Lasagna has endless versions, but if you want lasagna that’s rich, structured, and slices clean, this is the chef’s way: deeper flavour, lighter layers, and a crispy top that makes the whole dish.
In this video, we make a homemade lasagna recipe inspired by Massimo Bottura and his love of “the crispy part of lasagna”. We build a slow-cooked meat ragù using ox cheek, short rib, pancetta, and sausage, start with a proper sofrito (plus optional bone marrow for depth), and use a better tomato method, roast, then pulse, for a cleaner, sweeter sauce that won’t turn watery.
For the layers, we go Northern-Italy style with spinach (green) pasta sheets and a classic béchamel (white sauce) finished with parmesan and nutmeg. We bake it low and slow for structure, then finish under the grill for that golden, caramelised, crispy lasagna top.
INGREDIENTS
50g Bone Marrow
2 Onion
2 Carrot
2 Celery Stalks
200g Pancetta
300g Sausage Meat
600g Short Rib
600g Beef Cheek
200g Cherry Tomatoes
200g White Wine
1L Chicken Stock
1 Bay Leaf
1 Sprig Rosemary
Left over Parmesan rind
Gastrique
50g Red Wine Vinegar
50g sugar
Pasta
2 eggs
6 yolks
400g pasta flour
200g spinach
1 tbsp Olive Oil
Bechamel
1.2L Milk
Bay Leaf
A few sprigs of Thyme
Black peppercorns
120g butter
120g plain flour
150g Parmesan (+ 30g for topping)
Nutmeg
RECIPE
1. Finely dice onion, celery and peeled carrot.
2. Melt bone marrow in a deep casserole on medium-low. Add veg and sweat until onion is translucent. Remove and set aside.
3. Halve cherry tomatoes, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt, roast at 180C for ~15 mins until blistered, then blitz smooth.
4. Trim excess fat from short ribs. Cut ribs and beef cheeks into medium chunks.
5. Add a little oil and brown rib and cheek on medium-high until deep golden on all sides. Remove and set aside.
6. Slice pancetta and fry with sausage meat, breaking it up, until golden.
7. Drain on paper towel. Pour off any excess fat from the pan.
8. Return pan to high heat and deglaze with white wine, reducing until almost dry
9. Return vegetables and meat to the pan. Stir through the tomato sauce. Add rosemary, bay leaf, parmesan rind and chicken stock.
10. Bring to a simmer, cover with a cartouche and lid, and braise at 140C for ~2 hours until the meat starts to pull apart.
PASTA
1. Blanch spinach in boiling water for 1 minute and refresh in ice water.
2. Squeeze out as much liquid as possible, then blitz with the egg yolks until smooth. Pass through a sieve.
3. Mix whole eggs and olive oil into the spinach mixture, then gradually add flour until a dough forms.
4. Knead until firm. Wrap and chill for 1 hour.
5. Divide into 4 and roll into rectangles about as thick as a 5p piece, dusting as needed or using a pasta machine.
6. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Trim sheets to fit your lasagne dish, blanch each sheet for 1 minute, transfer to ice water, then drain and pat dry.
BECHAMEL
1. Bring milk, bay leaf, thyme and black peppercorns to a simmer. Remove from the heat and leave to infuse.
2. In a separate pan, melt butter on medium heat, add flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring continuously, until it smells biscuity.
3. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the infused milk.
4. Return to the heat and whisk for a few minutes until thickened.
5. When you see volcanic bubbles, remove from the heat and whisk in parmesan. Season with salt and nutmeg and set aside.
RAGU CONTINUED
1. Spoon off any fat that’s risen to the top.
2. If there’s excess liquid, strain into a clean pan and reduce on high until it coats the back of a spoon.
3. Pull the meat apart so you have a mix of shredded and small chunks.
4. Mix the ragu with the reduced liquid and season with salt and black pepper.
5. To make the gastrique, simmer vinegar and sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
6. Finish the ragu with gastrique to taste.
ASSEMBLY
1. Set the oven to 140C Fan.
2. Spread a thin layer of bechamel on the bottom of a casserole dish, then add a layer of ragu.
3. Add a single layer of pasta, cover with a thin layer of bechamel, then spread another layer of ragu on top.
4. Repeat until you’ve used everything up, finishing with pasta topped with a very thin layer of bechamel.
5. Top with grated parmesan and bake for ~30 mins or until the edges bubble.
6. Finish by turning the oven up to 200C for the last few minutes, or flash under a hot grill for a crispy top.
Chapters;
00:00 – Intro
00:30 – Soffrito
2:11 – Secret Ingredient
2:33 – Cooking the soffrito
3:25 – Tomatoes
4:21 – Preparing the Meat
5:58 – Browning the meat
7:16 – Tomato sauce
8:08 – Browning sausage and panchetta
8:24 – Deglazing
8:43 – Assembling the Ragu
10:41 – Pasta Dough
12:11 – Bechamel
13:42 – Rolling Pasta
14:27 – Finishing the Ragu
15:46 – Buling the Lasagne
17:32 – Baking The Lasagne
17:54 – Making it Crispy
18:42 – Tasting
43 Comments
I don't doubt the Michelen brag, however good to put a towel under that damn board first aye?
wheres ma boy Will with the trash talk
The "spent" parmigiano rind on a piece of baguette is a great chef's snack!
the slice in midle does nothing when choppping onion!!!!
why are these guys always 'whack'ing everything?
white wine is sweeter?? wtf thats wrong and racist all at once
looks ok, i prefer dried pasta sheets i think
No. It does not.
