Lasagna with minced meat - general principles of cooking
What is lasagna? This is a traditional Italian dish, which consists of square layers of dough and filling, usually poured with liquid sauce on top. According to a historical summary, Bologna is considered the birthplace of lasagna. Meanwhile, Greek taverns also serve “lasana”, a dish similar to lasagna. This is not surprising, because the word “lasagna” is of Greek origin and is translated as “hot plates”. Italians borrowed this term to refer to a delicious hot main course.
A special feature of lasagna is dough - it is prepared using the same technology as dough for pasta, that is, from durum wheat. Of course, lasagna cannot be considered a dietary dish, but at the same time, it is useful and nutritious. Flour from durum wheat contains a lot of useful minerals and macronutrients that saturate the body. In this lies the secret of harmony of the Italians. They eat a lot of flour products - pizza, pasta, lasagna, but everything is made from unrefined flour.
How to cook lasagna at home? First prepare the filling. If it is lasagna with minced meat, then the meat is ground, added spices and fried to the floor of the finished state. Then prepare the sauce. It can be based on cream, butter or tomatoes. Instead of sauce, you can use sour cream or mayonnaise - pour them the top layer of the dish. There are no strict rules, as the lasagna is more a result of the hostess’s creativity than a dish of strict recipe following.
Lasagna sheets are sold in stores. Most often, these are foreign-made products - such a product is more expensive than regular pasta, but it is precisely made according to authentic Italian recipes, using durum wheat flour.
Domestic manufacturers also make sheets for lasagna, but most often from ordinary flour. Such a product is suitable, but there is no use in it. Sheets for meals can also be made at home. Purchase unpeeled flour or add ground bran to the dough.
Lasagna with minced meat - preparation of products and dishes
What is the best meat to make minced lasagna? It can be pork, beef, fish or chicken. You can buy minced meat, but, of course, it is better to buy a whole piece of meat and grind it. It is no secret that for store stuffing most often take stale products and by generous addition of spices they mask a possible unpleasant smell.
If you decide to cook the sheets for lasagna on your own, then you need 400 grams of flour, 4 eggs, a teaspoon of oil and salt for a large portion. Melt the butter, mix with the egg and combine with the flour and salt. The resulting dough should be brewed for 15 minutes, then divide it into pieces and roll into thin plates. These sheets do not need to boil before cooking. If you have prepared many sheets, then generously sprinkle them with flour and put in a dry clean bag.
Lasagne is cooked most often in the oven. It is necessary to lay out the dough alternately with minced meat, pour the sauce and cover with a foil deck. Bake lasagna with minced meat at a temperature of 160-180 minutes for at least half an hour.
If you have a slow cooker, then lasagna can be cooked faster and tastier than in the oven. Select the “Baking” mode and set the program for half an hour, and pre-grease the bowl with butter.
Lasagne and minced meat recipes:
Recipe 1: Lasagna with minced meat
When we cook lasagna with minced meat, we often use pork. This dish is nourishing, tasty and fat. If you are not buying ready minced meat, but a whole piece of meat, then the back part is best, as there is less fat. You should not get a neck, as it is very oily and cold lasagna will have an unappetizing appearance.
Ingredients Required:
- Lasagne sheets
- Minced pork - 450 grams
- Tomatoes - 4 pieces
- Garlic - 3 teeth
- Onions - 1 head
- Flour - 1.5 tablespoons
- Hard cheese - 130 grams
- Butter - 160 grams
Preparation Method:
- Tomatoes need to be mashed by chopping from a blender. Peel the onions and cut them as small as possible.
- Cheese needs to be grated.
- Heat the pan, brush it with a small piece of butter. Put the minced meat on a hot surface and fry for 10 minutes.
- In the second minute, add the onions, pour in the tomatoes three minutes later, mix and add the spices.
- When the mince is ready, make the sauce. To do this, melt the butter in a separate container, add flour to it and mix to a uniform consistency.
- In the baking deck, lay out sheets and minced meat, cover the top layer with sauce and sprinkle with cheese, then send to bake.
Recipe 2: Lasagna with minced meat (with beef)
For this dish you will need ground beef and soft cheese. As a rule, cheese is added to the sauce, but in this case a soft variety of cheese (for example, Philadelphia) will decorate the taste of the finished dish.
