Our homemade lasagna recipe is easy enough to be a staple weeknight dinner, but with a few simple (but worthwhile) steps, is fancy enough to win date night.
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00:00 Hello, pasta lovers.
00:01 How are you?
00:03 I'm Alejandro.
00:04 We are at the Delish Kitchen studios
00:05 and I'm gonna be showing you
00:07 how to make an incredible lasagna.
00:10 It is an art, really.
00:11 And it doesn't have to be a difficult one.
00:13 Usually people are very intimidated
00:16 with lasagna being a huge project,
00:17 that it's gonna take the whole day,
00:19 but we have found a couple of shortcuts
00:21 to make it more approachable and easy to make at home.
00:23 I've tested this recipe plenty of times
00:26 and I guarantee that this will be a kick-ass lasagna.
00:30 First step, bolognese.
00:32 This is what is gonna take the most amount of time
00:36 when it comes to the first steps of the recipe
00:38 before the assembly.
00:39 And over here we have ground pork, ground beef,
00:43 which is a classic combination
00:45 with bolognese sauce in general.
00:47 Pork is gonna add all that fat.
00:49 It's gonna add an amazing, rich content to our sauce.
00:53 Also, you can only use beef if you want to.
00:56 That's completely fine.
00:58 You might be wondering why we're using
01:00 already made jarred sauce
01:02 and not making our own sauce from scratch,
01:05 but in fact, you are gonna be able to save so much time
01:08 if you buy a good quality marinara sauce.
01:10 When choosing your marinara,
01:11 rule of thumb is six ingredients or less.
01:15 Sugar, no.
01:16 Corn syrup, no.
01:17 Any sort of chemical, no.
01:20 Basil, absolutely yes.
01:21 Garlic, yes.
01:22 Olive oil, that's exactly what you want.
01:25 The first thing that you're gonna do
01:26 is preheat your Dutch oven or large pot
01:29 to medium-high heat.
01:31 Heat a teaspoon of oil.
01:33 Add your ground pork and ground beef.
01:36 Once all the meat is in there,
01:37 really get to it and break down the meat
01:39 as much as possible.
01:40 You want those little individual kernels, if you will,
01:43 so that you end up with a very tender sauce.
01:46 Cook for five minutes until no longer pink.
01:48 You're probably gonna notice
01:49 that there is a lot of fat going on in the pot.
01:51 That's okay.
01:53 Just drain it in a bowl and toss.
01:55 Excess fat can lead to a broken sauce,
01:57 and we don't want that, so get rid of it.
01:58 Now, time for the tomato paste.
02:00 Add it to the pot, stir until incorporated
02:03 for about a minute.
02:04 You're looking for the tomato paste
02:05 to turn into a bright red color.
02:08 Now, add your marinara,
02:09 stir to combine, and bring to a boil.
02:11 Once it comes to a boil,
02:13 salt it, lower it down for a simmer,
02:15 and it's gonna cook for 20 minutes
02:17 until all the flavors have melded and it's thickened.
02:21 When making lasagna, you have two roads you can choose,
02:23 either ricotta or bechamel.
02:26 Ricotta is more Italian-American in some ways,
02:29 and bechamel is very authentic, classic Italian lasagna.
02:33 What bechamel is gonna give you
02:36 is a creamy, sort of melt-in-your-mouth feel,
02:40 whereas ricotta is more simple,
02:43 but it can be a little bit grainy sometimes.
02:45 We're gonna make a bechamel sauce.
02:47 It's very simple to make.
02:48 We only need four ingredients,
02:50 milk, butter, flour, and nutmeg.
02:54 First step is to heat up your milk.
02:56 You want it warm to the touch, not boiling.
02:58 You can do that either on the stove or in the microwave.
03:02 Next, you're gonna make your roux.
03:03 What is a roux?
03:04 It's a mixture of butter and flour.
03:06 You're gonna cook this for two minutes
03:08 until it's a kind of like light brown tan color.
03:11 So next, you're gonna gradually add your warm milk
03:14 into the roux and whisk vigorously
03:16 so you don't get any lumps.
03:18 Whisk continuously until the sauce thickens,
03:20 around three to five minutes, and it can coat a spoon.
03:24 Once it's all thickened, add salt, pepper, and then nutmeg.
03:27 Also, don't forget, stir your sauce every once in a while
03:32 because the meat goes to the bottom
03:33 and you don't want that to burn.
03:35 The only reason why we add whole nutmeg
03:37 and not the ground stuff is because it's gonna last longer
03:41 in your dry storage, and it also has a more pungent flavor,
03:44 which is gonna go great in your bechamel.
03:46 Guess what?
03:46 It's time for assembly, and I have great news for you.
03:50 Little bit of an ASMR moment for you.
03:54 You don't have to pre-boil your noodles.
03:56 You can just buy oven-ready noodles for lasagna,
03:59 and you can save yourself 20 minutes of time.
04:02 I tested both pre-boiling and no pre-boiling,
04:06 and they taste exactly the same way.
04:08 In a nine by 13 baking dish,
04:10 you're gonna start by pouring in
04:11 a cup and a half of Bolognese sauce,
04:13 spreading that around evenly,
04:15 three noodles, a third of a cup of bechamel,
04:20 sprinkle your freshly grated Parmesan and mozzarella
04:23 just to cover.
04:25 You're gonna repeat that process five times
04:27 with a layer of Bolognese, noodles,
04:29 bechamel, and a sprinkle of cheese.
04:32 Why do I use freshly grated cheese?
04:34 May you ask yourself?
04:35 Well, if you buy pre-grated cheese,
04:37 sometimes they come with certain starches
04:39 that won't end up melting the cheese correctly,
04:42 so it won't melt together,
04:44 but just as separate little strips of cheese.
04:47 So just buy the fresh stuff, good quality,
04:50 and you won't regret it.
04:52 We're gonna cover our dish with foil
04:54 and spray some cooking spray on it
04:56 so that the cheese doesn't stick to the foil.
04:59 Put it in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes.
05:02 Then we're gonna uncover it, get rid of the foil,
05:05 increase the oven temperature to 400,
05:07 and bake it for 25 to 30 minutes more
05:09 or until the cheese is nice and brown.
05:11 Look how golden and delicious this looks.
05:14 After taking it out of the oven,
05:15 let it rest for 15 to 20 minutes.
05:18 It's so hot, and it's gonna retain a lot of heat
05:20 for a long time, so you want it to settle down
05:22 a little bit before you start cutting it,
05:24 or else everything's just gonna fall apart.
05:26 To serve, sprinkle a little parsley,
05:28 fresh red pepper, and enjoy.
05:30 This is amazing.
05:32 It melts in your mouth.
05:34 The Bolognese is tender.
05:35 You can feel all that ground beef and pork.
05:39 The sauce is bright.
05:40 It brings flavor.
05:42 Everything has come together,
05:43 and this is just an amazing centerpiece
05:46 to have at the dinner table.
05:48 For other amazing Italian dishes and comfort food recipes,
05:52 stay here at delish.com.
05:54 (upbeat music)
05:56 (upbeat music)