Lasagna – Pie

Ingredients for 10 servings:

• 100 g flour
• 100 g butter
• 1 ½ liters of milk
• ¼ liter cream
• 200 g Parmesan, grated
• Salt and pepper, black and green mixed
• some nutmeg, freshly grated
• 2 kg spinach, fresh or 1 kg frozen
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp flour
• 6 tbsp cream
• 2 eggs
• 300 g mozzarella, roughly shredded
• 6 tbsp Parmesan, grated
• 100 g pine nuts
• 2 tsp marjoram
• Salt and pepper, black and green mixed
• Nutmeg, freshly grated
• 1 kg minced meat, mixed
• 2 garlic cloves
• 4 eggs
• 2 anchovy fillets (salted from the jar)
• 6 tbsp Parmesan, grated
• 100 g raw ham, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp basil
• 1 pepper, red
• 4 tbsp tomato paste
• Oil for frying
• 500 g flour
• 10 egg yolks
• 2 eggs, whole
• 1 ½ tbsp salt
• 1 ½ tbsp oil
• some spinach, frozen
• some paprika powder (sweet) or tomato paste
• some saffron
• Butter for greasing
• 40 g butter in flakes (for the top)
• some grated Parmesan cheese for sprinkling

Instructions

Working time approx. 4 hours; Total time approx. 4 hours

with meat and spinach filling and topped with béchamel sauce

Béchamel sauce: Lightly fry the flour in the butter, pour in the milk, and bring to a boil while stirring. Add the cream and season. Simmer for another 5 minutes (so the flour swells), then let cool. Spinach filling: Sort the (fresh) spinach, remove thick leaf ribs, wash, blanch, squeeze until dry, then finely chop. Or: Thaw frozen spinach and finely chop. Briefly toss in the butter and stir in the flour, add the cream, and heat until the flour thickens. Once cooled, combine with the egg, cheese, and the pine nuts, which have been lightly toasted in a dry pan. Season. (This will form a fairly thick mixture.) Minced meat filling: Mix the minced meat with crushed garlic, stir-fry briefly in oil, and when cooled, mix with the eggs, crushed anchovy fillets, cheese, finely chopped ham, herbs, finely chopped chili peppers, crushed garlic cloves, and tomato paste. Season with salt and pepper. Lasagna sheets: Knead the flour with the eggs, salt, and oil until the dough is smooth and glossy. Don’t be too exact with the measurements (depending on the consistency of the flour and eggs). If the dough is too stiff, add a little water. Divide the dough into thirds and knead one third with paprika powder or tomato paste, the second third with the squeezed and finely chopped spinach, and the third third with the slightly dissolved saffron. Cover the dough with a bowl and let it rest for about half an hour. Roll out relatively thin sheets with a pasta machine and cook in boiling salted water. Remove from the oven and let dry slightly on kitchen towels. Butter an ovenproof dish (I use a 40 cm long, 28 cm wide, and 7 cm high stainless steel dish). Spread a thin layer of béchamel sauce over the base. Alternate layers of the different colored pasta sheets and fillings, covering each layer thinly with sauce and sprinkling with Parmesan cheese. Pour most of the sauce over the last layer, sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese, top with butter flakes, and bake in a preheated oven at 200°C for about 40-50 minutes. Cover the dish with aluminum foil for the first half hour, then let it brown. Let it rest for a few minutes before slicing. This dish is truly a labor-intensive dish for a home-cooked meal. But my guests always melt in my mouth.