A simple and quick recipe for lasagna from ready-made sheets

Pizza and pasta aren't the only Italian favorites! Lasagna was invented back in the 13th century, and during this time it managed to become popular in many countries around the world. Just remember the cat Garfield from the American comedy of the 2000s, who idolized a juicy meat dish with a delicate sauce, and along with him the entire audience.

The word “lasagna” means not only the name of a popular Italian dish, but also a pasta product in the form of a thin sheet of dough. In fact, they are the basis for preparing a classic hearty dinner in Italy. Today we will tell you what else you need to prepare real lasagna, decide on the filling and sauce, and also share a detailed step-by-step recipe!

Main ingredients

If you've tried lasagna at least once, you probably know that it is prepared by alternating different layers and then baked. What ingredients does this delicious dish consist of?

• Thin layers of dough are the first and most important thing. You can prepare them yourself or buy them at the store.
• Meat stew. It is usually made from minced meat and tomatoes.
• Bechamel sauce. It is prepared from simple ingredients: milk, butter and flour. It is also important to supplement the sauce with spices: nutmeg, salt and pepper.
• Cheese. Parmesan is a classic, but various variations of the recipe use mozzarella, ricotta or other cheeses.

Lasagna with fish and spinach

This unusual lasagna looks beautiful and has a delicate taste. To prepare it, boil 12 sheets of dough and make bechamel sauce - fry 40 g of flour in 40 g of butter, add 350 ml of milk, simmer the sauce for 5 minutes, season it with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Warm in 1 tbsp. l. vegetable oil 300g frozen spinach until soft, then quarter 4 tomatoes, mix the vegetables with the sauce and dill, which will make the bechamel more fragrant and expressive.

Place sheets of dough in a greased form, first the cod fillet, and then the sauce, which should be sprinkled with grated Camembert. For 300 g of cod you will need 100 g of cheese, the number of layers depends on the height of the mold, the main thing is to cover the last layer with cheese. Bake lasagna for 35 minutes at 200°C and try it, you will definitely like it!

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What to do with ready-made lasagne sheets

Many Italian brands of pasta are increasingly appearing in our supermarkets, so finding and buying the right ingredient is not difficult.

First of all, pay attention to the cooking instructions. Some lasagna sheets should be boiled in advance, and some should be immediately placed with the rest of the products in a mold and sent to the oven.

If necessary, cook the dough in boiling salted water for 3 minutes. No longer is needed, the product should remain slightly stiff. There is a possibility that the leaves will stick together during cooking, so it is better to cook them in parts, adding a little vegetable oil to the water.

After cooking, place the sheets on a paper towel so that excess liquid is absorbed and the dish does not turn out watery.

How and with what to serve lasagna

Let the lasagna sit for about twenty minutes after baking and only then cut into portions. Be sure to decorate them with fresh herbs on top - basil leaves, parsley or any other herbs.

This is a full-fledged hot dish that is eaten with a fork, helping yourself with a knife. If you are expecting guests, then a light vegetable salad and chopped tomatoes with basil and mozzarella can be on the table. No other dishes are required.

A light, dry wine goes well with lasagna.

How to make your own dough

The dough for lasagna is made in the same way as for pasta - from durum wheat. To make the base of the dish tender and tasty, you can cook it yourself! When kneading the dough, it is best to take two grades of wheat flour - higher and second; lasagna experts say that in this case the dough turns out tastier.

Ingredients:

• wheat flour - 350 g
• chicken eggs - 4 pcs.
• olive oil - 1 tbsp. l.
• salt - 1 pinch

Cooking method:

1. Sift flour onto a work surface. Collect in a mound and make a depression in the center.
2. Add a couple of pinches of salt. Drive the eggs into the well and stir them with a fork until smooth.
3. Working from the center of the well outwards, gradually combine the flour and egg mixture. When the egg mixture thickens a little, you can proceed to kneading the dough.
4. Knead the dough for 10-15 minutes until it becomes elastic and smooth. At this stage add olive oil.
5. Form the pliable dough into a ball, wrap in film and refrigerate for 30 minutes. The finished dough can be stored in the refrigerator for about a day, use it if necessary.
6. Dust your work surface with flour. Divide the dough into two parts. Roll out the first part to a thickness of 0.5 cm. Continue gently rolling until the thickness reaches 0.1 cm. Do the same with the second part of the dough.
7. Using a regular or shaped knife, cut the dough into pieces of the desired size. For convenience, you can make a template from cardboard so that all parts are the same.
8. Place the resulting lasagna sheets on a work surface dusted with flour, cover with cling film and leave for half an hour. Ready!

Cook the dough in boiling salted water for 30 seconds before arranging the rest of the lasagne layers.

Cooking lasagna at home: secrets of Italian chefs

When kneading the dough, it is best to take two grades of wheat flour - higher and second; lasagna experts say that in this case the dough turns out tastier.

If during the kneading process you feel a lack of moisture and the dough crumbles, under no circumstances should you pour water into it; it is better to add an egg or a little olive oil, as water will make the dough hard.