No, it doesn’t.
I respect the idea, but this just comes across as condescending to me. It's like so far off from Lasagna I'm surprised you even used the name in the title. I'm sure it tastes great though
3/10 like most restaurant lasagne.
Purpose of a cartouche is to slow rate of evaporation. Put the lid on the pot, no evaporation. I’ll stick with Lidia B and run my sofrito through the food processor. Not a chance that brunoise is ‘toothsome’ after sweating and a 2 hour braise. Don’t believe you can taste bone marrow through pancetta fat but I don’t know. Otherwise looks great.
I adore thoughtfulness, design consideration and construction. Thank you for elaborating on how to improve and to generate a more delightful, enjoyable and shareable/y delicious classic dish. Yum, fun, yumminess.
La lasagna è un altra cosa…
I'm still waiting to learn something from you boys. If you were in America I'd insist upon a stage.
I can't find work because I'm over qualified.
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thats a banger
Just call it a broiler or a salamander, Nephew.
It is certainly not the best lasagna. I could make a better one using ramen packets for my starting point. You didn't even make a proper bolognese.
Yep, I've just got goose fat and duck fat lying around…🤣 Great video though.
11:33 What kind of purple?!?
Thank you for the culinary lesson! You guys are awesome! My youngest daughter won't eat beef, but will eat lamb… so I may swap for lamb stew meat and ground lamb just for her.
Made your ragu recipe last week and realised I've never actually made proper ragu before. Gotta try this one as well!
For the commenters. i've always made lasanga with a ricotta, egg, spinach, basil filling, never a bechamel. Is REAL lasagna with bechamel better? My chef thought is the bechamel just gets mixed in with the meatsauce so its pointless, a ricotta filling keeps its integrity when you eat it.
"There is no worser job than brunoise celery"
Thank you. When I was in cooking school and said that I hated to brunoise celery everybody looked at me like I said the most ridiculous thing ever.
I would love a series of you guys deconstructing dishes to see what works and why like for example this lasagna you create one without onions, another without the parm rind etc etc
Having made northern-style lasagna before, I honestly felt the bechamel was not necessary, and whole milk ricotta is much easier and I prefer it. I also find some mozzarella is a must for the best version of that baked cheese on top.
So much better than what ?
I haven't had a better lasagna than at home
Why English Resturant Lasagna Tastes So Much Better? Wow thats quite a bold statement you've made there old chum, so lets bring you back down to earh. No restaurant Lasagna tastes better, it just tastes different. And by different it means it doesn't taste like mama makes. And the last place id order a Lasagna from is an English restaurant. Not because i dont think English chefs aren't good, i think they are some of the best. Its because you are so ashame of your cuisine you feel you have to turn it into theatre. No italian housewife would cook Lasagna the way you just have. For a country that is inundated with cookery programs ie you only have to look at the success of of Masterchef, you would think the UK kitchen would be busting with great cooks, but it isnt. Want to know why? Its because they dont think i must try that at home, its because they see it as entertainment whilst eating their Fray Bentos pie and chips on their laps infront of the telly watching East Enders. And because of that, i award you no points, and may god have mercy on your soul.
I used your ragu recipe for lasagne and it was fucking delicious
huh but aren't wooden cuttingboards not allowed?
needs more cheese
Pretty sure thats a hair hanging at 15 seconds in
Looks incredible. Most lasagne I’ve ever had has sucked but that looks legit.
Thank you for your videos and the effort you put into them.
Cheers from Germany
10 seconds in and he is a liar
Warped cutting board should tell you all you need to know
Youre lasagna vs my lasagna, mine will win hands down everytime.
I fucking love this channel! 100% inspired me to cook – this recipe is next
0:14 ist there a chefs hair dangling of that tasty piece of Lasagna? 😅
I don't want "lighter layers and a clean slice"..…..
I want GOOP!!!
And since when do the people in the "sort of South" use "cheaper ingredients"?
I'm a Canadian ex-pat living in my parents' hometown in Calabria. The men here take pride not only in their fruit and vegetable gardens, but also in their cooking skills, and passion for hunting wild boar. You can't imagine the flavour of wild boar sausage. They also have secret spots in the untouched forests for picking mushrooms. I'm a trained chef in the process of opening my own business here, even though I was born and raised in Toronto.
And by the way, Milan has perhaps too many American franchise eateries. When Northern Italians get vacation time from work, they flock down here to the "sort of South" for real food.
Cheers from
Aprigliano, Calabria 🇮🇹
If you have access to Waitrose or M&S they both have sofrito mix in their frozen sections. It saves a heck of a lot of chopping.