Sicilian Lasagna

This summer my parents spent their holidays in Sicily, in particular in Trapani and during these days they tasted the delicious Italian recipe of “Sicilian Lasagna” (Lasagna alla Siciliana). This traditional Italian recipe is prepared with traditional vegetables of Sicily, the eggplants, and with a tomato sauce of minced veal meat and peas and the addition of ham and sweet Sicilian pecorino cheese. You can prepare it with lasagna bought or you can decide to make home-made lasagna, here I show the easy recipe to prepare the home-made lasagna with the help of a pasta machine but in the case you don’t have it you can also use a simply rolling pin, the result will be the same.

INGREDIENTS (for 8 people):
1 / 2 Onion
200 g of Minced meat of veal
200 g of Peas
1,5 L of Tomato sauce
4 Round Eggplants
200 g of Sweet Pecorino cheese
200 g of ham
150 g of Parmesan
4 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Extra virgin olive oil for fry the eggplants

INGREDIENTS FOR LASAGNA PASTA
400 g of Flour
4 Eggs
Salt

PREPARATION TIME: 1 hour

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

WINE: Santa Margherita di Belice bianco Doc (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Start with the preparation of the lasagna pasta: put in a bowl the flour, a pinch of salt and the eggs.



Mix all the ingredients and knead the dough until it becomes homogeneous. Let the dough stand for about 20 – 30 minutes so it becomes more soft. After this time start to roll out the dough, you can do this with the help of a rolling pin or more easily with the help of a pasta machine. Here I use the pasta machine.Start roll out the dough from the biggest thickness of the machine then little by little reduce it until you obtain a pastry of about 2 – 3 mm of thickness.





Cut the pastry in rectangular pieces with about dimension of 15 cm x 10 cm.



Now start with the preparation of the sauce for lasagna: preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a pan, cut the onion in slices and let them cook for 3 – 5 minutes in the hot oil to make it tasteful.



When the onion becomes golden remove it from the oil and add the minced meat of veal. Let it cook for 5 - 8 minutes until it becomes slightly golden,



then add fresh peas and continue the cooking for other 5 – 8 minutes.



Now add the tomato sauce and let the all sauce cook for about 30 – 40 minutes.






In the meantime prepare the other ingredients: eggplants, ham and cheese.
Cut the eggplants in slices



and fry them in hot extra virgin olive oil until they become slightly golden.



When they are cooked put them in a dish covered with kitchen paper in order to remove the excess of oil.
Cut the ham in slices and the cheese in small cubes.
Now you can prepare the lasagna: cover the bottom of a rectangular baking pan with the sauce of meat and peas, put over it lasagna,



pour on it the sauce, make a layer with the fried eggplants, another with the slices of ham and the cubes of cheese



and sprinkle with some parmesan, re-put another layer of lasagna pasta and continue in this way until the pan in full.




Bake at 180°C and cook for about 30 minutes until the surface becomes golden.
Serve hot.
This is the result:




BUON APPETTITO!

Lasagna with Asparagus

This Italian recipe is prepared with typical vegetables of the summer period: the asparagus. With asparagus and crescenza, that is a kind of soft cheese typical of Lombardia, you can prepare delicious summer lasagna. The preparation of this Italian recipe is quite simple: you should prepare a mixture of crumbled bread and walnuts, a mixture of milk, crescenza, Parmesan and béchamel, lasagna and the asparagus cut in thin slices lengthwise. When all these things are ready you should make layers of them in a baking pan, bake for about 30 minutes and the lasagna is ready. In this recipe the soft consistency of the mixture of crescenza and béchamel is well accompanied with the crunchy consistency of the mixture of bread and walnuts. BUON APPETITO!


INGREDIENTS (for 4 - 6 people):
400 g of Asparagus
1 Roll
30 g of Walnuts
50 ml of Milk
400 g of Crescenza (kind of soft cheese typical of Lombardo)
40 g of Parmesan
350 g of Lasagne
500 ml of Béchamel

PREPARATION TIME: 20 minutes

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

WINE: Friuli Annia Pinot bianco (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Let salted water, with a drizzle of oil, boil for lasagne; the presence of oil in the water is necessary so the lasagne don’t stick between them.



When water boils add in it 10 lasagne at a time and cook them for 3 – 4 minutes, drain them with the help of a skimmer paying attention to not break them, and place them on a table in order to let them cool.



Then clean the asparagus and remove the hardest part of the stem, place them in high pan with water and after water boils cooked them for about 10 minutes. It is important that the asparagus remain in vertical position in the pan so that their head is out of water and cook with vapour.



When the asparagus are cooked drain them paying attention to not break their head, let them cool and cut them in thin slice lengthwise. In the meantime prepare the bread and the walnuts, crumble them and put them together in a bowl.





In another bowl mix together the milk, the crescenza and the Parmesan.



Now prepare the béchamel looking the instructions presented here, when the béchamel is ready, mix them with mixture of crescenza, and now begin to prepare the lasagna.



Pre heat the oven to 200°C. Cover with a sheet of baking paper a squared baking pan, place on it some mixture of béchamel and crescenza, a first layer of pasta, a layer of asparagus



and a little of the mixture of bread and walnuts, continue in this way until the pan is full.



Bake the pan for about 30 minutes and cook lasagna until the surface become golden. Serve hot.
This is the result:



BUON APPETITO!

Lasagne with Ragù

This is a typical italian dish!
Very delicious!

INGREDIENTS (for 4 people)

Pasta (for Lasagne)
200 g of Minced meat of pork
1/2 of Onion
3 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
700 g of Tomato pulp or tomato puree (as you prefer)
50 g of Butter
500 ml of Milk
2 Tablespoon of flour
Some Nutmeg
Salt

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 45 minutes

DIFFICULTY: medium

WINE: Volpolicella DOC (Red wine)

PREPARATION
Wash, peel and chop the onion. In a pan heat the extra virgin olive oil, add chopped onion and let them brown. Now add the minced meat of pork and cook for about 5 minutes until the meat is golden. Then add the tomato pulp, some salt and simmer for about 10-15 minutes.

Now it's time to prepare some besciamella! In a pan melt the butter, then add the flour and mix. Add some milk, little by little, and continue to mix until you obtain a kind of cream. Pay attention not to make lumps. Then add the rest of the milk, a pinch of salt and some nutmeg. Let the mixture simmer while continuing to stir, until the mixture thickens.

When the besciamella and the tomato sauce are ready, spread the surface of a baking pan with 2-3 tablespoons of besciamella, and then make a layer with pasta, spread with 2-3 tablespoons of tomato sauce and with 2-3 tablespoons of besciamella. Continue in this way until the baking pan is full (make about 4-5 layers).

Bake for about 30 minutes until the surface golden.
This is the result:

BUON APPETITO!