Italian Cooking 101: Roman Lasagna (Timballo)

After learning how to make gnocchi and fettuccine by hand with a lot of practice, Edoardo’s mom graduated me to making lasagna by hand in her kitchen. Franca’s Roman lasagna involves handmade pasta, béchamel sauce, tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella. It’s labor intensive but the rewards are an amazing pasta al forno that will blow all of your previous tries away, made with love.

Keep reading for how to make homemade lasagna by hand—with ingredients, the secret recipe and cooking notes.

Ingredients

As with all of Fanca’s recipes (something she has in common with most great cooks), she doesn’t use precise measurements in her lasagna. Everything is un po’ di this and a pinch of that. She’ll sometimes weigh her flour, but the number of eggs in the pasta for example, depends on how big your eggs are and the resulting consistency of the dough. Also, please excuse the lack of pictures in this post. Turns out it's very difficult to both participate in the lasagna-making process and photograph it.

• Flour (about one kilo or 8 cups)

• 6 eggs (one per person, 6 will fill a good size casserole dish)

• Salt

• Olive oil

• Ground beef and pork mixture

• 1 small onion or shallot

• 1 stalk of celery (washed)

• 1 carrot (washed, peeled)

• 2 liters smooth tomato sauce

• 1/2 liter of milk

• Nutmeg

• 50 g (2 tb) salted butter

• Fresh-grated, good parmesan reggiano

• 1 big ball of buffalo mozzarella (or regular)

Tools

• Cheese grater

• Glass or nonstick metal casserole dish

• 2 sauce pans

• Pasta machine with various settings for pasta thickness

• Clean work surface for pasta making (preferably a marble table top or large wood work surface)

• Tub of cold water

How to make homemade lasagna

Pasta recipe:

• Put about a kilo of flour on your work surface

• Create a well in the middle of the flour mound and crack open 1 egg per person into the middle

• Add a pinch of salt

• Whisk eggs with fork then kneed together with the flour with hands (be careful not to kneed too much or the pasta will be chewy and tough)

• Separate the dough into small balls and flatten

• Using your pasta machine set on #1, feed one portion of dough into the top and roll dough through as many times as it takes until the sheet is thin and flour is well combined (around 3-4)

• Continue rolling each piece of dough through the machine on gradually increasing numbers until you reach the highest setting (I was told on no uncertain terms NOT to skip a numbered setting on the machine)

• When you have many long and thin lasagna sheets, cut them into squares

• Into a large pot of boiling water (unsalted), put 5-10 noodles in and remove when they float to the top

• Transfer them into into cold water bath

• Immediately lay on clean dish towels, dab dry and cover

Besciamella Recipe:

• To a small saucepan, add 1/2 liter of milk

• Add a pinch of salt & nutmeg

• Into the warm milk, add 50 g (2 tb) of salted butter

• Whisk together until the butter is melted and the sauce is tepid

• Add 1 large spoonful of freshly-grated parmesan and 1 spoonful of flour

• The sauce should be creamy and thick. If it’s not thick enough, add more flour by the spoonful

Ragù Recipe:

• Cover the bottom of a saucepan with olive oil and put over low heat

• Cook one small, diced onion or shallot for a few minutes

• Add your beef and pork mixture to the pot and cook through. Lean meat works best, with a larger ratio of beef to pork.

• Add 2L of smooth tomato sauce with the stalk of celery and carrot

• Add salt to taste

• Simmer for at least 15 min on low heat then check flavor/consistency (could take up to 30 minutes)

Assembly

• Get a large glass or nonstick metal casserole dish

• Cover the bottom with a layer of sauce and sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese

• Cover with one full layer of pasta

• Add a small amount of sauce

• Layer of mozzarella (cow’s milk, cut into small pieces)

• Add parmesan

• Pasta

• Sauce

• Mozzarella and parmesan

• Pasta

• Sauce, parmesan and heavy layer of béchamel

• Cook for 30 minutes, or until sauce bubbles over

This recipe will make one large lasagna dish, or two smaller dishes. If you don't have a pasta maker (a life essential, according to the Italians) you use a rolling pin and roll out the dough by hand, or buy dried lasagna pasta if necessary.

Although there are many steps and it takes some time, it's pretty difficult to mess up homemade lasagna, with an end result of saucy, cheesy perfection. It's perfect for special occasions and if you freeze the leftovers, you can have fabulous lasagna even when you're feeling lazy.