GLUTEN-FREE LASAGNA

Posted by Rosa Rizzo the

 

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Ingredients for 2 medium-sized baking trays

For the pasta:

For the dairy-free béchamel sauce:

For the ragù:

  • 400g minced meat
  • 500g tomato sauce
  • Sautéed (EVO oil to taste, 1 carrot, 1 onion, 1 stalk of celery)
  • Salt to taste
  • Parmigiano Reggiano to taste

First, prepare the ragù: pour a drizzle of oil and the diced vegetables into a non-stick pan and fry. Add the minced meat and salt and leave to cook over a low heat for 10 – 15 minutes. Then add the tomato sauce and cook over low heat for at least 30 minutes. Turn off the heat, let the ragù cool by transferring it to a glass or ceramic baking dish.

Now prepare the dairy-free béchamel sauce: mix the oil with the brown rice flour in a saucepan and turn on the low heat to heat the mixture. Then add the nutmeg and vegetable milk and cook for about 5 minutes, until you obtain a thick cream. Turn off the heat and let cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.

Now dedicate yourself to fresh pasta: Pour the fresh pasta flour into a large bowl and shell the eggs in the centre. Start beating the mixture with a fork, gradually collecting the flour from the edges and bringing it towards the centre. Mix everything well, add the EVO oil and continue kneading with your hands until you obtain a dough that should not be too soft or sticky, but rather compact and smooth. Wrap it in cling film and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

After this time, roll it out on a floured surface with a rolling pin to a very thin thickness (2 – 3 mm), or if you have a sheeting machine, roll it out into thin sheets.

Cut the sheets to the size of your baking dish using a knife: you can make them square, rectangular or oval.

Before using them, blanch them for 1 or 2 minutes in boiling water: then place a pan of water on the heat and when it boils, immerse the sheets one by one for 1 minute or a little more. Remove them from the water with a slotted spoon and immerse them in a second pan filled with cold water and a drizzle of oil. Place them on a clean cloth.

Now you can compose your lasagna: take the baking dish and place a spoonful of bechamel sauce on the bottom. You can mix the rest of the béchamel with the ragù, which in this way will be more fluid and creamy. Continue by placing a sheet of pasta and arrange 2 or 3 tablespoons of ragù on top. Sprinkle with a generous dose of grated Parmigiano Reggiano and continue in the same way for another 2 or 3 layers of lasagna and finishing with the ragù covered by Parmesan.

Cook your lasagna in a static oven at 190° for about 25 – 30 minutes.

Curiosity

How to make Lasagna

Lasagne, a traditional dish of Italian cuisine and always present on the tables of every family, are nothing more than thin sheets of egg pasta, prepared with very few simple ingredients. I had already told you about fresh homemade egg pasta when we made the stuffed Ravioli and Tagliatelle, and today too we will see together how to prepare homemade gluten-free Lasagne with a very simple, quick and genuine recipe because it is made with Mulino Marello natural flours, without added gums, sugars or thickeners.

To prepare the pastry for the Lasagne we will use the pure Mulino Marello fresh pasta mixture, to which we will not add any starch or fibre, but only eggs and a little EVO oil for kneading.

As always, before starting, equip yourself with a large bowl and a fork with which you will work the mixture, a pastry board, a rolling pin (or, if you have one, a sheeter), and some rice flour to always keep on hand to dust the work surface and the dough.

To compose your lasagna, you will also need condiments. I have decided to offer you the most classic recipe that exists, that of Bolognese lasagne, with bechamel and ragù.

If you already have your favorite recipe for ragù, follow it without problems. I know well how every family has their own personal recipe, the one handed down from grandmother, handwritten in an old notebook, which they are very fond of. I chose to use the ragù made by my mother, not particularly complex and quite quick to make, but very tasty.

As for the Bechamel, however, I opted for a very light version without milk and derivatives. My béchamel, in fact, does not require the use of butter and is made very quickly with only oil, vegetable milk (one of your choice) and Mulino Marello brown rice flour. If you are not lactose intolerant or have no allergies to dairy products, you can always replace vegetable milk with cow's milk.

Homemade lasagna: useful tips and tricks

As with other types of homemade pasta, even in the case of Lasagne the simplest method for rolling out the dough is the sheeting machine, which allows you to obtain a sheet of pasta that is as thin and homogeneous as possible. But if you don't have it, no problem, you can simply use a rolling pin like I did.

The advice is to roll out the dough very thinly, to a maximum thickness of 2 – 3 mm, so that once cooked the dough is fine and soft. In fact, it would not be pleasant on the palate to have a thick and chewy lasagna in your mouth.

Always keeping rice flour on hand is essential, because it will allow you to dust the work surface and the dough block well so that you can roll it out evenly without it sticking to the work surface, thus preventing it from sticking and consequently getting holes.

Once you have obtained the desired thickness, you will need to cut the dough with a knife into the shape that best suits you. Adjust to the size of the baking dish you intend to use and cut the dough accordingly, following the perimeter of the pan. You can therefore choose to make the sheets in a square, rectangular, oval or round shape.

Pre-cooking

There are those who blanch the lasagne in hot water and those who use them freshly made and then prepare them raw and then cook them directly in the oven. The question is a bit controversial and also in this case follow the procedure with which you have always been happy.

Personally I find that blanching them in boiling water makes cooking easier, thus allowing the homemade lasagna, rustic in itself, to cook evenly and above all more quickly once in the oven. So fill a pan with plenty of water, bring it to the boil and immerse the sheets one at a time, delicately, leaving them to boil for only 1 or 2 minutes at most. Drain them with a slotted spoon and immediately dip them into a second pan filled with cold water and a drop of oil, so that they cool and stop the cooking. Then place them on a clean cloth and pat them dry to remove excess water. Then proceed to compose your lasagna.

How many layers to make?

Don't get carried away, it's better not to overdo the layers so as not to have an excessively high lasagna which would risk not cooking to perfection. The ideal would be 3 or 4 layers, 5 at most if you have a particularly tall baking dish.

Lasagna: is it possible to preserve it?

With the doses of fresh pasta that I will give you below you will obtain a quantity that is certainly greater than the number of sheets you will need to make your lasagna. So I'll give you some good news: it is possible to freeze the ready-made sheets and use them when necessary.

Then cut the sheets of the desired size, overlap them 5 at a time, separating them one by one with a sheet of baking paper in the middle. At this point, wrap them in cling film and place them in the freezer. The frozen lasagna sheets will be ready to be defrosted, blanched and used as needed.

Recipe created by Visconti Silvia

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