The Best CLASSIC Lasagna Recipe (with EASY homemade ricotta)

what's up after six attempts at trying to dial in this recipe today I'm finally ready to show you guys how to make what I think is perfect Suburban mom style lasagna it's cheesy it's meaty and unapologetically skips the bechamel sauce in favor of something fresher more delicious and homemade of course I'm talking about fresh ricotta to make it I'll add a half gallon of whole milk or roughly 2 000 grams into a 4 quart saucepan then in goes 200 grams of heavy cream and then 15 grams of salt next I'll move this over to the stove and then very gently warm it up over medium Heat this milk should take about 10 minutes in total to come up to a fresh cheese making temperature and during that time I'm going to make sure to stir it frequently to prevent scorching while that warms up I'm going to set up my cheese draining Contraption for that I've got a piece of cheesecloth from the grocery store that I've unfurled and then folded twice to make four layers I'm dropping that into my salad spinner so that the basket can hold the curds and the bowl can catch the draining way after about 10 minutes at the stove here I'll come back and give this milk a quick stir and check its temperature I'm looking for 1 190f that's hot enough to coagulate the proteins inside the milk when in the presence of acidity speaking speaking once my milk is at 190 I'll kill the Heat and add in 100 grams of white distilled vinegar once the vinegar is in I'll come back with a spatula or a whisk to very gently stir this to make sure everything's combined and that'll set a timer for 15 minutes to let this milk break completely I'll mention that a lot of classic mom lasagna recipes use cottage cheese instead of ricotta now after 15 minutes the curds and whey are fully separated see that yellow watery stuff in there that's way the coagulated white stuff is casein protein or curds next I'm going to very gently pour those curds into my cheesecloth setup and then lift the draining curd out of the bowl and take it over to the sink to dump out the way I know that's really going to trigger a lot of people but you guys this is uncultured way from a high temperature acid coagulated cheese and it's just salty vinegar water at best and in my opinion has no culinary utility from here I'm going to drain this curd for another 15 to 20 minutes or until it's looking firm creamy and Luscious like this for now I'm going to set this aside and make the sauce for that I've got one pound or 4 50 grams of 80 20 ground beef and two large Italian sausages that are four ounces each or 115 grams next I'll cut open the casing on the sausage and flip that out onto the sheet tray and then smush it with the ground beef into a flat sheet like this for most of my meat sauces as a lot of you guys know I like to use my oven to do the Browning to save on both Thyme and mess and once this is spread out I'll throw it under my Broiler and check back in 15 minutes and if you don't have a super hot Broiler just roast this at your oven's highest setting now let's make the Tomato base for this sauce for that I'll add a 25 to 30 gram squeezer of olive oil into a heavy bottom five to six quart pot then 25 to 30 grams of butter and once that's melted I'll add in 200 grams of onion or one large one medium diced and then a strong pinch of salt next I'll stir that to combine and cook these onions until they're softened and starting to get translucent that'll take about five to six minutes or so next in goes 20 grams or four to five cloves of minced garlic and then a strong pinch of chili flakes and then I'll give it all a stir to get things combined and Fry off the garlic I'll give that a minute or so and one once the garlic and chilies are smelling fragrant I'll add in two 28 ounce cans of the best tasting crushed tomatoes you can find not sponsored but I'm a big fan of Bianco de Napoli tomato product because it tastes good next I'll add in 10 grams of salt and then give all that a stir and once it's combined I'll simmer it for about five more minutes while I check back on my broiling meat at this point it's taking on some really nice mayard Browning and it's cooked all the way through like I said this oven method saves me from having to babysit a pot while I try to crumble down and brown off the meat next I'm going to either chop up or break down this meat by hand either way I just want it to be crumbled down into a very small particle size like this I don't want any chewy large Meat nuggets taken away from my cheesy soft lasagna next all the meat's gonna go into the tomato sauce including any drippings and fat that might be sitting on the sheet tray and then I'll stir that to combine and cook things down for 20 to 30 minutes to make a well-bonded not soupy lasagna we definitely need a very well thickened tomato sauce next let's make the ricotta mixture for the final dish for that I'll combine all of my ricotta that's just about a pound or maybe a few ounces more and oh for comparison here's store-bought ricotta next to my homemade it doesn't look that good it's like set with guar gum and I think that's why it looks like milk Jello if you can get nice ricotta at an Italian Market or at your grocery store go for that otherwise make your own and avoid this weird stuff next in goes 75 grams of grated Parmesan cheese 100 grams of heavy cream 5 grams of salt 2 grams of cracked black pepper one large egg and then I'll grab my microplane and a knob of nutmeg and Grate in about one teaspoon's worth I love the warmth that this brings to Fresh cheese and it acts as a tribute to the more Italian Bechamel based lasagna that usually has a ton of nutmeg in it after a quick stir to get everything well combined there we go a fresh luxurious cheese to bind all of our layers of lasagna I love the flavor so much that I ate a giant spoonful of it and then I realized it was wrong in this oh whoops back in my stove this meat sauce has reduced