Lasagne is love and aroma, concentrated. It is so comforting that it naturally brings to mind loud, warm evenings. Poor lasagne, and poor cook: long hours of preparation gone far too quickly amid the din of stories and cutlery. But that is how it should be, because the opposite would be so sad…As you will have gathered, at the chalet our lasagne is made with fresh homemade pasta, a long-simmered porcini ragù, a béchamel infused with garlic and herbs and, of course, a generous amount of parmesan.To my mind, a lasagne with this much character calls for a round red wine that is not too tannic (a pinot noir, for example). The star of the dinner, it can follow a piping-hot morel consommé, come with a good green salad, and be followed by a light dessert: poached pears, for example, or for the grown-ups, a sgroppino (lemon sorbet, ice-cold prosecco and a dash of vodka). After that, the table will no doubt be ready for a herbal tea with a few amaretti or cantuccini.
Ingredients for 4 robust appetites
Method
For the ragù
- 500 g minced meat (mostly beef, which you can complete with veal, chicken, pork and/or pancetta)
- 250 g onions, finely diced
- 100 g carrots, finely diced
- 100 g celery, finely diced
- 20 cl extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 garlic clove
- 100 g oyster or button mushrooms, roughly diced
- 1 sprig of rosemary1 bay leaf
- 1 l stock (meat or vegetable)
- 500 g tomato pulp
- 30 cl red wine
- 30 g dried porcini
For the pasta
(or one pack of dried lasagne sheets)
- 350 g durum wheat semolina
- 150 g 00 flour
- 4 small eggs
- A little water
For the béchamel
- 100 g butter (+ 20 g for the dish)
- 100 g flour
- 1 l milk
- 2 whole garlic cloves, bay leaf, thyme, rosemary, nutmeg
Salt, pepper
To finish and assemble
- 50 g butter
- 200g parmesan
1. Soak the porcini in warm water for at least 45 minutes.Infuse the milk for the béchamel with the garlic, a little grated nutmeg, bay, thyme and rosemary.
2. Make the ragù (possibly the day before). Finely dice the onions, carrots and celery. Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan or heavy-based saucepan and sweat the vegetables. Add the minced meat and brown it over a medium heat for 10–15 minutes. Once the bottom of the pan has caught slightly, pour in half the red wine and scrape up the juices. Add the chopped garlic, the diced mushrooms, the rosemary and bay leaf, then the rest of the wine, the porcini soaking water (leave behind any grit at the bottom of the bowl), the tomatoes and the stock. Stir well. Simmer very gently, three-quarters covered, for 1½ to 2 hours. The liquid should be absorbed without the sauce becoming dry. Adjust the seasoning and remove the bay leaf and rosemary. Sauté the porcini for 3 -4 minutes; once they have cooled a little, chop them and add them to the ragù.
Keep warm at 60 °C if you use it on the same day.
3. .While the ragù is cooking, make the egg pasta: knead the flours with the eggs, adding a little water if needed. Rest for 30 minutes in the fridge.
4. Grate the parmesan.
5. Make the béchamel. Strain the milk. Melt the butter over a low heat, add the sifted flour and whisk for a few minutes without letting it colour. Let the roux cool, then bring the milk to the boil: for a smooth béchamel, the milk must be very hot and the roux lukewarm. Pour the hot milk in a steady stream, whisking, until it boils and reaches the consistency you want (slightly runny, as the pasta will cook in the sauce). Add grated nutmeg and adjust the seasoning. Cover and keep warm at 60 °C.
6. Roll out the pasta thinly, 100 g at a time, with a pasta machine or a rolling pin, into sheets 10–12 cm wide, cut to the size of your dish. For dried sheets, boil them for 2 minutes in salted water, 3 or 4 at a time, no more. Lift them out, cool them in a bowl of cold water and lay them flat on a tea towel.
7. Preheat the oven to 200 °C.
8. Assemble the lasagne. Butter a baking dish and spread a layer of ragù. Add a layer of pasta, a layer of béchamel, grated parmesan, then a layer of ragù. Build 4 to 5 layers (any more and the lasagne may turn dry). Cover the last layer of pasta with a mixture of béchamel and ragù, and sprinkle with parmesan.
Bake for about 25 minutes, until golden on top.
Let it rest for 5–10 minutes before serving.
At the chalet
This is one of the dinners we serve when guests book La Tzoumaz Lodge with a chef: a chalet for 12 near Verbier, in the 4 Vallées. For February half-term with the family, get in touch.