce will be more gentle and uniform.
How to remove the peel from the pepper?The surface of the pepper must be greased with oil, pierced in one place with a knife. And, placing on a plate, bake in the microwave at full power for 6 minutes. No this kitchen assistant? Spread the fruit in the oven.
To remove the peel from tomatoes is also not difficult: make a cross-cut from the side of the "ass" and pour over boiling water over the vegetable After this procedure, the skin is easily removed.
Step two.Onion shred small bricks. Lay in a pan with olive oil and with constant stirring, bring to transparency. The golden hue is not something that is undesirable, but not recommended: we remember that the lasagna will later be baked in the oven.
Step three. Carrots, crushed through a grater, add browned to the onions.
Step Four. Peeled tomatoes and seeds finely chopped and send them to the pan to onions and carrots.
Step five. Add spices: oregano, basil, savory. Also now it is necessary to send garlic to the frying pan: chop it through the press.
Step Six. It was the turn of wine and finely chopped greens. By the way, wine can be replaced with broth or even plain water if you are an opponent of alcohol. Simmer on low heat for a quarter of an hour.
Step Seven. Finely chopped zucchini, cleared of seeds and peel, lay in a frying pan and simmer still half an hour.
Half an hour later vegetable sauce or, as you canthe classic vegetable stew seems to be fully prepared. The main condition - the liquid in the sauce should be present only in the form of vegetable juice, the other - is unacceptable. Otherwise, the lasagna will float.
Sour cream sauce
How to cook at home lasagna with sour cream sauce? Just like any other. The difference is only in the sauce.
Step one. We melt butter in a frying pan and immediately add flour to it: bring it to an appetizing golden hue.
Step two. Pour broth to flour. Stir to achieve complete uniformity.
Step three. Now add the sour cream and mix again. Cook over low heat for about seven minutes.
It remains only to season to taste - and sour cream sauce will be completely ready.
We collect vegetable paste
Since the recipe indicates the use of ready-made sheets, it is worth mentioning that when boiling they do not stick together, it is therefore acceptable to boil them together.
Important! For baking, choose a form that is 20% wider than uncooked pasta - the sheets swell and increase during cooking.
Get down to assembling lasagna!
Step one. We coat the baking dish with butter, then distribute two tablespoons of vegetable sauce on the bottom - this step will help keep the sheets from burning and sticking.
Step two. Sauces - sour cream and vegetable - are visually divided into five parts (there will be five layers in a lasagna).
Step three. On the vegetable sauce lay out two sheets - one after the other - boiled pasta.
Step Four. Spread the paste with sour cream sauce, which, in turn, is covered with a layer of vegetable.
Step five. We coat the last layer only with sour cream sauce. We do this carefully and, if the amount of sauce allows, a thick layer.
Step Six. Sprinkle with grated cheese on top.
After half an hour of roasting at 220 degrees, we remove the vegetable lasagna from the oven.
So the step-by-step recipe came to a logical conclusion. How to cook lasagna at home, you now know, you can begin to consolidate knowledge in practice!
Lasagna Cooking Tips
In conclusion, we present several recommendations for the preparation of lasagna .:
Council first. Using homemade pasta, roll it thinly - no thicker than 1.5-2 millimeters. Form - long, flat and wide stripes. Long-term storage of homemade pasta for lasagna is not subject.
Council of the second.Laying sheets should be made crosswise. Lay one layer in one direction, the next - in the other. Why do you need it? So the lasagna will be more durable and will not fall apart when serving.
Council of the third. For lasagna, it is better to use parmesan and mozzarella. They will give the dish spicy spiciness and unsurpassed tenderness.
And for sweets - for children. There is even a lasagna, which is usually served for dessert. It is also made from pasta, just for the filling most often used berries, cottage cheese and cream.