Main ingredients
Classic lasagna is made from sheets of pasta dough, ground meat, and bechamel sauce. Sweet peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, onion, and mushrooms are added to the filling. The ingredients are layered and topped with grated cheese.
Lasagna sheets can be made from scratch with whole grain flour, eggs, water, and olive oil. The dough is rolled into layers 2–3 mm thick, then boiled in salted water for a few minutes. To make things easier, many cooks prefer ready-made sheets from the supermarket.
The five most commonly used ingredients in classic lasagna recipes:
| Product | Calories per 100g | Protein g per 100g | Fats g per 100g | Carbohydrates g per 100g |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Butter | 734 | 0.5 | 82.5 | 0.8 |
| Lasagna sheets | 337 | 10.4 | 1.1 | 69.7 |
| Flour | 325 | 12 | 1 | 67 |
| Tomatoes | 23 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 3.8 |
| Milk | 68 | 3.2 | 3.6 | 4.8 |
Bechamel sauce is made from butter, cream or milk, flour, and spices. If you like, you can use the ready-made product sold in powder form.
How to cook classic lasagna
A few useful tips will help you avoid mistakes when making this beautiful Italian dish.
The five fastest classic lasagna recipes:
| Name of the dish | Cooking time | Calories per 100g | User Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple classic lasagna with ground meat in the oven | 40 min | 239 | +335 |
| Classic lasagna with bechamel sauce | 1 hour | 188 | +156 |
| Classic lasagna bolognese with bechamel sauce | 1 hour | 222 | +202 |
| Vegetable lasagna at home classic | 1 h 14 min | 179 | +76 |
| Classic lasagna in a slow cooker | 1 hour 40 min | 255 | +26 |
Recommendations:
- The ground meat is made from beef, pork, or chicken fillet.
- To make the dish fragrant, fresh herbs and spices are added to the filling: nutmeg, a blend of peppers, Italian herbs.
- Ground meat, mushrooms, and onion are fried until half-cooked in vegetable oil. Sometimes broth or dry wine is added to the pan.
- The meat filling is combined with raw or stewed vegetables.
- The ingredients are layered as follows: first the pasta, then the meat and sauce. Repeat the sequence 2–3 times. Top the dish with grated cheese.
- Cover the baking dish with foil and place it in a well-heated oven. Bake the dish at 180–200 °C for 40 minutes.
- Lasagna can also be made in a slow cooker. In that case, place the ingredients in the bowl and set the "Multicook" or "Stew" mode for 30 minutes.
Lasagna pairs well with white and red wine.
The dish can suit a diet menu — but only if the dough was made from coarse-ground flour. To lower the fat content of lasagna, cooks use lean meat and, instead of bechamel sauce, add low-fat yogurt or kefir.