There are several things that differentiate Lasagna Bolognese from the Southern Italian style Lasagna that is more familiar to Americans. The most noticeable differences are the use of Béchamel Sauce instead of ricotta cheese, and the absence of mozzarella–only Parmagianno-Reggiano cheese is sprinkled on each layer–which results in a more delicate lasagna.

Lasagna Bolognese should be made using an authentic slow cooked Ragu alla Bolognese (Bolognese Sauce).  Marinara sauce mixed with browned ground beef just won’t do here.  Finally, fresh egg pasta should always be used, not dried lasagna noodles.  Most typically, but not required, it is prepared with green pasta made with spinach.  When made with the spinach pasta the dish can also be called Lasagna Verde Bolognese.

When boiling the sheets of pasta it is very important not to overcook them, because they will cook more when baking the lasagna and you don’t want to end up with mushy noodles that fall apart.  Cook them in the boiling water for no longer than 1 minute,  just so they are soft enough to work with, and rinse them with cold water quickly to stop the cooking.

Lasagna Verde Bolognese

Serves 8

For the Bolognese Sauce:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 carrot, chopped fine
1 celery stalk, chopped fine
1/4 pound pancetta, chopped coarsely
3 pounds ground beef, preferably chuck
1 35 ounce can imported Italian plum tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup meat broth, hot
salt and pepper to taste

For the Béchamel Sauce:
6 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
3 cups whole milk
1/2 teaspoon salt

To assemble the lasagna:
1-1/2 pounds fresh green lasagna noodles
2/3 cup freshly grated Parmagiano-Reggiano cheese

To prepare the Bolognese sauce:

1. In a large deep sauce pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot and celery, cook stirring occasionally until translucent, about 10minutes.
2. Add the pancetta and ground beef, turn heat to high and cook, stirring occasionally until browned about 15 minutes.
3. While the meat is cooking run the tomatoes through a food mill into a bowl. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste and meat broth, and season with salt and pepper. Let come to a boil, then lower the heat to low and simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

To prepare the Béchamel:

1. Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan over low heat. Add the flour and stir with a wire whisk until it forms a paste.
2. Meanwhile, heat the milk in a separate sauce pan just to the verge of boiling. Add the milk to the butter and flour mixture 1 cup at a time, whisking until smoothly combined.
3. Add the salt and continue to cook over low heat, stirring occasionally until the mixture is thick and smooth, it should coat the back of a spoon.

To finish the lasagna:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 Degrees F.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. In 3 batches add the lasagna sheets to the boiling water and cook briefly, about 1 minute. Remove the sheets from the pot using a slotted spoon, place in a colander, rinse under cold water to stop the cooking and spread out on clean kitchen towels.
3. Spread a thin layer of Bolognese sauce on the bottom of a 13×9 baking pan and sprinkle with Parmigiano cheese. Cover with a layer of pasta, overlapping the pasta where necessary. Cover the pasta with a thin layer of béchamel, spread a layer of bolognese on top of that, then sprinkle with cheese. Repeat until you place 4th layer of pasta on top.
4. Mix the remaining bechamel and bolognese sauce together, spread thinly over top layer of pasta and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Place pan in oven and bake for approximately 30 minutes, the top should be slightly browned and the sauces should be bubbling.

I wanted to make a pasta dish Sunday for dinner and since I had just recently made and frozen a large batch of Italian sausage, Sandy suggested I defrost a few and make pasta with sausage. Great idea! I used sweet sausage for this but if you want to go spicier you can use hot sausage or increase the amount of red pepper flakes.

Serves 4-6

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium sweet onion, diced
1 pound sweet Italian sausage meat (stuffing from 4 links)
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
salt to taste
1 35oz can of imported Italian tomatoes
6 fresh basil leaves
1 pound mezzi rigatoni

1. Heat olive oil in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and sautè, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon until softened and translucent, about 5 minutes.
2. Add sausage meat, red pepper and salt to taste. Cook, stirring occasionally until sausage is browned approximately 10 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, crush the tomatoes with your hands then add them with their juices to the pan. Add 1/2 cup of water and bring to a simmer. Turn heat to low and let simmer until thickened, about 45 minutes. At the very end of cooking, tear 2 of the basil leaves into pieces with your hands and stir into the sauce.
4. While sauce is cooking, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the mezzi rigatoni. Cook uncovered over high heat until al dente.
5. Drain the pasta and toss with half of the sauce. Dish pasta out into individual serving plates, top with a little more sauce, garnish with the remaining basil leaves torn by hand and serve.

