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simplywanderfull

Martha Stewart Inspired Meaty Ragu Lasagne With Porcini Mushrooms

This most delicious lasagne is robust, and velvety and packed with delicious flavours. Made with a meaty ragu, and a velvety bechemel sauce. It really is unforgettable.
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Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1 pkg. Ground beef
  • 1 pkg of Italian sausage pork and beef flavoured: casings removed
  • 1 onion diced fine
  • 3/4 cup carrots finely diced
  • 3/4 cup celery finely diced (3 stalks)
  • 2-3 cloves garlic minced
  • Bouquet Garni: fresh thyme rosemary and basil
  • 2 tbsp. Tomato paste
  • 3-4 slices prosciutto finely diced
  • 1-2 tbsp. Olive oil
  • 1 pkg. Cremini mushrooms
  • 1 pkg. Dried porcini mushrooms soaked (30 min) and reserve the liquid
  • 3 cups Madeira wine
  • 4 cups beef or brown stock
  • 1 batch homemade bechamel sauce: 2 cups milk 3 tbsp. Flour 3 tbsp. Butter Parmesan Mozzarella cheese. Whisked until thickened

Method
 

  1. Place porcini mushrooms in a bowl and cover with the hot water. Let soak 25–30 minutes until soft. Remove mushrooms, squeeze out liquid, and finely chop. Reserve the soaking liquid
  2. In a large heavy pot, heat butter and olive oil over medium. Add pancetta and cook until brown (5 min), add onion, carrot, and celery. Cook for 30 minutes stirring often. So much flavour is created here so try to take this time for this step.
  3. In a separate pan, brown your meat. Drain and set the meat aside. Place the pan back on the stove.
  4. Add the Madeira wine to the pan, and scrape the little brown bits from the browned meat and stir. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 5 minutes. Add this to the large sauce pot.
  5. To that same pan, add 1 tbsp. butter and saute the mushrooms until their juices have released, approximately 5 minutes.
  6. Now we add everything to the large sauce pot.
  7. Add in the browned meat, the simmered wine, 2 tbsp. of tomato paste, the cooked mushrooms, the chopped porcini mushrooms including the liquid, 2 cloves of garlic and the beef stock. Add salt and pepper to taste. Now we need to simmer the sauce for 2 hours, stirring every 10-15 minutes until the sauce thickens and the flavours of this delicious sauce come together.
  8. Prepare your Bechemel sauce by adding equal amounts of butter and flour to a small saucepan. Whisk for 2 minutes. Now add in 2 cups of milk, whisking away until the sauce has thickened. I like to season my milk with nutmeg, and ground mustard, pepper and seasoned salt.
  9. For the assembly of this lasagne I will only do 4 layers and not 8. I use good lasagne noodles made in Italy and boil them for a few minutes. You can also use oven-ready noodles as they work great also. To assemble the lasagne we first add a layer of sauce on the bottom, then noodles, add the Béchamel sauce, then a layer of meat sauce over top. Now sprinkle some parmesan cheese, and a tiny bit of shredded mozzarella. Repeat.
  10. Bake covered at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove the tin foil and continue baking for another 15 minutes. Broil at the end for 3 minutes, carefully watching so that you don't burn the top. Allow the lasagne to cool and serve. The lasagne will even taste better the next day if you decide to make it ahead of time! Enjoy