If you bought ready-made sheets of dough to prepare lasagna at home, carefully study the instructions on the package, as some manufacturers recommend not boiling the sheets, but simply soaking them in water - it all depends on the composition and method of preparing the dough.

Italians lay the dough squares crosswise - that is, the new layer of dough should be perpendicular to the previous layer. This makes the lasagna more stable, so it doesn’t fall apart when cut and looks aesthetically pleasing. If we cook lasagna at home in a slow cooker, we should place sheets of parchment paper on the bottom of the bowl to prevent the dish from burning. The lasagna is wrapped in parchment before cooking in the oven, or even better, use a baking sleeve.

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Successful toppings for lasagna

Meat filling . Take any minced meat or sausages, add finely chopped vegetables if desired. The ingredients are fried with spices, then stewed for 15 minutes with tomatoes in their own juice or with tomato paste. The classic version is ground beef supplemented with tomatoes.

Seafood . This filling can be prepared from boiled mussels, shrimp and squid. For convenience, you can use a ready-made seafood cocktail. Next, the seafood is stewed with the addition of a glass of water and tomatoes; for piquancy, you can add parsley and nutmeg to the filling.

Vegetables and mushrooms . Champignons, eggplants, zucchini, bell peppers and onions go well together. Vegetables and mushrooms are fried, then stewed together with tomato paste or tomatoes, and then in some variations mixed with bechamel sauce.

Cheese and spinach . You can choose any cheese, but it’s more interesting to complement it with spinach. First, the green leaves need to be washed and dried, and then fried in a frying pan for 2 minutes. After this, you can use it in the filling along with cheese.

Sweet option . For an unusual dessert lasagna, fruits, berries, dried fruits and nuts are suitable - the finished dish is decorated with whipped cream and chocolate on top. In this case, of course, bechamel sauce is not used.

The filling for lasagna gives room for creativity, so you can experiment with any products - Italians love culinary improvisation!

Homemade Neapolitan lasagna recipe

Once you've learned how to make lasagna at home the classic way, try making this dish with eggs and meatballs using the Neapolitan recipe.

Boil the dough sheets. Chop 1 carrot, 1 stalk of celery into cubes, chop 1 onion into rings and simmer the vegetables in a frying pan with a little olive oil and 50 ml of dry red wine - cook the vegetables until half the liquid has evaporated. Bring 1 liter of tomatoes in their own juice to a boil; they should simmer over low heat.

For the filling, cut 60 g of Parmesan cheese into thin slices, mix it with 1 raw egg and 400 g of minced beef. Make small meatballs, fry them in a frying pan in vegetable oil and add to tomato sauce. Cut 5 boiled eggs and 150 g of mozzarella into thin slices.

Place layers of boiled dough and filling into the mold in this order - lasagne sheet, sauce with meatballs, mozzarella with eggs - and so on in several batches. Fill the entire pan and top the lasagna with grated Parmesan. Bake it for half an hour in the oven at 200°C and enjoy the exquisite taste of Italian cuisine.

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Which cheese to choose

As we already said, the ideal cheese for lasagna is Parmesan. It is sometimes mixed with mozzarella, ricotta or mascarpone. The fact is that the combination of Parmesan with these cheeses gives the dish a special tenderness, juiciness, piquant taste and pleasant aroma.

But you don’t have to limit your imagination only to these types of cheese; you can use any hard products with a bright, slightly pungent aroma and soft, delicate cheeses with a delicate taste. Whether to sprinkle cheese on each layer of the dish or just on the top plate is a matter of recipe and personal preference.

Error four. Violation of technology for preparing bechamel sauce

Bechamel is prepared as follows: flour is fried in butter until golden brown, and then milk is added in a thin stream with constant stirring. If something goes wrong, the flour will boil into lumps that can no longer be broken. And you'll have to start all over again. Therefore, we take our time, add the milk slowly and make sure that the sauce is homogeneous in its thickness.

Error five. Wrong cheese

You can try making lasagna with other types of cheese, but be prepared for the result to be the opposite of what you expected.

What kind of vessel to cook the dish in?

To prepare lasagna, you will need thick-walled dishes in which the dough will not burn - after all, the dish will simmer for 30 minutes at a temperature of 190 ° C. In other words, the cookware must be heat-resistant and reliable. The best shapes for this purpose are made of ceramics and fireproof glass, cast iron cookware or a container with a non-stick coating.

It is optimal to choose a rectangular shape measuring 26 × 18 cm, sometimes they are made in square and even round ones. But this is not very convenient, since the cut pieces of lasagna themselves must be rectangular in shape. Such a classic!

How to make lasagna from ready-made sheets at home?

Our recipe today is about how to cook lasagna with minced meat from ready-made sheets. This incredibly appetizing dish of Italian cuisine amazes with its original execution, rich taste and simply amazing aroma. Having a package of ready-made lasagna sheets in stock, preparing it will not be at all difficult and you can verify this by following simple recommendations.