by more than half and when I push my spoon through it it easily holds its shape really push the reduction here you guys any less than this in your lasagna will be on the sloppy side to finish this sauce of course I need to taste it for seasoning the 10 grams that I added earlier is close but to make the final dish properly seasoned we need a very intense sauce that's on the upper edge of seasoning so in goes a strong pinch and then I'm not ashamed to say that I'm going to add in a little bit of sugar to bring this whole thing into balance about five to seven grams worth if I had to guess one more taste and wow super robust meaty and intense now let's build this lasagna for that I'll grab a deep 9 by 13 baking dish and then quickly thank athletic greens for sponsoring this video over the last three years or so I've made a strong effort to be more healthy and what that means to me is moving my body as much as possible and eating a more Whole Foods based diet but you know lasagna happens and cheesecake and cheeseburgers and I'm a bad bad boy way sometimes you guys that's why I use athletic greens ag-1 as part of my daily routine it's a mixture of nine high quality Health Products in one that helps to support my energy Focus gut health digestion immune system and mental Clarity all with this one scoop mixed into water daily and ag-1 comes in travel packs that are especially helpful for you know when you're traveling and you can pack one packet per day as opposed to a handful of all the other supplements that you normally take and Lord and I used to take a lot of supplements this is not an exaggeration click my link in the description below and you'll get five of these travel packs for free plus a one year supply of immune supporting vitamin D3 K2 with your first purchase for me ag1 really is the quickest easiest and tastiest way to fill any nutritional gaps in my diet now into this 9x13 dish I'm gonna add a half cup of my meat sauce and then spread that out to keep the base layer of noodles from sticking to the pan next in goes four pieces of no boil lasagna noodles overlapped slightly after trying both boil and non-boil noodles for this dish I came to the conclusion that no boils are superior in terms of final texture and time spent preparing out of six lasagnas the two best by far were the ones that I made with no boiled noodles but if you can't get these it turns out that regular boil noodles will also work just fine and you don't actually need to boil them I just soaked these regular lasagna noodles in water for five minutes before building the lasagna and guess what they got fully cooked and overcooked compared to the no boil noodles which seems weird on top of the noodles I'll add 9 tablespoon sized dollops of the ricotta mixture and then spread that evenly from edge to edge then I'll drop a Cup's worth of grated full fat mozzarella cheese in total I've got a pound of cheese here or about four cups worth and this is the same Deli block cheese that I use for most of my pizzas pretty shredded cheese would work totally fine here if you don't want to grate it then on top of that cheese goes about three quarters of a cup of meat sauce and then I'll spread that from edge to edge four more noodles go down and from there I'm gonna go pretty rapid fire here because this process more or less repeats itself so on top of the second layer of noodles I'll drop nine more dollops of ricotta then a cup of mozzarella a cup of reduced meat sauce four more noodles ricotta mozzarella sauce noodles then to finish it's one cup of sauce then the last cup of mozzarella cheese spread from edged Edge then a few strong grips of grated Parmesan cheese about a half cups worth then the Gilda Lily I'm going to add on six to nine slices of fresh mozzarella cheese this is going to bring some milky round meltiness to the top top of this thing that I really love next an oil piece of foil is going to go on top to stop the cheese from sticking when it melts and then the whole thing goes into a 375 F oven to bake for 25 minutes 25 minutes later I'll snatch this zanya out the oven remove the foil and then throw it back in to bake uncovered for 25 more minutes cut to that gooey melty time lapse Bry and after 25 more minutes I'm going to broil this on top for two to three minutes to make sure that I've got a good layer of Browning going on and then I'll pull it out check this thing out it's melty looking and looks pretty clean overall of course it would be suicide to cut into this thing right now it's way too molten so I'm gonna let it cool for 30 minutes 30 minutes later take a freaking look at this thing you guys it's got clearly defined layers it's got cheese melt it's perfectly set and after a lot of attempts I'm super happy with this result now to finish I'm going to slap another spoonful of my super flavorful reduce sauce right on top and by the way this recipe makes about two more cups of sauce than you need needs that you can add it on top afterwards I'd rather have a well-set lasagna with lots of sauce on top than a sloppy one with too much inside anyways for me this is the perfect lasagna the ricotta has a beautiful luscious texture and a light flavor that hint of fennel seed from the Italian sausage is just a pure delight and the pasta is firm but tender which is surprisingly hard to get right I really hope you guys make this one soon let me know in the comments what you think let's eat this thing thank you

Channel: Brian Lagerstrom

Views: 453,095

Keywords: lasagna, lasagne, classic lasagna, ricotta lasagna, lasagna recipe, no boil lasagna, homemade lasagna, homemade ricotta, lasagna with meat sauce, italian American, how to make lasagna, best classic lasagna, Brian Lagerstrom, weeds and sardines, best lasagna recipe, easy lasagna, american lasagna, beef and cheese lasagna, ultimate lasagna, lasagna from scratch

Id: JVluKqfXpp8

Length: 10min 8sec (608 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 12 2023