The Best Lasagna You'll Ever Make (Restaurant-Quality) | Epicurious 101

I'm professional chef and culinary instructor Frank Proto and today I'm going to show you how to

make

lasagna

the Frank way, we're talking cheesy, creamy, melty, delicious

lasagna

. This is lasagna 101. Making the sauce for your lasagna is definitely a process. It is the flavor base of our lasagna, basically the heart of the lasagna, we are going to build layers, we are not going to throw

ever

ything in the pot at once, we are going to brown things out of season as we go so that we have a sauce really nice and balanced in the end

ever

yone has their own way of making lasagna mine tends to be rustic a little more homey there is lasagna that is made with bamal sauce and is silky and creamy but at the end of the day I want this to be super accessible for you guys I have my pot on the stove I've been heating it up I'm going to add a little bit of oil I'm going to get my pork and I'm going to season it I'm using a country style pork rib it has a very good ratio of fat to satisfy.

I feel like the pork and tomatoes really mix well and give the sauce this really nice mild flavor, so spread them out in an even layer so it starts to brown. and at this point I say this a lot, leave it like this once it starts to brown it will come off the bottom of the pot and then we can move it but give it time the pork in the pot will take 5 to 7 minutes, remember that we are building layers of flavor and this is where we want to be, if you look, that's the brown color we want on most of the sides, if they're not all golden brown like this, we're fine, but try and get a little bit of brown color like this on at least two or three sides of your pork, so while that's browning, I'll go and

make

my sausage.

I have sausage in the casing, you just have to cut the casing with a pairing knife. I chose spicy. Italian sausage because I want a little spice in my sauce. I love the flavor that the chili flakes give to the sausage. Add a little more fat. Add a little more flavor. We'll get a sauce with a little deeper flavor when we use two types of The meat is okay, so the pork is now getting nice and brown. Look, that's what I want. You can see that the pork also gives off some fat. That fat will help us brown our vegetables.

The pork looks like it's ready. I'm going to take it out and put it in a bowl, but I'm going to use a slotted spoon because I want to leave the fat in the pot, that fat is one of those fundamental pieces of our flavor, so don't get rid of the fat if you look at the bottom of the pot. frying pan, what do I have there? They should already know. It's called font f o n d and that's all the brown bits and caramelized pieces of pork and the juices at the bottom of the pot. get rid of that, this is again part of our Bas and Foundation flavor.

I'm going to leave the fat in the pot and then I'm going to take my sausage and I'm going to put it in the pot. I don't want big chunks. there, so I'm going to break it up and start browning this. My sausage is ready to use even if it is not fully cooked. Now I'm not too worried because it will be in the sauce for a long time and it goes away. to cook well then, so I'm going to put this pot on very low heat right now and I'm going to take the same slotted spoon and I'm going to take out the sausage and I'm going to put it right on top of my brown pork ribs, I'm going to try to leave them. some of those juices and fat in there, fat equals flavor, people don't be afraid of it, if there's a little bit left in there, it's okay, don't worry, set it aside, it'll be back in the pot in a minute.

Now is the Time we start to get our vegetables going, the onions come in every time I put onions in the pot, I always add a little salt, some of that layer of flavor is seasoned throughout the process, if we add a little salt as we go, we get a nice balanced seasoning for our finished sauce I want you to take a second and listen to what's going on in my pot yeah, I said listen, I hear Snap Crackle Pop, I hear a sizzle, not a hiss, and that's what you want, if you hear a hiss, that means "We're steaming our onions and not sautéing them, so if all you hear is a hiss, turn up the heat, maybe a little more oil, but We want to hear snaps, crackles, pops and sizzles.

Now it's time to add some of the more aromatic vegetables we're going to add the carrots and we're going to add the celery. I have about two ribs of celery and about two small carrots and I don't like this. I'm worried about it caramelizing at this point I just want it to start to soften a little. the celery and carrots are getting nice and soft and the garlic comes in last in this process because garlic burns very quickly and we're going to cook the garlic until it's fragrant. I don't need to brown it. I just want to smell the roasted garlic. the garlic is nice and toasted and the next thing we're going to add is dry white wine, this will give our sauce a nice roundness.

A little acidity will also help pick up all the love from the bottom of the pot, those little brown bits will mix with the wine and make our sauce nice and caramelized while my wine cooks. I'm going to make a bouquet. Garney sounds fancy, but it's basically just a bunch of herbs that we bind together. some butcher's twine. I have basil. I fold the basil in on itself a little bit and then twist it in opposite directions so they come together in the middle so you can tie it, we clump it together so it's easy to remove, it adds flavor to our sauce, but then I can pull it out very easily, throw it away now same and let our wine continue cooking.

The wine has been bubbling happily. If I smell it, the alcohol has cooked off and it's time to move on to the next step. Add the tomatoes and I chose a ground peeled tomato. This is a great place to save a little time. If I had whole peeled tomatoes, I would have to grind them. These have no skin and are the correct size. For our sauce all the tomatoes go except the cans because we are going to rinse them and I used to think that this was done just to get the rest of the tomatoes out, but there is another reason for this when we add water to our sauce.

It gives our sauce a longer cooking time, giving it more time to develop flavor. If we just add the tomatoes, it will reduce too quickly, so what I'm going to do now is let the tomatoes come to a simmer. I'm going to add a good grind of fresh pepper, a good pinch of salt, salt, a little bit of chili flakes because we have spicy sausages in there, but I want to complement that with a little more heat and stir to let it come to a boil. . simmer, so let's try it, you have to be careful because this is going to reduce, but I think it needs a little more salt, just a good pinch, stir it into the sauce that's bubbling.

