Homemade pasta for lasagna
Elery decided he'd like to take lasagna to his family Christmas party, and he loves homemade pasta. So, like a good wife, I agreed to make pasta sheets for the holiday meal.
I start like Grandma always did, one egg to each cup of flour. Dump it on the board, make a well, sprinkle with salt and break the eggs into the well:
I use my hands to mix it all together, and I usually add a drizzle of olive oil. If it's too dry, I'll sprinkle on water, a tablespoon at a time, until it's all a cohesive mass of dough. Knead for a couple of minutes and you'll get this nice smooth ball of pasta dough:
Time to haul out the pasta machine. I cut this amount (4 eggs and 4 cups of flour) into 8 portions, so they don't make a sheet too long for the space I'm using to work. I start on "one", of course, and run it right up to 5 or 6, which is the right thickness for lasagna, at least in my opinion.
Pasta freezes well, so I made this last week, cut it into sections that are the right length for my pans and laid it out on sheet pans covered with parchment, then put them into the freezer:
Tomorrow night I'll make the sauce for Joey's Killer Lasagna, a recipe I got here several years ago. I'll assemble the lasagna without cooking the pasta first, let it set overnight and bake it on Friday, to be finished with a reheat and fresh layer of cheese on top on Saturday.
Merry Christmas, I'll try to remember to take pictures of it when it's cut for serving, but it's just not something I remember, usually. I'd rather eat, LOL.
Annie
Comments (28)
8 years ago
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No boil lasagne noodles
Comments (43)Well I'm going to have to try making it again with the home made noodles!! Maybe I'll make two smaller ones and make one without boiling the noodles first, and the other one I'll try Chase's method of briefly boiling each noodle separately. I'll have to try using the regular noodles and not boil them first as well. I wasn't aware of the trick of adding some water to the sauce. I only used the no-boil noodles one time and while it seemed to come out fine, I don't recall instructions saying to add water to the sauce and I know I didn't add any on my own. I have to say that I just love lasagna no matter how it's made, thick or thin, white sauce or red, meat or no. I could eat macaroni every day of the week and never get sick of it! But I do like lots of thin layers, so if I can make my own noodles I can control how thick or thin they are and that will let me control the layers. Coincidentally, my BIL who is a fantastic cook, has been coming over a lot lately on the weekends and we've been cooking together. As a thank you for all the meals he's had with us, he's coming over tomorrow night and bringing a lasagna for us to have for supper! Lisa...See MoreHomemade Pasta?
Comments (35)lindac, Cretons are a French Canadian dish sort of a poor man's pate made with ground pork. I made a batch of each of the recipes below but the traditional version came out a little bland so I used it to stuff the squash ravioli. It was yummy. Here's the traditional version: Creton 3 lbs. ground pork (Have it triple ground) ½ large yellow onion, minced (Make sure itÂs a pungent yellow onion; it makes a huge difference in the flavor.) 3-6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced fine Ginger, nutmeg, dry mustard, cloves, salt & pepper Place the pork, onions and garlic in a pan and just cover with water. Bring to a boil. Break the meat apart with a potato masher. Add spices to taste. Reduce heat & simmer until water is almost gone. Cool the meat mixture and refrigerate. Serve chilled or at room temperature with Dijon or grainy mustard and toast points or crackers. My mother used to make homemade mayonnaise to go with it as well. She would mix the mustard and mayo together. And of course pickles, always tiny but the debate has raged on in the family for years whether they should be sweet or dill pickles. I prefer sweet. I've never measured the spices but I'd guesstimate about 1/2 tsp. each of nutmeg and ginger, 3/4-1 tsp of cloves and 1 tsp. of dry mustard. I sometimes add cinnamin but just a dash so maybe 1/4 tsp. Yes it artery clogging but it's yummy. Traditionally once cooled the Creton should have a layer of fat on the top. I usually remove some of the fat at the end of cooking so there is no visible fat on the top once chilled but I leave enough to hold the meat together. Here's another not so traditional version: Savory Creton 2 lbs. fresh ground pork 5 oz. salt pork, minced very fine 1 large shallot, minced fine 1 small yellow onion, minced fine 6 large garlic cloves, peeled then minced fine 2 tbs. dry vermouth ¼-½ tsp. ground sage 1 tsp. herb de provence, rubbed in your hand until very fine 1 bay leaf 2 cups of water ½ cup very strong