Recipe: 24-Layer Lasagna

😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

You actually call it a labor of love !!!

Regarding the blending of garlic and olive oil:why wouldn’t the olive oil give an off when blended(first time I tried making a mayo using olive oil got went straight to the bin)? Are the solids(minus the tomatoes) to prevent this side effect ?

whenric

Grant: love you guys and I recognize that all chefs borrow from one another (I see many local restaurants using techniques that you guys introduced or popularized). But I always appreciate when chefs include a ‘tip o’ the hat’ to those who inspired their own dishes. In this case this feels very much like a Mark Ladner inspired dish. What do you guys feel about doing more ‘we were inspired by...to make our own...)

For me, the biggest benefit of this is that these attributions help me learn more and be more creative myself. I (embarrassingly) had never heard of the Arpege egg until I read about it in your American toast recipe. It inspired me to do more of a deep dive into that tradition, and now I feel like I can try my own Arpege spinoffs, and now see that motif used on menus all over with a bit of ‘aha’, and feel like I’m in the know.

Thanks again for all the hard work!

theholthut

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know what I'm making this weekend! It is already really close to the recipe I make, so that makes me feel good - but mine has never been THAT many layers. So it will be this time!

Chris_B__201570

I feel like the meat grinder is a very underrated tool! Love the idea of using it for the cheese. So much easier to clean than a food processor.

I like to use it for “chopping” onions and carrots for pasta sauce, based on a tip in Jose Andres’ newest cookbook. Makes for a very even mince, and again, super easy to clean.

Turnip40_78123

Yeh, Mark Ladner was making his many sheets and then seared Lasagna at Del Posto. But I doubt he invented it. He probably got the idea from elsewhere. Chefs should say where they steal their ideas from. I mean where the recipes are inspired from.

Joachim_Troester_608545

This time: sorry, but NO. A "fresh" tomato sauce from the can? Good, sweet, ripe tomatoes are the heart of every lasagne, regardless of using spinach or meat. You can't invest two hours on the dough and then use canned tomatoes AND forget the oregano. That's a disgrace

Otherwise: lasagne has cheese on the top, not inside. It has a good fresh tomato-minced meat-sauce with garlic, basil and lots of oregano. And with sweet red Italian wine. If you can't get on, a port wine is fine.

Yes yes, every chef has his own take on dishes. But use canned tomatoes, forget the meat and not even mention oregano, and it's maybe good, but no lasagne.

And since I make firm, not wet, but juicy lasagne for 20 years now and got a 100% rating of "best lasagne I ever eaten" (and have Italy on my doorstep and know authentic Italian food), I think in this rare case I am allowed to write a post like this.

Rick_Opersteny_599298

Well, it wouldn’t be an Internet lasagne recipe video without the obligatory “This isn’t...” comment.

It’s like cat tax (sorry Camp!).

aaron.m.kent

I really wish ChefSteps had a way to downvote comments.

rene

I’m just so crazy energized in absolutely having to make this soon !

Sadly my hubby cant tolerate wheat (gluten is not a problem) so a few changes into the pre-made thicker sheets will be required.

I think I will try to put all in the fridge and only serve it seared

You guys rock! ❤️

rene

I love the way you can say “I know authentic Italian food” - and recommend a port wine to lasagne

Ps many Italian mothers uses good canned tomatoes in their cooking these 8 months a year when the tomatoes is not fully perfect ripe

sid.bhattacharyya

Worth the 4 hours of work on a snowy Sunday morning. Text recipe is missing the bit about boiling the noodles for 1 minute before assembly. I was impatient and just cooled it for 10 minutes, flipped it out and sliced and seared with a sharp knife and it held up just fine. I also cut the cheese amount in half due to lactose issues and it still tasted great thanks to the bechamel which I made with lactose free dairy. Next time I’m thinking of adding a bit of ground veal to the tomato sauce and cooking it down and doubling the spinach and just using frozen chopped spinach. Thanks to Grant and the entire team for the stellar work on this one.

theholthut

Dear. God. This was amazing. First - best pasta recipe I've ever made and SO much easier than everything I've been making. That extra gluten is key, IMO. I added 1 lb of browned spicy Italian Sausage to the spinach layer. The flavor was amazing, the texture, was amazing - especially that bechamel. I'm exhausted and as I was putting the lasagna in the oven, I looked at my husband and said, "I'm never making lasagna from scratch again." Then, after the first bite, I said, "Okay, I'm making this again very soon."

julian.lo

Yeah, that was incredible and super filling too. I’ll probably try doubling the basil and spinach layer in the next attempt since I squeezed the bajeezus out of the greens and barely had anything left afterwards. The other suggestion would be salting the pasta sheets as you lay them down, especially so the crispy edges have an even more magic touch.

craig

I love this! Easy recipe and it's delicious

Elliot_424960

Really excited to try this one! Do you let the lasagne come up to room temp after refrigerating it? Or sear it straight from the fridge? Assuming it's going to be a little cool in the middle if the latter?

Also are you drying the pasta sheets at all in the sheet tray, or just stack them a little wet from the ice bath?

Thanks!

we went right from cold, lower and slower on the temp. medium. the center will heat up by the time you have two good sears. and yes we dried the pasta off after the ice shock.

grant

Sure! To be frank, I am friends with Mark but have never seen his version of this. I don't know where I got it from other than I started searing leftovers because it was faster. Always happy to throw kudos to all sources of inspiration.

trissa.lopez

Best lasagna ever. Thanks Team Chefsteps for the inspiration

whenric

Nice. Great minds think alike. If you ever want to go gonzo for christmas, make his 100 layer lasagna from del Posto. Its awesome! Very similar to this but...more layers. Here was my attempt this year.

alan_plofker_23531

Great recipe! It was delicious!! A few comments/observations:

- My pasta sheets were larger than the pan so covered the sides. This worked well but stuck to the sides, making it difficult to get out of the pan. I should have oiled the sides.

