Lazy man's lasagna
 

LAZY MAN'S LASAGNA (No Ricotta Cheese in this version as it uses Bechamel Sauce)


1 pound dry lasagna pasta sheets (NO NEED TO BOIL THESE)


6 cups your favorite meat sauce (prep that ahead....or use good jarred meat sauce)


3 cups béchamel sauce


1 pound freshly grated mozzarella cheese


Parmesan


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Béchamel Ingredients


2 ounces butter


2 ounces flour


4 1/2 cups milk

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To start your Lazy Man's Lasagna first make the béchamel sauce.

In a saucepan, heat up milk and bring to a gentle simmer.

In another saucepan, melt butter and immediately add flour.

Lower heat and mix until butter has absorbed all the flour and the consistency is that of a thick dough.


Make sure butter/flour mixture do not burn or brown.


Remove from heat and whisk a couple ladles of heated milk into butter/flour mixture.


Whisk until flour has absorbed all of the milk.


Put the saucepan back on the on the heat over medium heat and whisk in the remainder of the milk.


Continue whisking until sauce thickens and becomes creamy and velvety.

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Cover the bottom of a deep baking dish with a layer of your favorite meat sauce.


Lay out uncooked pasta sheets over sauce until they cover the baking dish entirely.


Cover the pasta with another heaping layer of sauce.


The liquid from the sauce is what will cook the dried pasta so be sure to add enough sauce.


Drizzle béchamel sauce and sprinkle mozzarella on top until both are distributed evenly.


Add another layer of dried pasta, laying the sheets in the opposite direction.


Repeat the process of adding sauces, mozzarella, and pasta for another 3- 4 layers or until 2/3rds of the baking dish depth is filled.


Top off the last layer of sauces and mozzarella with a generous sprinkle of parmesan cheese.


Place in oven for approximately 40 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit


Let rest for 20 minutes before serving.


Makes 4 servings.

Lasagna with no ricotta? I think ricotta is one of the main ingredients of lasagna.

Northern italian lasagna with bechamel
 

I hear you.........I always have used ricotta & mozzarella in my lasagna........(I beat an egg or two into my ricotta to make it creamier, depending on the size of my lasagna pans (quantity).

Southern Italian lasagna, which I was raised on, has the RICOTTA & MOZARELLA & meat sauce layered with the boiled lasagna noodles. Same type of lasagna to which you are referring..........yes, delicious. Very traditional recipe.

Although I've always made my traditional recipe with ricotta, the lazy lasagna recipe was a NORTHERN Italian recipe.

Various regions of Italy have differing cousine.............same as our vast U.S.

I was fascinated with the northern type lasagna using béchamel sauce ever since I discovered that my paternal grandmother's ancestors came from a small village over the Italian border in Austria.......the descendants now on the other side of the border in the Trent Fondo area.......have blue eyes & red / blonde hair.

The strange thing about doing the genealogy on the "northern" branch of the family.......they have Germanic first names with the Italian surname......still living in Austria. Back, after 1599, someone must have traveled from those mountains.......all the way down through Italia......to the southern "boot"......a long long time ago...........where the surname is still going strong.

My grandmother, born in the mountains of southern Italy has the blue eyes (as did one of her sons & one of her daughters). Everyone else had the dark brown eyes & hair.

Thus, I'm branching out to northern Italian dishes.....which one can easily order in a good restaurant. Like anything else, it's only as good as the cook (or the recipe).



Northern Italian Lasagna

Northern Italian Lasagna (with a white cream sauce / béchamel ) I found a similar recipe (to the first one I posted) with accompanying video.

Keep scrolling down for various photos , plus how it looks at completion.

Some folks love it "just for a change of pace".........others, the pure traditionalists, like the ricotta type we are used to.
It's all good. We all love the traditional recipe with the RICOTTA........however, the béchamel white sauce is also nice for a "change of pace".......

It sounds like a better option for us diabetics. I will try to make it right, as I am more of an eater and not a cook. :D

Thanks for the recipe.

That makes sense now, except that most northern dishes don't have tomatoes or tomato sauce. My maternal grandparents came here from Italy, but I've never been able to find out exactly where. I've been told that it's somewhere central. My grandfather had blue eyes as do I, but my Scottish grandparents also had blue eyes so I'm not sure where I got them from. Both of my parents had brown eyes.

Northern Italians are closely related to the Swiss as far a cuisine and customs. That is why the blue eyes and lack of tomatoes.

On an interesting note, as much as we associate tomatoes and tomato sauce with the Italians, there were no tomatoes in Italy, or Europe for that matter until Christopher brought them back from the Americas in the 1490s. I'd love to learn what Italians ate prior to that.

You may already do this, but another tip to reduce carbs is to replace the pasta with lengthwise zucchini slices.

my lazy man's lasagna. I guess I am lazier than you.

Haha, blueash! That's probably more like it for us, too.

"The difference between Northern and Southern Italian food is that in the North butter and cream are common, while in the South it is olive oil and tomatoes.


Northern food also can feature more high end cuts of meat. This completely glosses over the regional differences between Bologna,Tuscany, Campania, Puglia, etc.

In common usage, Northern vs. Southern Italian is also used to differentiate the simple tomato sauce heavy spaghetti and meatball dishes common to Americanized Italian restaurants vs. the perceived more refined cuisine of fine dining Italian restaurants."

I found this long article re the tomatoes , etc.
 

[QUOTE=Dr Winston O Boogie jr


On an interesting note, as much as we associate tomatoes and tomato sauce with the Italians, there were no tomatoes in Italy, or Europe for that matter until Christopher brought them back from the Americas in the 1490s. I'd love to learn what Italians ate prior to that.[/QUOTE]




Italian Food Before Columbus History of Italian Food

Italian Food Before Columbus *History of Italian Food

Couscus? Who would have thought?
VERY interesting, although long read. Please keep scrolling down past the Byzantines, etc. on above hyperlink.

The Ancients, Etruscans
The Greeks
The Romans
The Arabs
The Byzantines

""Christopher Columbus
Everyone knows the story of Christopher Columbus sailing to the new world for the Spanish Crown, Columbus was a Genoese Italian . What may be less known is that on his and other Spanish voyages they brought back the tomato, corn, potatoes, hot peppers, squash, chocolate and the sweet potato. From Spain the new vegetables spread across Europe. This trade across the ocean is known as the Columbian Exchange and it marks the beginning of what we consider modern Italian cuisine""