I believe mushroom and sausage lasagna will make it to my list of my favorite main dishes!
Creamy and super tasty, they are ideal for special occasions like holidays or simply for family or friends’ lunches and dinners. Ideal for their goodness, but also for how easy they are to prepare; and especially, they can be assembled in advance and baked right before serving.
For the mushrooms, I almost always use champignon mushrooms for this recipe because, although they are among the cheapest, they still give the right flavor to this super lasagna; but you can, of course, use the mushrooms you prefer, whether fresh or frozen.
As for the béchamel, you can choose to make it at home or buy it ready-made; I always recommend making it at home because it is more genuine, very quick, very easy, and because you can choose the consistency best suited for the recipe you are going to use it for.
In the case of mushroom and sausage lasagna, and for any other baked lasagna recipe, you will need a fairly liquid béchamel, as it will help cook the dough sheets well and not make the final result too dry.
So here below, besides the step-by-step recipe and COMPLETE VIDEO of mushroom and sausage lasagna, I also provide the procedure for making homemade béchamel.
Follow me!
Before starting, you might also be interested in:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 25 Minutes
- Portions: 6
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Fall, Winter and Spring, Christmas
Ingredients to prepare MUSHROOM AND SAUSAGE LASAGNA
- 1.1 lbs egg lasagna sheets (preferably fresh)
- 2.2 lbs champignon mushrooms (or mushrooms of your choice)
- 1.1 lbs sausage
- 4 1/4 cups béchamel (if homemade, consider the quantity for 1 liter of milk)
- 3 1/2 oz grated Parmesan cheese (about)
- to taste butter
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup dry white wine (optional)
- to taste chopped parsley
- 4 1/4 cups whole milk
- 3 1/2 oz butter
- 3 1/2 oz all-purpose flour
- to taste salt
- to taste nutmeg
Main Tools
- Baking Dish or baking pan, about 10×12 inches
- Whisk if making homemade béchamel
Steps to prepare MUSHROOM AND SAUSAGE LASAGNA
In a large enough saucepan, pour the milk and place it over medium heat, add a teaspoon of salt, a pinch of nutmeg, and leave on the heat until the milk is warm; make sure it does not reach a boil.
In the meantime, in another large saucepan, melt the butter over low heat; once completely melted, add all the flour at once and quickly stir with a hand whisk until you obtain a ‘roux’, a thick, amber-yellow, and lump-free mixture that forms after about half a minute of whisking, keeping the heat on low.
At this point, still with the burner on, pour a ladle of the warm milk you have just prepared into the roux, quickly stir with the whisk, then pour in all the remaining milk at once.
Continue to stir well with the whisk until your béchamel begins to thicken. The time it will take will depend a lot on the temperature of the milk you pour in, but it will take approximately five minutes.Reach the consistency you see in the VIDEO, which, as you can see, should be fairly liquid, otherwise the lasagna will struggle to cook well.
As soon as you turn off the heat, pour the béchamel into a clean bowl and set it aside covered with plastic wrap.First, take care of the mushrooms: I usually use champignons because they are perfect for this recipe and are a bit cheaper, but you can use any variety or a mix.
Clean and cut them into fairly thin wedges.
In a large enough pot, melt a knob of butter (about 1-1.5 oz) and sauté the two cloves of garlic for a few seconds; then add the mushrooms, salt, pepper, and add chopped parsley to your liking (I don’t particularly like it so I use a little, but you can use more if you like).
Cook the mushrooms for about 10-15 minutes, and until the water they release is completely evaporated.
Remove the garlic and transfer the mushrooms to a bowl.
To make your lasagna even more special, I recommend taking a couple of ladles of the mushrooms you just prepared and blending them with 3-4 ladles of béchamel. Then add this wonderful mushroom béchamel to the white béchamel and mix everything together.
Now take care of the sausage: remove the casing and crumble it coarsely with your hands directly into the pot you used for the mushrooms.
Turn on the heat, without adding oil, and brown the sausage, breaking it up well with a wooden spoon.
When it starts to color, roughly after five minutes, turn the heat up to maximum and pour in the quarter cup of white wine.
Let it evaporate completely and continue cooking until the sausage is well browned.
Turn off the heat and combine the mushrooms with the sausage. Let it cool for a few minutes.Move on to the assembly of your mushroom and sausage lasagna: take the lasagna pan (or a Pyrex dish of the same size) and spread a first layer of béchamel on the base.
P.S.: if you use ready-made béchamel, you will definitely need to thin it with a bit of milk to make it less thick, otherwise the lasagna will struggle to cook.
Continue alternating a layer of lasagna, one of mushrooms and sausage, and one of grated Parmesan, until you create 5-6 layers.
For the last layer, spread only plenty of béchamel and plenty of grated Parmesan on top of the lasagna, which will help create a delicious crust during baking.
Bake in a preheated static oven at 350°F for about 30-35 minutes.
And here are your MUSHROOM AND SAUSAGE LASAGNA in all their splendor and super tasty!
Before serving, make sure to let them rest for about ten minutes.
Tips and Variations
For a vegetarian version, you can safely omit the sausage and follow exactly the same procedure as this recipe.
You can replace the mushrooms with, for example, radicchio.
You can add a few pieces of pizza mozzarella or sweet provola cheese to each layer.
You can freeze your lasagna ‘raw’ to bake them directly without thawing when you want to eat them; or, if any are left over, freeze them even after baking.