- There was extra bechamel; I thought I spread it thickly but perhaps should have used more

- Although delicious I thought it could have used salt

- The layers separated when searing. Should I have done something different?

Thanks!

Hi Alan. you could try just adding cheese in every layer, and just rotating between the tomato, herbs, and the béchamel.

This looks delicious, but step 2 is pretty confusing. I take my dough ball, cut it into quarters, wrap the other three quarters in plastic wrap, and... then what? What do I do with them? And then you want me to lay it out to dry - but also put a damp towel over it? It's not going to get very dry that way...

Ugh, I give up. I've been trying to hand-crank dough through this thing for like an hour and a half now. Throwing this away, will try again after you clarify the instructions or I watch some references elsewhere...

If you are having an issue rolling the dough out you might want to let it rest a bit longer. You could try making the dough ball further in advance and let it rest over night.

I updated the step to be a little clearer. looks like some wires got crossed.

Thanks for updating the instructions. My dough was rested for two days in the fridge (wrapped in plastic wrap). The main problem I had was that it was too sticky and kept sticking to the roller and getting torn apart - I think possibly because my moist towels were too moist, or something like that. Between the update here and me watching more closely in the other sheet pasta recipe I think I should have more luck on my next attempt...

trissa.lopez

Best lasagna ever. Thanks Team Chefsteps for the recipe. Question, I took my pasta all the way to 8 instead of 6 so it was super fine. Do you think it would work without cooking the pasta sheets?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQWtXSi7q0I

Im not sure there would be enough moisture content to fully hydrate your pasta with out a pre cook. but man that looks nice!!

Turnip40_78123

jobaile4

Echo so many of the previous comments, very delicious... and searing it is an absolute must.

One other comment, the instructions here say to cook the pasta first, and then do the greens, both sauces, and grind the cheese. I guess I am just slow... but it took me a while to get the other four components ready. By the time I had everything together, it was super frustrating to have all of my meticulous pasta work wasted since a lot of the sheets had gotten gummy, stuck together, and were very easy to rip. I ended up having to piece together every layer from rips and shreds of dough.

Is there a reason to cook the pasta first? When I do this again I think I will roll out the sheets, leave them under a damp towel, get the other four ingredients completely ready, and THEN cook a few pasta sheets... into the ice bath... dry them off, and right into the lasagna pan. Add the appropriate filling... and repeat.

I feel this would have saved me a lot of yelling and cursing at the pasta gods. Also, kind of shocking how much bigger the sheets get from cooking them.

Thanks for the recipe, love the "reinvented" Chefsteps. Keep it up.

And if using frozen spinach(the kind that comes bundled in bags) would the weight used stay the same ?

noahfirestone

How long will the lasagna stay good in the fridge?

Tina_1107777

24 hour or 24 layer????

5-7 days. treat it like any other left over.

grant

24 layer:) But I am counting 12 layers of pasta and 12 layers of fillings.

Gon_alo_Louren_o_111465

I'll be honest, I was very happy when I cut into it last night. Great recipe (forgot to take a picture after the sear, everyone was so hungry lol)

Scott_457004

I want to make this but making the pasta sheets by hand is daunting. I suspect that your sheets are a lot thinner than typical store bought lasagna yet didn't Grant suggest that you could use them? Would I still be able to get 12 layers?

I would say that the thickness of your pasta will influence the depth of your baking pan to fit all of the layers. you can also give rolling the store bought pasta out thinner a try.

brandon.devuyst1

how thick should the pasta sheets be?

Second attempt was much more successful Fridging my leftovers now to try searing tomorrow. Notes:

The recipe calls for "2 recipes" of the sheet pasta. I doubled the quantities and made one big ball of dough, and that seems to have been fine; I then cut it into 8 pieces instead of 4.
Rolling the pasta all the way out to minimum thickness on my roller was making my pieces very long, which also made them quite hard to handle given their fragility. I ended up stopping one setting above the minimum instead, and this was still producing strips that I was cutting into 2/3 pieces. Next time I think I'd probably cut the dough into more than 8 pieces - there's 12 layers of pasta in the result so I guess 12 pieces (cutting each one in half, as my roller is not wide enough to make a full-width sheet). As it was I only managed 8 layers of pasta in mine - still good though, and it still filled the pan to the top.
I rolled out my pasta yesterday and made the lasagna today, so I folded the sheets and stored them in airtight containers in the fridge overnight. Either I didn't let them dry properly, or I didn't flour them enough - on both sides - because unfolding them again was sometimes a challenge. It didn't help that I'd stacked the folded sheets, I think it's much better not to do that because the sheets at the bottom will get squashed and are more likely to stick. Also, flour the containers you're putting them into!
Seems like there's no problem with making the tomato sauce ahead of time and fridging it. I am guessing that the same should be true of the blanched greens?
Like Wes I also had a bit of a problem with my cooked pasta sheets sticking a little and needing to be careful not to tear them when assembling. Stacking them in a single sheet pan might not be the best idea if they're going to sit that long.
Is it my imagination, or did the pasta sheets get bigger when they were cooked?

Looking forward to trying the seared version tomorrow!

Oh my god the seared slices are amazing. Need to be careful not to cut them too thick so they actually heat through, but super delicious!

Nicola_1015171

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chadxp

What is the extra egg for?

Said_12965

Do you use all the tomato sauce and all of the béchamel?

pd3ski_278514

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@Lorraine Esterling ..Btw, Thanks for the work you’re doing here. It is appreciated 🍷

phh961

What type of mozzarella have people been using? Thx

pd3ski_278514

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