I have been making my own sausage for a few years now, ever since I picked up the book Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn.  Charcuterie is probably my favorite cookbook, even though the only recipes from the book I have actually made are several of the fresh sausages (the Spicy Roasted Poblano Sausage is awesome) and smoked bacon.  Those few recipes, however, have given me immense satisfaction, and I am always picking it up, flipping through it and planning on eventually branching out to more advanced projects like dry cured sausages, pancetta and bresaola.

My Fresh Italian Sausage recipe is actually a hybrid of the Sweet Italian Sausage recipe in Charcuterie and the Fresh Italian Sausage recipe from another book in my library, Cooking by Hand by Paul Bertolli.  I like the combination of herbs and spices in Bertolli’s recipe but use the ratio of meat to fat and the measurements of the ingredients the two have in common from Charcuterie.  Even though cayenne pepper is an ingredient in this recipe, I still consider it to be a “sweet” sausage, because the cayenne is not enough to make it hot, it just adds a tiny bit of spice. 

There several keys to making a good sausage that both books share.  The first key is keeping your meat and fat cold.  If it gets too warm during the process, the fat will separate from the meat and you will end up with a crumbly sausage.  Tips that I picked up from both books are putting the meat in the freezer after I cut it up until it’s almost frozen, putting the auger, dies, blades, etc from your grinder in the freezer to get cold before grinding, and grinding the meat into a bowl set in ice. 

Also very important is the addition of fat.  Fat makes the sausage juicy, and a good Italian sausage must have a certain percentage of fat.  Back fat is not an easy ingredient to get a hold of, so you may be tempted to exclude it from this recipe and just use 5 pounds of pork shoulder, but trust me I have tried it and the results just aren’t the same.  Talk to your butcher and see if they can special order it for you, or you can order it online from a source like Niman Ranch. Speaking of sources, you can get the hog casings from Butcher & Packer.

The last key to a good sausage is after it is made; cooking the final product.  A lot of people have a tendency to overcook sausage.  A sausage should be cooked to a temperature of 150 degrees.  Charcuterie suggests using a meat thermometer to check the temperature.  I would never tell you to stand there like a dork at your grill sticking a meat thermometer in individual sausages.  Just use common sense and judgment, if it’s cooked a little over 150 it’s no big deal, but you can tell when you are absolutely killing it… just stop yourself.

As far as equipment goes, I use the meat grinder attachment for my KitchenAide stand mixer to grind the meat, into the mixer bowl, then mix the ground meat with the ice cold liquid using the paddle attachment.  I initially used the sausage stuffer that attaches to the grinder, but was not happy with that for several reasons, not the least of which is that going through the auger  heats it up and increases your risk of “breaking” the sausage.  I ended up buying this 5 pound sausage stuffer and the process is so much easier.  If you are intimidated by stuffing the sausage, or just not ready to buy the special equipment, you could start out by just making sausage patties and skip it altogether.

Fresh Italian Sausage

Adapted from Charcuterie and Cooking by Hand

Makes 5 pounds of sausage

4 pounds/800 grams boneless pork shoulder butt
1 pound/450 grams pork back fat
3 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons fennel seeds, toasted
2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
1-1/2 tablespoons dried sage
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup ice water

10 feet hog casings, soaked in tepid water for at least 30 minutes, then flushed with running water

1. Cut the pork and fat into roughly 1 inch dice, and mix together in a bowl. Cover the bowl and place it in the freezer for approximately 30 minutes, it will feel nearly frozen.
2. Remove the meat from the freezer and combine well with the rest of the ingredients, except the water.
3. Grind the meat through a 1/4 inch plate, the large die if you are using the KitchenAide grinder attachment, into a bowl set in ice.
4. Add the water to the meat mixture and mix with the paddle attachment of the stand mixer for about 1 minute on medium speed. The mixture should be thoroughly combined and quite sticky.
5. Immediately stuff the sausage into the hog casings, pinch and and twist to form 6-inch links.  Alternately, you can shape the sausage into patties. The sausage can now be refrigerated or wrapped well and frozen until ready to cook.