I'm going to lower the heat. high to medium and I'm going to add all the meat back in with all the juices, stir it in, you can probably lower the heat a little bit to medium low, let it simmer for about an hour and a half until it all comes together, the pork becomes tender and then we can make our lasagna. My sauce has been on for about an hour and a half. If you look at it, it has a very nice deep red color, a little oil sheen on top, which is always nice, and the pork is nice and tender, so what we're going to do now is remove that Garney bouquet, It has already done its job, it gave its flavor to the sauce and we are also going to remove the pork. so we can just cut it up and shred it, so go through the sauce when you cut that lasagna, you want to get the perfect bite every time and by shredding the pork we allow that to happen, the pork has been cook long enough in the sauce and we don't really need to do much to blend it, it breaks down really well and this goes right back into the sauce.

Now I'm going to take this basil and shred it and add it to the sauce a lot of times, when you cook things like this for a long time they can get a little heavy and heavy and the basil just gives it a little bit of lift towards the end. My sauce looks really good, but I'm. I'm going to adjust the consistency a little bit with a little bit of water. I'm using dry pasta for this, so the pasta will absorb a lot of sauce and I don't want it to be too wet or too dry, so a little runny in my sauce is where I want to be.

We've taken all this time to build the layers of this sauce and it's been worth it. It's time to make our lasagna. It's time to assemble lasagna. Most of the hard work is already done. Our sauce assembly can be a lot of fun, but it's also a crucial step in getting the right consistency. You don't want to add too much sauce. You don't want to add too little cheese. Remember that we want that perfect bite at all times. The first step to layering our lasagna is to put a little sauce on the bottom, we don't want it to stick to the bottom or dry out on the bottom so the sauce goes down.

Lasagna already takes a lot of time and effort. I like to use dry pasta because it is simple and easy. There are some so-called oven-ready pasta products that are not cooked pasta. I'm using regular pasta. I have seasoned my sauce. I have adjusted the consistency. The pasta will absorb everything. That good flavor will go right into the pasta instead of just salted water when you're layering lasagna. I like to put sauce on pasta, so it's going to be pasta sauce and then the cheese because I want the sauce. to soak the pasta. The next step we are going to add some of our grated cheese.

I have comb and parmesan. I like the spiciness of the comb. I like the Parmesan Nutty P. I'm going to add some shredded mozzarella. I'm using a low moisture mozzarella; fresh mozzarella has a lot of liquid. I don't want any extra liquid in there and then a little bit of ricotta and with the ricotta I apply it well, this will spread and melt a little bit, but I just like to put touches so that We're just building those layers of flavor and when I use all these cheeses I it gives that nice balance between creamy and tangy and then another layer of Po paste.

I'm going to push down a little bit. I want it to be a little compact. I don't want it to be light and fluffy, I want it to be nice and dense so if the pasta overlaps a little bit that's fine and then another layer of sauce remember that the pasta should be touching the sauce and then we go back to everything. If not, and you notice I'm also getting into the corners, make sure you spread it evenly and it's not just a piece of cheese in the middle. Each corner piece will also have a little bit of cheese flavor and for our last layer.

I'm just going to add the grated cheeses. I don't want the ricotta on top because the ricotta tends to dry out and will fall apart. I leave the inside of the ricotta where it will stay nice and moist and not on the top. Before I put it in the oven, I'll put it on a baking sheet or cookie sheet. You can see that our sauce is almost overflowing, so if it overflows, it will go into the pan, not into my oven, which is the last thing we do. What I have to do is cover this with aluminum foil.

I want to keep a lot of moisture in there and I wanted to steam it just a little bit because I didn't cook the pasta, so we're going to put this in nice and loose. We're going to throw this in the oven at 350° for about 30 minutes, remove the foil and then spend another 30 minutes getting the edges crispy and then we'll be ready to try the lasagna. It's been in the oven for 30 minutes. to remove the aluminum foil to allow our lasagna to crisp up and the cheese to melt very well, you won't notice that much juice has leaked into the tray, that is a kind of sacrificial juice, it will probably stick to the tray, but that's why is it important to have it so it doesn't spill all over the oven?

The foil on top has allowed my pasta to absorb that liquid and my cheese to steam a little and melt. It will go back in the oven for about 30 minutes and that will get delicious and crispy and golden. I took the foil off the lasagna, put it back in the oven for another 30 minutes and now it's out, look at it, it's delicious with delicious brown cheese, but I don't want you to cut it right. It is extremely important to note that you must let it sit for a minimum of 30 minutes before cutting it, otherwise it will be a mess.

The good thing about lasagna is that you can have it this way, you can refrigerate it, you can cut it. and freeze it, you can save it and serve it however you want, but you must let it rest before cutting it. My lasagna has rested for 30 30 minutes. We have given it time for everything to mix. cut this, here we go, make sure it's cut all the way through. I usually run the knife along the outside edge just to make sure it's clear, get down there, oh my goodness that's just a slice of happiness, we take our time to place our sauce on top and under the pasta and if you look at all that time it has been worth it, we have a beautiful layered Las with a little bit of everything in every bite.

I'm going to make a mess, but I'm going to go in there and get a good piece, it's got cheese, it's got meat, it's melty and creamy, it's got a little bit of acidity from those tomatoes. The pasta still has a little bite to it, it's not soft or mushy, it holds together very well and is beautiful. It takes time, it requires technique, but it is worth every moment you dedicate to it. Put it in front of the people you love and they will love you.