Ingredients Required:
- Sheets of dough
- Minced beef - 450 grams
- 1 onion
- Tomatoes - 2 pieces
- Cheese (like Philadelphia or Feta) - 170 grams
- Cream - 140 grams
- Butter - 100 grams
Preparation Method:
- Wash tomatoes, scald with boiling water, remove the skin and chop into mashed potatoes.
- Chop onion finely.
- Put the minced meat in the pan and start to fry. When it gets light, add onions and spices. Fry the minced meat for 10 minutes, then add the cheese to it. Turn off the heat and close the filling with a lid.
- Prepare a fill for lasagna. To do this, melt butter in a saucepan, add tomatoes, cream and dry basil to it.
- Layers lay out the stuffing and dough, then pour the tomato sauce and send to bake in the oven.
Recipe 3: Lasagna with minced meat (with chicken)
Italians prefer light lasagna fillings. So, the first place in popularity is occupied by lasagna with chicken and mushrooms with Bechamel sauce. This dish is familiar even to those who know little Italian cuisine. Meanwhile, making such lasagna is not at all difficult.
Ingredients Required:
- Lasagne dough sheets
- Mushrooms - 180 grams
- Chicken mince - 230 grams
- Onions - 2 pieces
- Sour cream - 220 grams
- Butter - 210 grams
- Cream - 160 ml
- Flour - 1.5 tablespoons
- Parmesan - 120 grams
Preparation Method:
- First you need to fry the onions and mushrooms. Then chop them finely and then simmer for ten minutes over low heat.
- Ground chicken should also be roasted on a clean surface for 7 minutes, then combine the vegetables and chicken, cover with sour cream, add spices, stir and simmer for 7 minutes.
- Prepare the sauce. In the melted butter enter the flour, cream and stir so that no lumps remain.
- Cheese must be grated and added to the sauce.
- Lay the dough and minced meat in a baking dish, then pour the lasagna with the sauce. Bake the dish for half an hour.
Recipe 4: Lasagna with minced meat (fish)
Lasagna can be cooked with any filling. If you decide to use fish, the dish will turn out both tasty and healthy. Take care of minced meat preparation - remove all the bones before chopping the fish.
Ingredients Required:
- Lasagna dough
- Salmon fillet - 400 grams
- Sour cream - 180 ml
- Spinach
- Cream - 220 ml
- Butter - 140 grams
- Flour - 1 tablespoon
- Hard cheese - 150 grams
Preparation Method:
- Chop the fish fillets with spinach - use a blender or meat grinder. In the resulting mass, enter the sour cream and salt.
- Prepare the sauce by combining the melted butter, flour and cream.
- Grate cheese.
- In the deck where you will cook the lasagna, lay down the sheets and minced fish. Sprinkle the last layer with cheese and pour over the sauce. Bake lasagna with minced fish for 25 minutes.
Recipe 5: Lasagna with minced pita
Lasagna is a flaky dish made of filling and dough, the sheets of which can quite successfully be replaced with thin pita bread. To make this flour product soft, it needs to be soaked in egg filling. Ingredients Required:
- Thin pita - 2 pcs.
- Chicken stuffing - 400 grams
- Onion - 1 pc.
- Pepper - 1 pc.
- Sour cream - 170 grams
- Kefir - 450 ml
- Egg - 2 pieces
Preparation Method:
- Pita is to be cut into rectangular plates.
- Mix the egg, kefir and salt with a mixer.
- Fold the lavash sheets in a deep container and fill them with egg filling.
- Prepare the minced meat for lasagna: put it on a hot frying pan and fry for 5 minutes, stirring.
- Onion and pepper should be finely chopped. Add vegetables to minced chicken. Fry the mixture for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat.
- Heat the deco a little, lubricate it with oil. Layers lay out soft sheets of pita bread and stuffing. Fill the dish with the remains of egg-kefir pouring. Cover the lasagna with foil and bake for 25 minutes.
Lasagna with minced meat - secrets and useful tips from the best chefs
Do not forget to cover the container for baking with foil - then the dish will not burn on top and will be juicy.
To make lasagna with minced meat turned out juicy and tasty, the filling must be rare. So, do not put only mince on the dough sheets - dilute it with sour cream, sauce or vegetable puree. In Italy, Bechamel sauce (melted butter, cream and flour) is most often used, they are poured with each layer of the filling.
Add mushrooms and vegetables to the minced meat for a savory taste, as well as cheese - mozzarella, ricotta, feta or philadelphia. Top lasagne can be sprinkled with grated hard cheese. In Italy, this is Parmesan, but any salty cheese is fine.