The first book in the new Italy’s Food Culture series of cookbooks, translated from the original Italian, by Oronzo Editions, Puglia: A Culinary Memoir, covers a regional cuisine that I would venture is not familiar to many Americans.  Personally, I did not know much about the cooking of Puglia.  Being a bread baker, I was familiar with the two famous breads from the region, Pane Pugliese and Pane di Altamura, but that was extent of my knowledge, before reading this volume.  The author, Maria Pignatelli Ferrante, does a comprehensive job of chronicling what the preface refers to as “the miracle of the cooking of Puglia.”

The cooking of Puglia started out as “cucina povera”, or peasant cooking, but has evolved into a substantial cuisine that still retains the character of the region.  Referred to as “Italy’s California”, the land in Puglia is bountiful, and the cooking is rooted in the crops that are grown locally. In keeping with that, there is a big emphasis in this book on vegetable dishes.  If you are an eggplant fan there is a treasure trove of great eggplant recipes, such as Baked Eggplant with Olives,  Eggplant “Meatballs”, Eggplant Mushroom-Style, and one of the recipes we are featuring, Eggplant Rollups.

While vegetables are the star here, they are not the only reason to read this book.  There are some great pasta dishes, especially for the typical pasta of the region, Orecchiette, including Oricchiette with Brocoli Rabe.  Due to the prevalence of olive oil in the region, there is a large variety of fried foods in Puglia, which gives us an amazing chapter on Fritters and Turnovers.   

The book is rounded out with chapters on chicken, pork and lamb as well as fish and shellfish, all interspersed with informative entries on subjects like the farmhouse, olive trees and Christmas traditions. As with most cookbooks originally written in Italian, the recipes assume some mastery of cooking in general and are not as detailed or explicit as American audiences usually expect, but in the translation Oronzo has beefed up the cooking instructions and clarified ingredient amounts. 

About a year or so after my father sold his restaurant and retired, I decided to get back in the restaurant business part-time, mostly to earn some extra money. I got a job waiting tables at a restaurant called Biscotti in Ridgefield, CT where the chef, Silvia Bianco was doing some amazing things in the kitchen. One dish I remember fondly was her individual hand-rolled lasagnas, I always thought they were a great idea. Each night she would have a special one with different fillings. Biscotti is no longer around, but I was able to contach Chef Silvia and she graciously agreed to contribute a hand-rolled lasagna recipe.

Chef Silvia began conducting cooking classes in her restaurant kitchen in 1995. Today, she offers them in her home-based demonstration kitchen to private groups and some of America’s top corporations, including: GE, Unilever, MetLife, Nestle, Pepperidge Farm, The Gap, and many, many more. She is the author of Simply Sauté, the first in-depth book on sauté in the US; has cooked on stage at the Ridgefield Playhouse and at the James Beard House as well as the Today Show; and is among the panel of top culinary experts selected by The Atlantic Monthly to contribute critical evaluations and reviews.

Chef Silvia continues to grow a strong on-line presence through her web site: www.chefsilvia.com; her monthly essays on food and life, “Notes From the Chef” which can be found on: http://chefsilvia.blogspot.com and includes recipes and tips. She can also be found on the critically acclaimed on-line food resource: www.food411.com where she is resident chef and answers visitor questions though their “Ask Chef Silvia” feature.

Hand-Rolled Lasagna with Ricotta/béchamel, Asparagus and Roasted Red Peppers (Topped with a fresh pomodoro sauce)

by Chef Silvia

Hand rolling each lasagna noodle is a wonderful way to not only make this classic comfort food look fancy, but it allows you to customize each piece–if you want to–without having to make a full tray of the flat, layered type. So, if someone doesn’t care for peppers, for example, you can easily leave them out. It’s also a perfect solution if you want to make lasagna for just a few.

The ricotta-béchamel filling, gives each piece a creaminess that is more interesting and lighter than using ricotta alone. I especially like completing the filling with fresh mozzarella, asparagus and roasted red peppers–but any combination of your favorites are fine. Top it with sautéed grape tomatoes and this lasagna is elevated to that of the sublime. I made a variation of this dish when I cooked at the James Beard House. It was a big hit!

Makes 2-4 servings

4 lasagna noodles
1 cup filling (see below)
4 1/4 inch slices fresh mozzarella
12 pieces fresh asparagus–blanched, ends cut
1/2 cup roasted red pepper filets (buy prepared or better yet, roast your own)
2 cups pomodoro sauce (see below)
3 large fresh basil leaves–slivered
2 sprigs of whole basil leaves–for garnish

Cook the lasagna noodles in a large pot of boiling, salted water for about 10 minutes, and drain while the noodles are still firm. Rinse the noodles under cold water to stop further cooking (remember, they will cook more in the oven.) Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

To Assemble

Lay each noodle flat. Divide the filling evenly in the center of each noodle. Top each with a slice of the mozzarella, 3 pieces of asparagus, and a few filets of the peppers.

