In this edition of Epicurious 101, professional chef and chef instructor Frank Proto demonstrates how to restaurant-quality lasagne at home.
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00:00 I'm Frank Proto, professional chef and culinary instructor,
00:02 and today I'm gonna show you how to make lasagna,
00:05 Frank style.
00:05 We're talking cheesy, creamy, melty,
00:08 and delectable lasagna.
00:10 This is lasagna 101.
00:11 [upbeat music]
00:16 Making the sauce for your lasagna is definitely a process.
00:19 This is the flavor base of our lasagna.
00:22 Basically the heart of the lasagna.
00:24 We're gonna build layers.
00:25 We're not just gonna dump everything into the pot at once.
00:27 We're gonna brown things off, season things as we go,
00:30 so that we have a really nice balanced sauce at the end.
00:33 Everyone has their own way of making lasagna.
00:35 Mine tends to be rustic, a little more homey.
00:37 There are lasagnas that you make a bechamel sauce
00:40 and it's silky and creamy,
00:41 but at the end of the day,
00:42 I want this to be super accessible to you out there.
00:45 I have my pot on the stove.
00:47 I have been getting it hot.
00:48 I'm gonna add some oil.
00:50 I'm gonna get my pork and I'm gonna season it up.
00:53 I'm using a pork country style rib.
00:55 It's got a really good fat to meat ratio.
00:57 I feel that pork and tomatoes
01:00 really kind of blend well together
01:01 and it gives your sauce this really nice mellow taste.
01:04 So spread them out in an even layer
01:07 so it starts to get brown.
01:09 And at this point, I say this a lot, leave it alone.
01:12 Once it starts to get brown,
01:14 it's gonna unstick from the bottom of the pot
01:16 and then we can move it around, but give it time.
01:18 The pork in the pot's gonna take five to seven minutes.
01:21 Remember, we're building layers of flavor
01:23 and this is where we wanna be.
01:24 If you look at that, that is the brown that we want
01:28 on most of the sides.
01:30 If they're not all brown like that, we're okay,
01:32 but try and get some brown like that
01:34 on at least two or three sides of your pork.
01:36 So while that's browning,
01:37 I'm gonna come over and get my sausage ready.
01:39 I got sausage in the casing.
01:41 You just get a paring knife, cut off the casing.
01:44 I chose spicy Italian sausage
01:46 'cause I want a little heat in my sauce.
01:48 I love the flavor that the chili flakes give.
01:51 The sausage adds a little more fat,
01:52 adds a little more flavor.
01:54 We're gonna get a little more deeper flavored sauce
01:56 when we use two types of meat.
01:59 All right, so the pork is now getting nice and brown.
02:02 Look at that.
02:03 That's what I want.
02:04 You can see that the pork is also giving off some fat
02:07 'cause that fat's gonna help us brown our vegetables.
02:10 The pork looks like it's done.
02:11 I'm gonna take it out and put it into a bowl,
02:12 but I'm gonna use a slotted spoon
02:14 'cause I wanna leave the fat in the pot.
02:17 That fat is one of those foundational pieces of our flavor,
02:20 so don't get rid of the fat.
02:22 If you look at the bottom of the pan,
02:24 what do I have in there?
02:25 You guys should know this by now.
02:27 It's called fond, F-O-N-D,
02:29 and that is all the little brown bits
02:31 and caramelized pieces of pork
02:33 and the juices on the bottom of the pot.
02:35 Do not get rid of that.
02:37 This is, again, part of our flavor base and foundation.
02:40 Gonna leave the fat in the pot,
02:42 and then I'm gonna take my sausage,
02:43 and I'm gonna get that into the pot.
02:45 I don't want large chunks in there,
02:47 so I'm gonna break it up and start browning this off.
02:50 My sausage is ready to go.
02:52 Even if it's not fully cooked now,
02:53 I'm not too worried because it's gonna be in the sauce
02:56 for a long time, and it's gonna cook through then.
02:58 So I'm just gonna turn this pot on really low right now,
03:01 and I'm gonna get that same slotted spoon
03:03 and take the sausage out
03:05 and just put it right on top of my brown pork ribs.
