I’m Loving
Layer up! Matt Preston is getting between the sheets of life, love and lasagne, and shares his ultimate crowd-pleasing version.
Matt Preston peels back lasagne’s saucy layers.
LASAGNE IS LIKE life; like a relationship. It has layers. It’s complicated. A good one takes work but it is even better the next day. It gives you the rough with the smooth. It’s loads of fun once you get between the sheets. (Alright that’s quite enough of that now. We get the point – Ed)
It is also spelt differently depending on where you are from in Italy. It’s ‘lasagne’ in the north and generally ‘lasagna’ in the south. So, for the sake of unity let’s just call it ‘lasagn-yeah’ because we all love it so much.
Lasagn-yeah – those textbook silken pasta sheets tucked between layers of bolognese and bechamel – is one of the most famous Italian foods in the world; loved from Leichhardt to London. Yet different versions exist across Italy, and it is so much more than the Emilian archetype ( lasagne al forno) that has become famous overseas and which relies on a meat sauce that is scarcely known in traditional Italian cookbooks.
THE ORIGINAL LASAGNE OF NAPLES
The original lasagne is most commonly traced to medieval Naples. Instead of bechamel and meat sauce, there’s grated cheese and crumbled sausage. Don’t believe anyone who says it featured a tomato sauce – tomatoes hadn’t arrived in Europe at that time.
THE LASAGNE OF MARCHE
Vincisgrassi might be the most decadent of all lasagnes. Originally from the Marche region, this version uses bechamel as a topping, with pasta sheets separated by a sauce of pancetta, prosciutto and chicken giblets ruddy with tomato puree and white wine.
THE UNBAKED LASAGNE
Way back (at least six months ago) restaurants layered splotches of sauces and angular ingredients on plates blanketed with blanched handkerchiefs of pasta and called it ‘lasagne’. I have discovered that these lighter lasagnes actually have Italian antecedents. In Genoa they layer pasta sheets with pesto mixed with fresh ricotta. Olive oil dresses that small stack of milky basil freshness.
THE MEAT-LOVER’S LASAGNE
Perhaps my most favourite lasagne is the meat-lover’s version served to me by the wonderful Ms. De Pasquale who looks after, and largely enables, my ridiculous TV wardrobe. Calabrian in origin, it not only has mortadella in it but also hard-boiled eggs, which sounds ridiculous until you taste their pristine presence among all this meaty decadence. Try it and discover yet another wonderful Italian lasagne. Can I get a “Hell yeah, lasagn-yeah”.
CALABRIAN LASAGNE 3.0 (SAGNA CHINE) SERVES 6-8
1kg pork and fennel sausages, casings removed 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil 2 celery stalks, finely chopped 1 (200g) brown onion, finely chopped 2 red capsicums, core removed, finely chopped 2 tbs each finely chopped oregano and basil,
plus extra leaves, to serve 2 bay leaves 1 tsp ground fennel seeds 2 tbs tomato paste 1 cup (250ml) red wine 1.7L tomato passata 1 x 375g packet fresh lasagne sheets 6 hard boiled eggs, thickly sliced 80g each mortadella and prosciutto, finely chopped 400g mozzarella, coarsely grated 2 x 220g tub cherry bocconcini, drained, torn 2 tbs chopped flat-leaf parsley, to serve
Line a baking tray with baking paper. Roll 2 heaped tsp sausage meat into a ball and place on prepared tray. Repeat with remaining sausage meat. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over high heat. In batches, add meatballs and cook, tossing frequently, for 3-4 minutes or until meatballs begin to brown. Return all meatballs to pan. Add celery, onion, capsicum, oregano, basil, bay leaves and fennel seeds. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes or until vegetables begin to soften. Stir through tomato paste and cook for a further 1-2 minutes. Add wine, scraping bottom of pan with a wooden spoon. Stir through the passata. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally for 6-8 minutes or until sauce thickens slightly. Season to taste.
Preheat oven to 200ºC. Grease a 32cm x 21cm x 10cm-deep ovenproof dish. Spoon some of the sauce from meatball mixture into the dish and spread evenly. Arrange 1 layer of lasagne sheets on top, overlapping slightly. Top with one-third of the sliced eggs, mortadella, prosciutto, meatballs and sauce. Scatter with onequarter mozzarella. Repeat layers twice more, only using 2 lasagne sheets for each layer. Finish with mozzarella on top. Season.
Cover dish with baking paper and foil. Bake for 1 hour. Discard foil and baking paper. Top with bocconcini. Return to the oven and bake for a further 30 minutes or until golden. Set aside for 15 minutes. Scatter with extra oregano, basil and parsley to serve.