The history of the appearance
Before proceeding to the description of the recipe for lasagna, let's talk about the history of the appearance of this dish. Any foreigner can get lost in the Italian pasta, but every Italian child can distinguish between tortellini and cannelloni, and lasagna from Tagliatelle or Fedel. The region of Emilia-Romagna is considered the place where for the first time they began to prepare lasagna. A delicious dish immediately won the stomachs and hearts of many Italians, and soon the wonderful world learned about the wonderful dish.
Its modern form of lasagna was not always. Her ancestor consider Greek bread in the form of flat cakes, which was called laganon. The Romans cut it into broad strips and in the plural called lagani. According to one version, the word "lasagna" also came from here.
Another version says that "lasagna" originated from the Greek word "lasanon", meaning "pot furnace". To denote the dishes for the preparation of lasagna, the Romans turned this word into "lasanum".
For the first time the recipe for lasagna is mentioned in the historical documents of Italy of the XIV century. According to this recipe, the lasagna was prepared as follows: the sheets of homemade noodles were thinly rolled and boiled, then they were sandwiched with cheese and spices. In the 16th century, Polish culinary specialists finalized the recipe, and the world saw a dish called lazanka.
Secrets of cooking
Sheets for lasagna can be purchased at any supermarket. But you can cook them yourself. As for any pasta, lasagna dough will only need flour from durum wheat. The dough should be bezdozhzhevym: water, flour, egg and salt. The amount of necessary water is determined by its quality: protein content, gluten content and quality of grinding. You can alleviate the process by sifting the flour several times.
The most difficult is the process of sheet rolling, since its thickness should not be more than 1 mm. All the sheets before baking should be dried, but try not to overdry, otherwise they will crumble, which breaks the structure of the dish.
Before collecting minced meat and pasta, the ready-made dough sheets are slightly boiled in boiling salted water. In order not to tear a thin sheet, pull them carefully.
The traditional recipe for lasagna involves the use of six sheets of dough, which is shifted with vegetable or meat minced meat. But you can use any number of sheets and any products. The filling can be any vegetables (tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplants, onions, cauliflower, zucchini, spinach), mushrooms, fish, chicken, meat, seafood, ham, cheese. From above everything is sprinkled with hard cheese and poured with béchamel sauce.
Next, the dish is sent to the oven and baked for 20-30 minutes at a temperature of 180-200 degrees. The total cooking time of lasagna varies depending on the oven's capabilities and the availability of minced meat.
Sometimes they prepare the so-called "false lasagna". For this, bake pancakes, layers are shifted with different fillings, pour sauce and all this is baked in the oven. This dish can rather be called a pancake pie.
For lovers of sweets, you can prepare lasagna with a sweet filling, for example, with cottage cheese or apples, nuts or pineapple. Before you send the dish to the oven, it is poured with cream, whipped with sugar.
Lasagna in a royal way
The taste of this dish will conquer even the gourmet. For its preparation you need to take a well-washed salmon fillet or salmon (500-600 g), if there is to remove the skin from it, and cut it in flat pieces into an amount equal to the number of layers for lasagna. The first and last sheet of this puff cake will be from the dough, and all the rest are toppings.
300-400 g of fresh broccoli is disassembled on inflorescences and 2-3 minutes blanched in boiling salted water, then thrown into a colander. Next, take 3-4 large tomatoes, water with boiling water to peel, and cut into circles.
To prepare the sauce, in a saucepan on slow fire, dissolve two tablespoons of butter, add as much flour, and then mix the mixture with a glass of water, which was previously blanched broccoli. The resulting broth is cooled slightly and a glass of sour cream or fat cream is added. All this is brought to a boil, stirring constantly, and boiled for five minutes. The resulting sauce is salted, peppered and for taste added three tablespoons aniseed vodka.
Sheets of lasagne are cooked to half the preparedness and laid out separately from each other.
The bottom of the form, in which lasagne will be baked, is oiled, then pour a little cream sauce, spread the first sheet of dough, on it - peppered and salted fish fillet, then again the dough sheet, broccoli cabbage, dough, tomato slices, dough, fish and t . The last layer is the dough sheet. All sprinkle with grated cheese and pour sauce. Then send for 40-45 minutes in the oven. To the table lasagna is served hot.
This dish will always have to taste to your guests and home. And the ability to use a variety of products and sauce for the filling will help you to constantly surprise them.