03:08 Try and leave some of those juices and fat in there.
03:11 Fat equals flavor, people.
03:13 Don't be afraid of it.
03:14 If there's a little left in there, it's okay.
03:16 Don't worry about it.
03:17 Put that aside.
03:18 It's gonna go back into the pot in a minute.
03:20 Now's the time where we start to get our vegetables going.
03:22 Onions go in.
03:24 Whenever I put onions in the pot,
03:26 I always add a little bit of salt.
03:28 Part of that layering of flavor
03:29 is seasoning throughout the process.
03:32 If we add a little salt as we go,
03:34 we get a nice, balanced seasoning to our finished sauce.
03:38 I want you to take a second
03:39 and listen to what's going on in my pot.
03:41 Yes, I said listen.
03:42 I hear snap, crackle, pop.
03:45 I hear sizzling, not hissing, and that's what you want.
03:49 If you hear hissing, that means we're steaming our onions
03:52 and not sauteing them.
03:53 So if all you hear is hissing, turn up your heat,
03:56 maybe add a little more oil,
03:57 but we wanna hear snapping and crackling
03:59 and popping and sizzling.
04:01 Now's the time to add some of the more aromatic vegetables.
04:03 We're gonna add the carrots,
04:05 and we're gonna add the celery.
04:06 I have about two ribs of celery
04:08 and about two small carrots.
04:10 And this, I don't worry about getting caramelized
04:12 at this point.
04:13 I just want it to start to soften a little.
04:16 The celery and carrots are getting nice and soft,
04:17 and the garlic goes in last in this process
04:20 because garlic burns really quickly.
04:22 And we're gonna cook the garlic 'til it's fragrant.
04:24 I don't need to brown it.
04:25 I just want to smell roasty garlic.
04:27 The garlic is nice and toasty,
04:29 and the next thing we're gonna add is dry white wine.
04:32 This is gonna give our sauce a nice roundness,
04:35 a little bit of acidity.
04:37 It's also gonna help pick up all of the fond
04:39 from the bottom of the pot.
04:41 Those little brown bits are gonna get mixed in
04:42 with the wine and make our sauce nice and caramelized.
04:45 While my wine is cooking down,
04:47 I'm gonna make a bouquet garni.
04:48 Sounds fancy, but basically it's just a bundle of herbs
04:52 that we tie with some butchered twine.
04:53 I have basil.
04:54 I fold the basil into itself a little,
04:57 and then I twist around opposite directions
05:01 so that you meet in the middle and you can tie.
05:04 We bundle it together so it's easy to remove.
05:06 It adds flavor to our sauce,
05:08 but then we can take it out really easily.
05:10 Throw that in right now,
05:12 and just let our wine continue to cook.
05:14 The wine's been happily bubbling away.
05:16 If I take a whiff, the alcohol is cooked off,
05:18 and it's time to move on to the next step.
05:20 I'm gonna add the tomatoes,
05:21 and I chose a ground peeled tomato.
05:24 This is a great place to save a little time.
05:26 If I got whole peeled tomatoes, I'd have to grind them up.
05:29 These don't have any skins in them,
05:30 and they're the right size for our sauce.
05:32 All the tomatoes go in.
05:34 Save the cans 'cause we're gonna rinse them out.
05:36 And I used to think that this was done
05:37 just to get the rest of the tomatoes,
05:39 but there's another reason for it.
05:41 When we add water to our sauce,
05:43 it gives our sauce a longer cooking time,
05:45 which gives it more time to develop flavor.
05:47 If we just add the tomatoes in,
05:49 it's gonna reduce too much too quickly.
05:51 So what I'm gonna do now is let the tomatoes
05:53 come to a simmer.
05:55 I'm gonna add a nice grinding of fresh pepper,
05:58 a nice pinch of salt, a little bit of chili flake,
06:01 'cause we do have hot sausage in there,
06:03 but I do wanna supplement that with a little more heat.
06:06 Stir that in, let it come to a simmer.
06:09 So let's give it a taste.
06:11 You gotta be careful here because this is gonna reduce,
06:13 but I do think it needs a little more salt.
06:15 Just a nice pinch, stir it in.
