How to Make Giada's Classic Italian Lasagna | Everyday Italian | Food Network

there are many different components in lasagnas but you don't have to be afraid of it they're quick and they're easy you just have to prepare ahead of time and make all your separate ingredients before you start to layer the lasagna so that's where we're going to start i'm going to take a pound of ground beef i'm going to heat up my saute pan there we go [Applause] and add a little bit of olive oil i'm going to break up the meat with my spatula it's easier to break up meat when it's raw like this than it is when it's half cooked [Applause] we're going to add a little bit of salt [Music] just to wake up the flavors and the beef this is going to take about four to five minutes to cook and in the meantime i'm going to prepare my ricotta before i empty it out i'm going to beat three eggs that's perfect now i'm gonna need about a pound and a half of ricotta and i've got two pounds here i love it for breakfast or for afternoon snack even for dessert sugar honey and berries i can't tell you how delicious it is perfect i'll save the rest for later [Music] that's all incorporated let me check on my meat that looks ready i'm gonna set it in my bowl and let it cool off and then i'll use this later while i'm layering my lasagna i'm going to lower the heat to make my bechamel sauce which is a sauce made out of butter flour and milk we need five tablespoons of butter so about there now i'm going to melt my butter before i add my flour [Music] make sure that it's nice and melted i'll break it down a little bit ready to add our flour we're going to add half a cup and i quickly want to start stirring i want to get a nice creamy sauce and i don't want any lumps i'm melting the flour basically cooking it cooking all that gritty raw flour taste out of it okay it's yellow it's creamy i'm ready for my milk now i'm using whole milk i like whole milk for this dish you're looking for a very creamy thick sauce now i've put in all of my milk i'm gonna stir it and then i'm gonna let it thicken a lot of recipes will ask you to heat the milk i just like to take it out about an hour or so before i'm going to need it and it comes down to room temperature and it works perfectly a little bit of salt and some ground white pepper now i like to use white pepper in this dish it has a milder flavor than black pepper so just a couple pinches of that and some wonderful nutmeg it's unbelievable how it complements a cream sauce i'm going to use a grater i'm just going to grate a little bit a little goes a long way with nutmeg this is going to take some time to cook so i'm going to stir it every once in a while and keep a close eye on it but in the meantime i'm gonna get my bowl ready and add my tomato sauce to it now my tomato sauce i put whole tomatoes basil and garlic and extra virgin olive oil we're gonna need about one and a half cups so i'm going to measure it out oh that's one and a half okay [Applause] i'm going to save this for later and let's check on our bechamel you know it's ready when it coats the back of the spoon i'm going to show you what that means you just want to stick your finger ooh that's hot in the back and see how it stays separated it doesn't come back together so you know it's thick enough [Music] wow look how thick that looks fantastic let me whisk it together look at how it's turning pink it's so beautiful now i need one more component i'm using some frozen chopped spinach and you know you can find regular spinach and you can cook them but it's going to take a lot more spinach for this dish if you use fresh spinach i don't want a lot of extra water because it's going to make my lasagna soggy and drown out all those flavors that's kind of fun i like being a kid we're ready to start layering our lasagna these are the lasagna sheets i'm going to use today you don't need to boil them or cook them you're just going to put them in raw and they're going to cook in the oven we're going to add about a third of a cup of this creamy pink bechamel and we want to do that to add a layer for the pasta to start soaking up some liquid that's how it's going to cook okay and then we'll start adding our layers of pasta our next layer is our ricotta cheese mixed with egg this is going to be delicious [Music] another special cheesy topping grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese [Music] okay now a little bit of butter the butter will melt and help get that nice golden brown color so you just want a little bit dolloped on top i don't even need the knife really it's so soft just use my fingers [Music] all right now it's ready to go in the oven so i've preheated my oven 375 degrees and it's going to bake for 45 minutes wait till you see the final product [Music] you

Channel: Food Network

Views: 676,476

Keywords: Bechamel, beef, best lasagna, cheese, chef, comfort food, cook, cooking, date night, dinner, directions, easy recipe, easy recipes, eat, everyday italianfood network, fn, food, food network, giada de laurentiis, giada's lasagna, how to make, how to make bechamel sauce, how to make classic lasagna, how to make italian lasagna, how to make lasagna, how to make tomato sauce, how-to, ingredients, lasagna recipe, pasta recipe, recipe, recipes, ricotta, romantic, spinach, tomato sauce, tutorial

Id: i0JIGNDh7n4

Length: 8min 0sec (480 seconds)

Published: Thu May 31 2018