Fold one end of the noodle over the filling and then roll. Place each piece in a greased baking dish. Cover with foil and bake for approximately 15 to 20 minutes or until the center is warm. While the lasagna is baking, make the sauce.

Remove the lasagna from the oven and place two pieces on each plate, as in the photo. Top with the sauce. Garnish with slivered basil and sprig.

Ricotta/béchamel Filling

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons unbleached white flour
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon parmesan cheese (optional)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Add the flour and stir with a wire whisk until it forms a paste. Slowly add the milk, stirring until the mixture forms a paste and all the milk is absorbed. Continue cooking for about 10 minutes–stirring occasionally–until the sauce is smooth and thick. Remove from heat and refrigerate for 15 to 20 minutes. Add the ricotta, the parmesan, stir and season.

Pomodoro Sauce

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 fresh clove garlic–medium diced
2 cups grape tomatoes–halved
1/3 cup chicken broth
Salt and pepper to taste

Add oil to a sauté pan and heat over medium/high heat until the oil is hot but not smoking. Add the tomatoes and cook for about one minute. Add the garlic and cook for an additional 30 seconds, add the broth and season with salt and pepper. Cook for a minute more and remove from heat.

Note: For a light meal use one piece of the lasagna per serving and combine with a fresh salad.

I was going to include this pizza in the same post as the Grilled Pizza with Cherry Tomatoes I featured recently. At the time I was just topping it with chopped olives and capers and it was very good that way, but I still felt something was lacking. So, I held off on sharing the recipe, while I tried to improve it. I think what I eventually came up with, the addition of chopped anchovies and sautéed onions, really takes it to another level. Once again it is a good idea to read our Grilled Pizza article before trying this recipe.

Grilled Pizza Puttanesca

Makes 2 pizzas

4 anchovy filets, chopped
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium sweet onion, such as Vidalia, diced
15 pitted black olives, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and chopped
1 28 oz can of imported Italian plum tomatoes
2 large basil leaves, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
salt & pepper to taste
freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
extra-virgin olive oil for brushing
2 balls of grilled pizza dough

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium sauté pan over medium-low heat. Add anchovies and onion and sauté until onion is translucent, 8-10 minutes. Add olives and capers and cook for 1 minute more to combine flavors. Transfer mixture to a bowl.
2. In a medium bowl, crush tomatoes with your hands, and stir in basil, garlic, salt & pepper. Set up olive mixture, crushed tomato sauce, parmagiano, and olive oil at your grilling station for easy access.
3. Prepare a charcoal grill for grilling pizza creating a very hot fire on one side with a couple of layers of charcoal just a few inches from the grate, and a low fire on the other side with just a few coals.
4. Oil the bottom of a baking sheet and place one of the dough balls on it. Using your hands flatten it out to about 1/8 inch thick. Carefully slide the dough onto the hot side of the grill. Watch the dough closely making sure it doesn’t burn by lifting it with tongs and peeking under.
5. When the dough is charred on the bottom, flip it over and brush it with olive oil and quickly sprinkle with Parmigiano-Reggiano. Next use tongs or your hands to place the tomatoes over the surface, trying not to take too much of the juices with them.  Finally, top with strategically placed dollops of olive, caper and onion mixture. With either the tongs or a spatula, slide the pizza to the cooler side of the grill, cover making sure the vent holes are open and cook for 3-5 more minutes. The pizza is done when the toppings are heated through and the bottom is slightly charred. Using a spatula, remove pizza from grill to a serving tray, slice and serve. Repeat with second ball of dough.

I recently came across some delicious cherry and grape tomatoes at my local farmers market. I was planning on making some grilled pizza and as soon as I tasted them, I knew that they had to go on least one of the pizzas. I did two versions, one replaced the sauce completely with the tomatoes, cut in half and charred on the grill, and one had the sauce and the tomatoes. Both were amazing but I preferred the one with just the tomatoes, mostly because it is different. Before trying this recipe I recommend reading our detailed set-up and technique for grilling pizza, which can be found in our Grilled Pizza article.