06:17 The sauce is bubbling away.
06:18 I'm gonna lower my heat from high to medium,
06:21 and I'm gonna add all the meat back with all of the juices.
06:24 Give it a stir.
06:25 You can probably go a little lower on the heat
06:27 to kind of medium low.
06:29 Let it cook low and slow for about an hour and a half
06:31 until everything comes together, the pork gets tender,
06:34 and then we can make our lasagna.
06:36 My sauce has been on for about an hour and a half.
06:38 If you look at it, it's got a really nice deep red color,
06:42 a little sheen of oil on top, which is always nice,
06:45 and the pork is nice and tender.
06:48 So what we're gonna do now
06:49 is we're gonna remove that bouquet garni.
06:51 It's done its work.
06:52 It's given its flavor up for the sauce.
06:54 And we're also gonna remove our pork
06:56 so that we can kind of just chop it up and shred it.
06:59 So go through the sauce.
07:00 When you cut into that lasagna,
07:02 you wanna get the perfect bite every time,
07:04 and by shredding the pork, we're allowing that to happen.
07:08 The pork has been cooking long enough in the sauce
07:10 that we really don't need to do much to shred it.
07:12 It falls apart really nice,
07:13 and this goes right back into the sauce.
07:16 Now I'm gonna take this basil and shred it up
07:17 and add it to the sauce.
07:19 A lot of times when you're cooking things like this
07:21 for a long time, they can get kind of heavy
07:23 and kind of stodgy, and the basil just kind of gives it
07:26 a little lift towards the end.
07:28 My sauce looks really good,
07:29 but I am gonna adjust the consistency a little
07:31 with some water.
07:32 I'm using dry pasta for this.
07:34 So the pasta's gonna soak up a lot of sauce,
07:38 and I don't want it to be too wet or too dry,
07:40 so a little liquidy on my sauce is where I wanna be.
07:43 We've taken all this time to build the layers in this sauce,
07:46 and it's totally paid off.
07:47 It's time to make our lasagna.
07:49 [upbeat music]
07:52 It's time to assemble lasagna,
07:53 and most of the hard work is done already.
07:55 We've made our sauce.
07:56 Assembly can be a lot of fun,
07:58 but it's also a crucial step
07:59 in getting the right consistency.
08:01 You don't wanna add too much sauce.
08:02 You don't wanna add too little cheese.
08:05 Remember, we want that perfect bite all the way through.
08:07 The first step to layering our lasagna is
08:09 you wanna put a nice bit of sauce on the bottom.
08:12 We don't want it sticking to the bottom
08:14 or drying out on the bottom so the sauce goes down.
08:17 Lasagna already takes a lot of time and effort.
08:19 I like to use dry pasta because it's simple and easy.
08:22 There are some pasta products out there called oven-ready,
08:25 which are no-cook pastas.
08:27 I'm using regular pasta.
08:29 I have seasoned my sauce.
08:30 I have adjusted the consistency.
08:32 The pasta's gonna soak up all that good flavor.
08:35 It's gonna go right into the pasta
08:36 instead of just salted water.
08:38 When I'm layering my lasagna,
08:40 I like to put sauce on the pasta itself, right?
08:44 So it's gonna be sauce, pasta, sauce, and then the cheese
08:48 'cause I want the sauce to soak into the pasta.
08:51 Next step, we're gonna add some of our grated cheese.
08:53 I have Pecorino and Parmesan.
08:56 I like the sharpness of Pecorino.
08:58 I like the nuttiness of Parmesan.
09:01 I'm going to add some shredded mozzarella.
09:04 I'm using a low-moisture mozzarella.
09:06 Fresh mozzarella has a lot of liquid.
09:08 I don't want extra liquid in there.
09:09 And then some ricotta.
09:10 And with the ricotta, I dab it on, right?
09:13 This will spread out and melt a little,
09:16 but I just like to put dabs around.
09:18 So we're just building those layers of flavor.
09:21 And when I use all these cheeses,
09:23 it gives me that nice balance between creamy and acidic.
09:27 And then another layer of pasta.
09:29 I am going to push down just a little, right?
09:32 I want this to be a little compact.
