-Mm.
-12 years?
-Something --
Yeah, like 12 years.
See how long we've been married,
because she won't remember.
-No.
You told me the other day.
♪♪
-Hi. I'm Scott Tacinelli.
-And I'm Angie Rito,
and we're here from Don Angie
in the West Village.
And today,
we're gonna make our lasagna.
Okay, so, first things first,
we're gonna make
our pasta dough.
We use the egg yolks to give
richness to the dough,
and then the whole eggs adds,
like, structure to the dough.
We're gonna use
an all-purpose flour.
This is the way we make it
in the restaurant.
-Yeah.
-If you don't have
a stand mixer,
you can totally make pasta dough
in a food processor.
-So, I think the key
with making pasta is
you can't just dump
all the eggs in at one time.
So I'm just gonna add
like half of the egg yolks.
Alright, I'm gonna add
the rest of the egg yolks.
-You want the dough to appear to
be sort of shaggy at this stage.
Like, it shouldn't be a smooth,
like, moist ball.
-We sell like between
30 and 40 lasagnas a day
on a 50-seat restaurant, so...
-Like, on the weekends,
we'll sell like into
the 40s of lasagnas.
-I've been kneading it
just for a couple minutes,
just to bring it all together
and to incorporate
all the flour.
And this is
what you're looking for.
You want it to be kind of
a little shaggy
when you break it apart
like this,
but you want it to be
one solid mass.
What you do at this point
is wrap it in plastic wrap
and leave it on the counter
for at least 30 minutes.
-So now our dough is made.
It's resting.
In the meantime,
we're gonna make our Béchamel.
Add some butter here.
Scott is chopping up
some shallots.
This is a pretty straightforward
Béchamel recipe.
Béchamel is usually found in,
like, traditional lasagna
from Bologna,
so we definitely wanted
to incorporate it
in our version of lasagna.
We're gonna add the shallots
and the aromatics.
We have bay, thyme,
black peppercorn, and some salt.
We're basically gonna cook this
until the shallots
are translucent,
so they're infusing all
their flavor into the butter.
Now we're going in
with the flour.
-So, it takes about --
probably I would say,
like 10 minutes
to cook the flour out.
If you add the milk now, it's
just gonna taste like raw flour.
You definitely need to stir it
because if you don't stir it,
it will burn pretty fast.
I'm going to add the milk.
Once this comes up to a simmer,
then it'll start thickening.
You can feel it as you stir it.
-Yeah, it's like resistance.
-It'll start to get thicker.
-Yeah.
So, we're using a chinois
with a small ladle.
We're basically just separating
out the sauce from, you know,
like, the chunks of, like,
shallots and herbs
and everything else --
the peppercorns.
So now we're gonna
cool this down,
so we'll just put this
in the fridge.
Okay, so, next, we're gonna make
our version of Bolognese sauce.
-First thing we have to do
is make the sofrito.
Our sofrito is onions, carrots,
celery, and garlic.
-We're gonna process it
in a food processor.
People always think that, like,
a Bolognese sauce
is anything with meat in it,
and they'll make,
like, you know,
a tomato sauce with meat in it,
and they call it that.
But that's not really
what it is.
It actually only has, like,
a tiny bit of tomato,
via the tomato paste,
in the traditional recipe.
I'm going to cut the pancetta,
also, at this point.
-Everything's even and cut up,
like, really, really small,
but even.
Alright, so, get the pan
nice and hot.
First, we're gonna cook the veal
and the sausage.
This is -- We had Italian
sausage. We took the casing off.
So, once you put it into the pot
and start cooking it,
you can just break it up
with the spoon.
♪♪
-Alright, so we're gonna
set this aside.
So now we're going in
with the pancetta.
Basically,
we're rendering this out.
We're adding a little water,
just to kind of deglaze
the bottom of this thing here,
just so all the stuff
that's stuck --
if we didn't just do that,
it would just continue to, like,
stick there and, like, burn.
Fat's coming out.
You can see
it's sort of like translucent.
So, at this point,
we're gonna add in the sofrito.
So, this has
a lot of water in it.
It's gonna help sort of like
deglaze the bottom of the pan.
-So, we also are gonna put in
the star anise,
which is kind of like a little
secret ingredient in this --
not a secret anymore, but...
-Right.
Never a secret.
-So, star anise makes
the meat taste, like, meatier.
Alright, we're getting close.
You can see, like, a lot of
the water has evaporated.
It's starting to change color.
I think we're pretty good.
What I'm gonna do now is add in
the tomato paste.
You want to stir this
really good.
Coat everything.
It'll coat all the vegetables,
but you'd want to cook
the tomato paste again.
So, otherwise, it's gonna be
like one of those things --
you'll have just
raw tomato paste in it.
And if you can smell the tomato
is cooked, it's bright orange,
you're gonna add the wine
and cook out the wine.
♪♪
Should go pretty quick
'cause the pot at this point
is really hot.
Once the wine's cooked out,
it's like everything
in the pool, pretty much,
and then this isn't
one of those sauces
that you need to cook
for like five hours --
like, you know,
it's usually about like
40 minutes to an hour,
and it's done.
So now we're gonna add
everything else back in -- milk.
-The meat back in.
-The meat back in.
And...the tomatoes.
And you want to stir
it really good.
Let it simmer for about an hour,
and while it's doing that, we're
gonna make the tomato sauce.
