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A period dish

Lasagne al Forno

Layers of pasta, cheese, and a slow meat sauce baked until bubbling, the ancestor of a dish that conquered the world.

Serves 8

Renaissance cooks layered sheets of pasta with cheese and a meat sauce and baked them in an earthenware dish. It was a banquet dish, rich and impressive, and the combination of pasta, ragu, and cheese was already recognizably the lasagne of later centuries.

Ingredients

Produce

  • 1 onion
  • 1 carrot

Meat & Poultry

  • 1 lb beef
  • 1/2 lb pork

Dairy & Eggs

  • 2 cup ricotta
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup parmesan

Pantry / Durable

  • 2 cup beef stock
  • 1 lb lasagne sheets

Spices & Seasoning

  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • salt

Other

  • 1 cup red wine

Method

  1. Make a ragu by browning minced beef and pork with onion and carrot, then simmering them with wine and stock until thick.

  2. Cook the pasta sheets in salted water until just tender and drain them.

  3. Beat ricotta with an egg, salt, and a grating of nutmeg.

  4. Layer pasta, ragu, ricotta, and grated cheese in a buttered dish, repeating until the ingredients are used.

  5. Bake until the top is golden and the sauce bubbles at the edges, then let it rest before serving.

Served at

After the Pazzi conspiracy · Florence, Italy

The duke's banquet · Rome, Italy