Lasagna with ready-made sheets - recipe

Ingredients:

• minced pork and beef – 650 g;
• ready-made lasagna sheets – 10-12 pcs.;
• hard cheese – 290 g;
• garlic – 1 clove;
• onions – 80 g;
• fresh tomatoes – 225 g;
• tomato sauce – 120 g;
• carrots – 90 g;
• a mixture of spicy dry Italian herbs - 1 teaspoon or to taste;
• odorless vegetable oil – 30 ml;
• salt - to taste;
• ground black pepper - to taste;

For the bechamel sauce:

• wheat flour – 55-65 g;
• fresh milk – 750 ml;
• dry herbs – 1-2 pinches;
• ground nutmeg – 1-2 pinches;
• butter – 120 g;
• laurel leaf – 2 pcs.;
• ground white pepper – 1 pinch;
• salt.

Preparation

Since in our case we use ready-made lasagna sheets, we will immediately begin preparing the remaining two bases of the dish - the filling and the sauce.

The classic filling for lasagna is made from minced meat with vegetables. Moreover, you can take absolutely any meat, for us it’s ground pork in half with beef. Be sure to wash and peel the vegetables, chop the onion into small cubes, process the carrots on a medium grater, and remove the skins from scalded tomatoes with boiling water and chop them quite finely with a sharp knife.

Heat the refined oil in a saucepan and sauté the prepared onions and carrots in it for about five minutes. Now add the minced meat, fry a little together with the vegetables, thoroughly kneading the lumps. And then add chopped fresh tomatoes, peeled and finely chopped garlic, add tomato sauce, adjust the mixture to the desired taste with salt, pepper and herbs, cover the vessel with a lid and simmer the contents over low heat for fifteen minutes.

We're done with the filling, now let's move on to the bechamel sauce, without which lasagna is not the same. Bring the milk to a boil in a suitable container, after adding a laurel leaf and one or two pinches of nutmeg. Next, turn off the stove, cover the dish with a lid and leave for ten minutes so that the spices release their aroma.

Without wasting time, saute the wheat flour in the dissolved butter for three to five minutes, stirring tirelessly. The result of this action should be a golden thick mass, into which we pour the infused milk in a thin stream, having previously removed the bay leaf from it, while not stopping stirring the sauce for a second, but rather increasing the intensity. Now add salt and white pepper to the mixture, heat almost to a boil, but avoid boiling, and remove from the stove.

The main components of the dish are ready, let’s start preparing and baking it. We oil the bottom of the baking container and grease it with a layer of bechamel sauce. Now lay out the lasagne sheets in one layer, cover them with some of the minced meat, pour a little sauce on them and sprinkle lightly with cheese. Next, we repeat the layers again in the same order as many times as there are enough components for them. Finally, cover the dish with a generous layer of bechamel sauce and generously sprinkle with cheese.

Lasagna is definitely prepared in the oven. To do this, we warm it up in advance, setting the temperature to 190 degrees, place the dish on the middle shelf and bake for about thirty minutes. The result should be a delicious golden brown crust decorating the surface of the lasagna.

Classic recipe: lasagna with cheese and minced meat

The calorie content of this dish is 965 kcal. The nutritional value of the product is:

• proteins – 50 g;
• fats – 72.6 g;
• carbohydrates – 23.9 g.

To prepare lasagna with minced meat and cheese in the oven you will need:

• 600 g minced meat;
• 600 g Bolognese sauce;
• 60 g butter (butter);
• 2.5 tbsp. l. flour (wheat);
• 2 tbsp. l olive oil;
• 750 ml milk;
• 10 sheets of lasagna (ready-dry);
• 500 g cheese (hard).

Knead the dough

Sift 200 grams of flour through a sieve onto a clean surface. This will enrich it with oxygen, and it will be easier for you to knead the dough. Add a pinch of salt to the flour. At the top of the “slide” we make a small indentation with our finger. Lightly beat two eggs in a separate bowl with a fork. Pour them into the flour “crater”. Let's start kneading the dough. While working, add olive oil - literally one tablespoon. You need to knead for a long time, at least a quarter of an hour (or even better, 25 minutes), so that future lasagna sheets come out elastic. The dough should under no circumstances be sticky, but also not as stiff as for Russian homemade noodles. If you find it too hard, add a little water. If the dough continues to stick to your hands, adjust the desired consistency by adding flour. When you manage to form a bun, hit it forcefully on the tabletop several times. This will make the dough even softer. Then cover the bun with a damp cloth and let it “rest” for about thirty minutes or an hour.

Vegetable lasagna

To prepare 9 servings of the dish you will need:

• 250 g eggplant;
• 250 g zucchini;
• tomato;
• pepper (red sweet);
• pepper (yellow sweet);
• two carrots;
• to taste - salt and pepper (ground);
• milk (600 ml);
• 40 g flour (wheat);
• 40 g butter (butter);
• 200 g cheese;
• 15 pieces of lasagne sheets (prepared dry).

The calorie content of the dish is 234 kcal. It contains 10.3 g of protein, 13 g of fat, and 19.3 g of carbohydrates.