Procedure

• First, PREPARE THE MEAT SAUCE.

  For a lasagna tray serving 8 portions, you will need approximately 1 lb of ground meat, 24 oz of tomato purée, and a mixture of: half an onion, one carrot, and half a stalk of celery.

  For more details, I repeat –> HERE the link to the complete meat sauce recipe.

  

• While the meat sauce is cooking, you can PREPARE THE BÉCHAMEL.

  The amount of béchamel my mom usually makes for lasagna is the standard one: 1 quart of milk, 2.8 oz of butter, and 2.8 oz of flour.

  ☝ The official recipe would require 3.5 oz of flour and 3.5 oz of butter, but for lasagna, it’s not bad if it turns out a bit softer.

  For the béchamel recipe, click HERE.

  If you want to try making béchamel in the microwave, my two recipes are: HERE (the one with butter) and HERE (the light one).

• Third step: PREPARE THE EGG PASTA.

  Follow the basic egg pasta recipe. It’s very simple: one egg for every 3.5 oz of flour. For a tray about 12×9 inches like the one used in this recipe, we use three eggs.

  Roll out the pasta thinly, by hand or with the pasta machine.

  Cut the pasta pieces to the appropriate length for the baking dish used.

  Briefly boil the pasta pieces in boiling water (just for a minute).

  Remove them and drain, then spread them on a cloth or tablecloth, without overlapping them. Optionally, dab them to remove excess moisture.

  

• Now the three main preparations are ready, so you can ASSEMBLE THE LASAGNA.

  Start by spreading a couple of tablespoons of béchamel and an equal amount of meat sauce on the bottom of the baking dish, then proceed with the first layer of pasta, on which to distribute meat sauce and béchamel.

  

• Spread the topping with the back of the spoon over all the pasta, then sprinkle a layer of grated Parmesan cheese.

  Continue one layer at a time until you have used all the ingredients or reached the desired thickness. We usually make them five or six layers.

  

• ☝ The issue of the last layer: my mom and I tend to differ on the last layer. 😊

  I like the last layer to be crispy, so I usually finish the tray with a layer of pasta on which I only distribute béchamel and Parmesan, which forms a crust during baking. I stopped putting sauce on the last layer back when making asparagus lasagna, when some asparagus on the surface got burned.

  Grandma Vanda, on the other hand, covers the last layer just like the inner layers, with béchamel and meat sauce. A method certainly more tied to tradition.

  The final result is aesthetically different, but the lasagna’s goodness doesn’t suffer, it’s simply a matter of personal preference.

• Finally, COOK THE LASAGNA in the oven.

  Simply, bake at 392°F and cook for about 30 minutes. Halfway through cooking, you can lower to 356°F.

  👉 It can be useful, always from halfway through cooking, to cover the tray with a sheet of aluminum foil, especially if there is meat sauce on the last layer. You can easily assess the need by checking the cooking and knowing your oven.

  If during cooking you experience a pasta puffing like the one you see in the photo, don’t worry, it’s nothing serious, just poke the pasta with the tip of a knife.

  

• Once cooked, let the lasagna rest for about ten minutes before cutting them to allow them to ‘set’.

  ☝ The reason: right out of the oven, the lasagna is very soft, and cutting it immediately could cause it to spread and flatten on the plate.

  

• But… can you also smell the aroma of these oven-baked lasagna, right? 😃😋