pork or chicken stock In stock pot, slowly brown salt pork until crisp. Remove from pot, cool and mice fine. Add onions, garlic, and shallot to pot and sauté slowly until just cooked. Add sage and herb de provence and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add ground pork to pot, breaking up with your hands as you add it to the pot. Add vermouth, water, bay leaf and chicken stock, stirring to gently break up pork. Bring to a boil reduce heat to a simmer add crisp salt pork. Simmer about 45 minute then remove bay leaf, continue simmering until all the water is gone. This one is very fatty so I always drain some of the fat off before coling and chilling. Cool the meat mixture and refrigerate....See MoreHomemade Pasta Sauces
Comments (29)PWM, just remember the adjectives: A half hour sauce should be "fresh", "bright", "clean". A five hour sauce should be "rich", "complex", "deep". Re making your own tomato base, a lot depends on where you live, and how good the tomatoes really are, whether homegrown or bought. If you have great tomatoes, and are planning to use them for pasta sauce, it's most common to process and can or freeze them at their peak. The recipes are the same whether you use commercial or home made. My idea of pasta with fresh tomatoes, however, is along the lines of what Ruthanna posted, rather than making puree for days for just one pot of sauce. By the time it's cooked down, I don't find enough difference between homemade and the good kind of bought to make a big enough difference for a long simmered, complex sauce which cooks the "freshness" right out of it. I did that when I had no way to can or freeze, and plenty of extra hours for mindless cooking, but it's not efficient. :) Much better to use the fresh tomatoes as fresh, unless you're preserving your garden's produce or live in a place where excellent tomatoes aren't common....See MoreExcessive breakage of lasagna noodles
Comments (41)I make fresh pasta for lasagna, and I roll it out with a rolling pin even though I have a pasta machine and a pasta attachment for my Kitchaid mixer. I like to bake it in a Corningware pan, and I roll the pasta out into a squircle to fit the pan exactly - thus each layer has only one sheet of pasta. For the pasta dough, I use 1/3 cup whole wheat flour, 1/3 cup semolina flour, and 1/3 cup white flour, plus 2 eggs and 1/2 tsp salt. I generally mix the dough in a small bowl, as that is easier for me than cleaning a food processer bowl. I get six or seven sheets the size of the Corningware pan, depending on how this I want to make the pasta. If I wanted it thicker, I would divide the dough into five balls instead of six or seven. I only roll the dough out when I am ready to assemble, as it can crack if it gets too dry. I never boil fresh lasagna noodles before assembling them, and they should not be allowed to dry out. I'm planning to make this tonight....See More
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OK, we've eaten the pasta and it was amazing. I used the Joey's Killer Lasagna recipe posted here several years ago, and made a double batch of sauce. Cheese included ricotta, parmesan, asiago, mozzarella and provolone. It made two large and deep pans:
The pasta held up and did not become mushy. I used three layers of pasta and four layers of sauce and cheese, a nice deep dish lasagna:
I did not cook the pasta sheets before assembling the lasagna and baking it, and I didn't even thaw them, I used them straight off the baking sheets, while they were still stiff enough to easily handle them. I do think a bit less cheese on the top would have been better, but pretty much everyone else disagreed, they all like more cheese. Meats included grassfed beef, locally grown pork and some Italian sausage that Elery and I made. I was surprised that I couldn't really taste the Italian sausage, it was unobstrusive but did make a difference in flavor.
There are two pieces in the fridge for Elery's supper tomorrow night, and the remainder went into the freezer for the parents-to-be.
Next experiment, I think, will be gluten free pasta for lasagna....
Annie
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Hi,
We made lasagna with homemade extruded noodles for Christmas dinner. Sorry for the meatball picture above, I can't delete it.
The sausages are browning in the sauce pots while we sauté the vegetables.
The sausages are ready to be added to the sauce.
DH's famous meatballs.
Pasta, you can see the sauce cooking in the background.
Finished product. The large pan is for Christmas dinner. The smaller pan will be frozen and likely served at DH's "boys week end". I always bake my lasagnas twice because I think it is firmer when baked twice. There will be more cheese on top for the 2nd bake.
Merry Christmas,
MJ
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