09:34 I don't want it to be light and fluffy.
09:36 I want it to be nice and dense.
09:38 So if the pasta overlaps a little, that's fine.
09:41 And then another layer of sauce.
09:45 Remember, the pasta should be touching the sauce.
09:48 And then we go again with everything else.
09:50 And you notice that I'm getting into the corners as well.
09:53 Make sure we're spreading this evenly,
09:55 and it's not just a lump of cheese in the middle,
09:58 that each corner piece is gonna have some cheese flavor too.
10:02 And for our last layer,
10:03 I'm just gonna add the grated cheeses.
10:06 I don't want the ricotta on top there
10:08 because ricotta tends to dry out
10:10 and it's gonna get crumbly.
10:11 I leave the ricotta inside
10:12 so where it's gonna stay nice and moist and not on the top.
10:16 Before I put it in the oven,
10:18 I'm gonna put it onto a sheet tray or a cookie sheet.
10:21 You can see that our sauce is kind of like almost overflowing
10:24 so if it overflows, it goes onto the tray,
10:26 not into my oven.
10:28 Last thing we need to do is cover this with foil.
10:30 I wanna keep a lot of the moisture in there.
10:32 And I kinda want it to steam just a little
10:33 'cause I didn't cook the pasta.
10:36 So we'll put this on nice and loose.
10:38 We're gonna throw this in a 350 degree oven
10:40 for about 30 minutes, remove the foil,
10:43 and then go for another 30 minutes to crisp up the edges.
10:46 And then we'll be ready to taste.
10:48 The lasagna's been in the oven for 30 minutes.
10:50 We're gonna remove the foil
10:52 to allow our lasagna to crisp up
10:55 and the cheese to melt really nice.
10:58 You'll notice that a lot of the juice
11:00 has leaked out onto the tray.
11:02 That's kinda sacrificial juice.
11:04 It's probably gonna stick to the tray.
11:06 But that's why it's important to have it
11:08 so it doesn't leak all over your oven.
11:10 The foil on top has allowed my pasta
11:12 to soak up that liquid and my cheese
11:14 to steam a little and get melty.
11:16 It's going back into the oven for about 30 minutes
11:18 and that's gonna get nice and crispy and brown.
11:21 I took the foil off the lasagna,
11:23 put it back in the oven for another 30 minutes,
11:25 and now it's out.
11:26 Look at it.
11:27 It's gorgeous.
11:28 Brown, cheesy, deliciousness.
11:31 But I don't want you to cut into it right away.
11:33 It's extremely important to note
11:35 that you need to let this rest
11:37 for a minimum of 30 minutes before you cut it.
11:40 Otherwise, it's a sloppy mess.
11:42 What's great about lasagna is
11:44 that you can take it in this form,
11:45 you can refrigerate it,
11:47 you can cut it up and freeze it.
11:48 You can pretty much save it
11:50 and serve it any way you want it,
11:51 but you have to let it rest before you cut it.
11:54 My lasagna has rested for 30 minutes.
12:00 We've given it time for everything
12:01 to kinda meld together.
12:03 Let's cut into this.
12:04 All right, here we go.
12:05 Make sure it's sliced all the way through.
12:08 I usually run the knife along the outside edge
12:10 just to make sure that it's free.
12:13 Get under there.
12:14 Oh my goodness.
12:17 That is just a slice of happiness.
12:20 We took our time to layer our sauce
12:21 on top and on bottom of the pasta,
12:23 and if you look at it,
12:25 all that time has paid off.
12:26 We have a beautiful layered lasagna
12:29 with a little bit of everything in each bite.
12:31 I'm gonna make a mess,
12:32 but I'm gonna get in there
12:33 and just take a nice chunk.
12:35 It's cheesy, it's meaty,
12:40 it's melty and creamy.
12:42 It has a little acidity from those tomatoes.
12:45 The pasta still has a little bite.
12:46 It's not soft and mushy.
12:48 It holds together really well,
12:49 and it's beautiful.
12:51 It takes time, it takes technique,
12:53 but it is worth every moment you put into it.
12:56 Put it in front of the people you love,
12:58 and they will love you back.
12:59 (upbeat music)