LASAGNE ALLA BOLOGNESE

Easter is here!
So, what is better than a traditional Lasagna to celebrate with my family?


According to the tradition, we should eat Tortellini in Brodo (bellybuttons with broth), but as we'll have lunch at Garda lake, lasagna is easier to transport.


Everybody has a "personal" lasagna with a particular (and almost ever secret) ingredient.
This is mine, with no secret ingredients, just a traditional simple but rich lasagna, following my grandmother's unwritten recipe.


Enjoy!

LASAGNA ALLA BOLOGNESE (for a 34 x 25 cm pan)
What we need:
        for meat sauce (ragù):
0,50 lb grounded pork
0,50 lb grounded beef
4 tbs olive oil
1/2 stick butter (50 gr)
1 cup white (or red) wine
1 cup tomato sauce
1 slice smoked bacon
1 carrot
1 onion
1 celery
2 leaves sage + rosemary
salt and pepper
        for besciamella:
1 lt milk
1/2 cup + 1 tbs flour
1 stick - 1 tbs butter (90 gr)
salt and grounded nutmeg


1 (500 gr) and half pack of dry lasagna (for ex. Emiliane Barilla)
grounded Parmesan


How to do it:
melt butter with oil in a pan, then add onion, carrot and celery, chopped; add bacon (chopped) and the meat; stir until light. Pour wine, let evaporate it a little bit, then add the tomato sauce. Add sage and rosemary, salt and pepper.
     For besciamella: in a pot, melt butter, move from the fire, and add flour stirring to make a velvet thick sauce; then add the hot milk, stirring constantly. Put again on fire, add salt and nutmeg and cook stirring for about 15 minutes until thick as a yogurt (not too thick and not too liquid).
     Prepare a pot with hot water, where cooking the lasagna for just a minute, one layer each time.
Mix meat sauce with besciamella, then put a couple of spoons of the mix on the lasagna pan (to avoid the first layer to stick).
Put a layer of (cooked) lasagna, cover with the meat and besciamella mix, sprinkle with parmesan and continue with cooked lasagna, mix and parmesan until the pan is full! end with a layer of mix and parmesan.
      Cook for 30' at 400 F° or until a nice crust forms on the surface. Let stand for 10' then.....enjoy it!!

Tips: don't forget to cook the dry lasagna for about one minute (although in the packet they write that is not necessary) otherwise you'll have a dry and crunchy lasagna..to avoid cooking it, you should make a veery liquid besciamella, but it's a risk.
on the other side, don't cook the lasagna too much! it has to be "al dente" when display on the pan, or you'll have an overcooked Lasagna alla Bolognese!!

GINGERBREAD HOUSE

tips: this is a wonderful traditional way to spend christmas time with children decorating the house, but be sure you have the equipment to do it, in particular a medium capacity kneader or a lot of patience, strength and time, cause mixing the dough is veeeery hard

For cookies: 
6 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups butter
1 1/2 sugar
3 eggs
3/4 dark molasses
4 1/2 teaspoon ground dry ginger
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon cardamom
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

For icing:
2 eggs whites
3 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

How to do it:
beat butter until creamy, then add sugar, eggs (one each time), molasses; add then all dry ingredients (sifted). Mix well, divided it into six pieces (one each house part), wrapped in plastic wrap and leave them in the fridge for 6 hour (until very firm).
Roll one piece each time until a thickness of 1/2 cm, cut it with mould and cook in oven at 180° C for 10 min or until borders light brown. Use one piece for  each of the six parts of the house, then the rest for the base and for trees and other figures you want.

If you don't have the moulds, you can make them with cartons and the models you can find HERE.

Prepare the icing, beating eggs white until foam, then add confectioner's sugar one spoon each time until a thick icing form. Use it immediately cause it dries very fast.

Be sure that cookies are completely cold and dry before start building the house using a big quantity of icing to seal walls and roof. Then use the same icing to fix candies and decorations.

Free you fantasy!!