Grilled Pizza with Cherry Tomatoes

Makes 2 pizzas

20 cherry and/or grape tomatoes, halved
salt & pepper to taste
2 balls of grilled pizza dough
extra-virgin olive oil for brushing
freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1/4 pound fresh mozzarella, cut into small chunks
4 large basil leaves, torn into pieces by hand

1. Place tomatoes, cut side down, in a oiled grill pan. Grill over direct heat until tomatoes are slightly charred on top, then transfer them to a bowl and season with salt & pepper. Set up the bowl of tomatoes and the other ingredients at your grilling station for easy access.
2. Prepare a charcoal grill for grilling pizza creating a very hot fire on one side with couple of layers of charcoal just a few inches from the grate, and a low fire on the other side with just a few coals.
3. Oil the bottom of a baking sheet and place one of the dough balls on it. Using your hands flatten it out to about 1/8 inch thick. Carefully slide the dough onto the hot side of the grill. Watch the dough closely making sure it doesn’t burn by lifting it with tongs and peeking under.
4. When the dough is charred on the bottom, flip it over and brush it with olive oil. Sprinkle with Parmigiano-Reggiano, dot with half of the fresh mozzarella and scatter half of the tomatoes on top. With either the tongs or a spatula, slide the pizza to the cooler side of the grill. Cover grill, making sure the vent holes are open, and cook for 3-5 more minutes. The pizza is done when the cheese is melted and the bottom is slightly charred. Using a spatula, remove pizza from grill to a serving tray, garnish with half of the basil, slice and serve. Repeat with second ball of dough.

Makes About 1 Quart

2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
4 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1. Stir the milk and sugar together in a medium sauce pan over medium heat and add the vanilla bean. Heat until bubbles begin to form around the edges. Remove the pan from the heat and steep for 15 minutes.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks together. Slowly whisk the warm milk mixture into the egg yolks and transfer the mixture back to the sauce pan. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until mixture thickens and coats the back of the spoon, 8 – 10 minutes and remove custard from heat.
3. Pour the cream into a large bowl and place a mesh strainer on top. Pour the custard through the strainer, discarding the vanilla bean, and stir it into the cream. Cover and refrigerate until chilled.
4. Remove custard from refrigerator and process in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. While ice cream is churning melt chocolate in a sauté pan over low heat or in the microwave. Drizzle a very thin stream of the chocolate into the gelato during the last few minutes of churning.

When I decided to add this blog to ItalianChef.com, I thought it would be a good forum for occasionally writing about other types of food.  The main focus will always be Italian cuisine, but I do branch out and would like to share my experiences with cooking in general.  My wife, Sandy, is Portuguese and since we have been together I have been exposed to a lot of great dishes from a culinary tradition I did not know much about before we met.  Continuing the grilled chicken theme from last week, I thought I would share one of my favorite Portuguese grilling recipes, Grilled Chicken with Piri Piri Sauce.

Piri Piri Sauce is named after the very hot chile that is the main ingredient, the piri piri pepper.  The pepper, also known as malegueta is kind of hard to find here in America, so you can substitute any small hot pepper.  Bridgeport, Connecticut where Sandy’s family is from has a few Portuguese specialty food stores where I am able to find the jarred maleguetas from Brazil that I use.  You can adjust the heat to your own taste by increasing or decreasing the number of chiles.

Recipe:

12 piri piri or other small hot chiles, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
1 whole chicken, 3 1/2 to 4 pounds, cut into eight serving pieces

Serves 4

1. Combine chiles, garlic, salt, extra virgin olive oil and vinegar in a jar with a tight fitting lid.  Cover, shake well and let rest in refrigerator for at least 24 hours. The sauce will keep for about 1 month.
2. Place chicken in a baking dish and  pour half the piri piri sacue over. Cover and let marinate in refrigerator for 4-6 hours, turning chicken once.
3. Start a fire in a charcoal grill, or pre-heat a gas grill to medium-hot. If using a charcoal grill, arrange the charcoal on one half of the bottom of the grill and leave the other half empty for indirect cooking.  If using a gas grill once the grill is pre-heated,  turn off the burners on on one side of the grill.
4. Place chicken on grill directly over the fire and cook for 5 minutes, turning once.  Move chicken to the side of the grill that is not directly over the fire, brush with piri piri sauce and cover the grill.  Cook chicken covered over indirect heat,  turning occasionally and basting with remaining piri piri sauce, for about 20 minutes, until the juices run clear.  Serve warm.