For the opening technical challenge of my Escoffier-based Home Culinary School Chronicles, I decided to follow Escoffier’s recipes for White Roux and Sauce Béchamel. Thrilled with the results, I wanted to incorporate it in a comforting recipe for the festive season.
Now, I don’t know about you, but whenever I think of béchamel sauce I think of lasagna. So, to do the béchamel sauce justice I set out to create my dream lasagna recipe. After much thinking I decided that what I really wanted was:
more cheese
more meat
a spicier flavor profile
crispy edges for everyone!
So, I included three cheeses (Parmesan, Mozzarella and Cheddar), substituted the beef mince for a generous quantity of spicy chorizo and sausage meat, and finally, inspired by Clare de Boer, I decided to crown this magnificent offering with an undulating lid of pasta that ensured no arguments about the distribution of crispy edges.
Although I previously followed the lengthier version of the Sauce Béchamel recipe, which includes veal (click here), for the purposes of this Spicy Lasagna recipe I have used Escoffier’s instructions for the shorter version (without veal). Let’s face it, there’s also a meat sauce to prepare. There are only so many hours in a day!
The Recipe
Servings: 8-10
Ingredients
Pasta
8-10 dry no-cook pasta sheets
12-14 pasta sheets for the final layer (these will be parboiled)
Cheese layer
175g mature cheddar, grated
175g mozzarella, grated
175g parmesan, grated
Spicy Meat Sauce
2 medium/1 large onion, finely chopped
3 medium carrots, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
6 garlic cloves, crushed
3 tablespoons olive oil
500g pork sausage meat, bulk (if in sausage form remove meat from casings)
500g chorizo sausages (remove meat from casings)
150ml dry red wine
150ml chicken stock
2 x 400g/14oz cans tomatoes, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons soft brown sugar
2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
3 bay leaves
Method
Place the two sausage meats in a medium bowl and using either a fork, wooden spoon or better still, your hands, work together to thoroughly combine.
Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven or large heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Place the onions, carrots and celery in the pot and sauté, stirring frequently, for approx. 6-8 mins before adding the garlic and cooking for another 2 mins.
Turn up the heat to medium-high, add the sausage meat and cook for approx. 6 mins. Stir throughout this time breaking up the meat until it reaches the consistency of minced meat.
Now, stir in the wine, stock, tomatoes, salt, pepper, sugar, thyme, oregano, fennel seeds and bay leaves. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, stirring regularly, for 25-30 mins.
Meanwhile, you can now get on with the White Roux and Sauce
Béchamel
White Roux
Ingredients
100g/3 ½ oz clarified butter
117g/4 oz all-purpose/plain flour
Method
To clarify the butter:
1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat.
2. Let it simmer until it separates into three layers: foam on top, clarified butter in the middle and milk solids at the bottom.
3. Skim off the foam with a spoon.
4. Slowly pour the melted butter into a container. To ensure that the milk solids are removed you can pour the butter through a muslin-lined sieve.
To make the roux - mix the butter and flour in a heavy bottomed pan and place over a low heat, stirring frequently until it takes on a straw color. The roux should be cooked for just a few minutes, to eliminate the taste of raw flour. Set aside to cool.
Sauce Béchamel
(This recipe uses Imperial pint measurements.)
1700ml/3 pints whole milk,
½ small onion, finely sliced*
1 small sprig of thyme
25g/ 1 oz butter
small pinch of coarsely ground pepper
small pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
8g/¼ oz salt
(*Note – feel free to include some slices of carrot and celery.)
Method
Pour the milk into a saucepan then add the onion, thyme and seasoning (as well as slices of carrot and celery if you choose). Slowly bring the milk to boiling point, remove from the heat and allow to infuse for 10 - 15 mins.
Strain the milk onto the roux and using a whisk, mix until the sauce is smooth. Slowly bring the sauce back to the boil and, stirring frequently, simmer for 15 - 20 mins or until you obtain your desired consistency.
Tip: Using a whisk for mixing is helpful as it breaks up any small lumps of roux, but also use a wooden spoon, intermittently, to remove any clumps on the inside edge of the bottom of the pan.
3. Season according to taste.
Assembling the lasagna
Spoon one third of the meat sauce into the base of your lasagna dish and spread out to create an even layer.
Cover with approx. 5 pasta sheets. You may have to snap 1 or 2 to obtain pieces that will fit the spaces between the whole sheets. (Alternate the direction of the pasta sheets as you continue to layer, as this will ensure equal coverage.)
Cover the pasta sheets with one third of the béchamel sauce then sprinkle over one third of each of the grated cheeses.
Repeat this process again, as before.
Now, for the third and final stage of layering, start by adding the last third of the meat sauce, as usual. However, instead of following this with 5 sheets of dry pasta, you are going to use 12-14 sheets of parboiled, and therefore flexible, pasta. It is these sheets that will form undulating furrows of crispiness when baked (see video here)
To make the pasta sheets malleable, place half the sheets in a large pan of simmering water with a few drops of olive oil (or a generous pinch of salt) and parboil for 3 mins. Remove from the pan and dry briefly on a tea towel or piece of kitchen roll. Repeat this process with the remaining sheets.
Note: To avoid the sheets sticking together during parboiling, stir the pasta using a steel slotted turner or spatula as this will enable you to slide the end between the sheets to keep them separate. If some of the sheets remain stubbornly conjoined, you can also push them up the sides of the pan so that you can, if necessary, separate the corners and peel apart.
7. To create the impressive top layer form one or two hillocks in each sheet and then place the sheets at different angles until you have covered the meat layer. Once the undulating lid of pasta is in place, spoon the last third of the béchamel sauce into the crevices. Now, sprinkle the remaining third of each cheese over the hills and dales then cover loosely with foil (do not press down or you will ruin the effect) before placing in the oven for 30 mins at 180°C/350°F degrees. Finally, remove the foil for the last 10 mins of cooking and then rest for 10 mins before triumphantly presenting your magnificent creation to your family and/or guests.
Thank you for reading and if you make this please tag or send me a photo! See you back here on Sunday!
Sarah x
This sounds amazingly delicious! I am gonna have to make this for my husband. This is right up his alley thank you so much for sharing this recipe.