-My first move is I'm just gonna
process some tomatoes.
-Angie has this thing
where she'll, like --
I've never seen anybody
do this but you.
-What? [ Laughs ] Oh, no.
-I'll be opening cans of tomato
at the restaurant,
and she'll come by
and just take one of them
right out of the can, you know?
-[ Laughs ]
-She loves them
right out of the can.
-I really love them,
like a lot, yeah.
We really have a thing for San
Marzano tomatoes, specifically.
Like, we're really particular
about a lot of our ingredients,
but, like, that's one
that we're definitely
super particular about that.
Now I'm just gonna sort of pulse
the tomatoes.
Scott's killing the garlic.
So, we're leaving the skins on,
and we're just sort of, like,
gently crushing them.
-Alright, so, we're gonna start
with some olive oil.
Good amount, actually.
-You have to be really careful
with this part
'cause it's gonna splash,
for sure.
-Do you see?
It's, like, simmering
in the whole pot.
-Yeah.
-Yeah.
So we're gonna turn it off now.
-So we're cutting the heat.
-And we're gonna season it with
salt and a little bit of sugar.
-And I mean, this cooked
so briefly, now,
but we're gonna cook it again
when we bake the lasagna
in the oven.
When it's all done, we're just
gonna add in some basil.
Okay, so, now that our sauces
are done, our next move
is we're going to roll out
our pasta sheets.
-So, the pasta dough's
been resting for like
at least 30 minutes.
If it's a little sticky,
we're just gonna put
a little bit of flour on it.
-You can see, in that time
period, it got, like, smoother.
-We're gonna use
a pasta sheeter.
You could roll it out
with a rolling pin.
You could use a hand crank,
which are totally fine.
You could also
get the attachment
that goes on the stand mixer.
And the best way
to go about getting the pasta
to go through it
is to slice this into pieces.
[ Whirring ]
-I like the sound
this thing makes.
-So, then, once you get
the thin sheets,
the best way to do it
is to put them
on top of each other
and then put that through.
[ Whirring continues ]
-This process is also sort of
like kneading the dough.
-There it goes.
So now we're gonna go thinner.
-Yeah, if you don't have
an assistant handy,
you could totally
cut it in half.
-Now, in order to make
the rolls,
we have to cut this into sheets.
I'm gonna cut them
like about 12 inches.
Alright, so now
we're gonna cook the sheets.
-We have water here that's been
brought up to a rolling boil --
really need -- heavily season
the water with salt.
Should be like seawater.
Alright, so...
drop this in
for like a second...
♪♪
...and pull it out,
put it in ice water.
Seems ridiculous.
It seems like that
barely did anything, but...
-The water's so hot that...
-The water's so hot.
So, as I'm doing this,
Scott is gonna pull them
out of the ice water,
like once they're iced down.
You have to be really careful
'cause they'll --
you know, they sort of seize up,
so you have to be really careful
not to tear them.
I'm also being careful to lay
the pasta flat in the water,
because if it folds
at this point,
it tends to, like,
sort of stick together.
So, someone does this every
single day at the restaurant.
-So, the sauce has been cooking
for about an hour and a half.
We're gonna season it with salt,
a little bit of sugar,
and we always squeeze
fresh lemon juice for, like,
acid to balance it out
and to, like,
brighten up the sauce
at the very end.
-So, now that all of
the ingredients
are completely cooled down,
I just want to reiterate again,
like, how important that is,
'cause if you try to do this
with even, like,
warm ingredients,
it's so much harder,
so it really has to be cold.
We're gonna go ahead
and start rolling lasagna.
So, Scott is starting
with the Béchamel.
-So, the first --
the bottom layer of pasta
is you put the Béchamel
over the whole entire thing.
-Or if you have some sheets
that might have torn
or aren't perfect,
reserve those ones
for the inner layer.
So, this is the outer layer.
It's important to have no tears
on that layer
'cause it's gonna sort of like
hold everything together.
-After the Béchamel,
we're gonna put
Parmigiano-Reggiano.
We like the 24-month
Parmigiano-Reggiano,
but it is the most expensive.
But it definitely
does taste the best, for sure.
You put the Béchamel
over the entire sheet,
all the way to the corners,
but you don't put the Parmesan
or the mozzarella cheese.
You leave, like, about --
you know, like,
an inch on the top,
and that's what's gonna
seal it together.
-So, I'm gonna come in
after Scott with the mozzarella.
-And then...
we're gonna take
the other sheets.
And we're gonna put it down, and
you're gonna go right on top.
And you're gonna push it down
on the part
that doesn't have the cheese.
Then you're gonna take
the Béchamel and put it
on the very top of this,
just like an inch.
-We wanted to do, like,
a lasagna for two,
like a large-format pasta dish,
and we were thinking about
a number of different ideas.
And I got to say, I saw
a picture of cinnamon rolls,
and, like, they were, like,
baked in a pan, you know?
And they looked really
beautiful, and that's, like,
where the idea came from.
-So now comes the, I guess,
fun part -- I don't know.
You got to roll it.
And when you do it,
you can kind of pull it back
a little bit
as you're rolling it, and...
♪♪
-Typically, in the restaurant,
we let it sit
for like an hour in the fridge,
just to, like,
set up even further,
so it's, like, really easy
to get a nice,
clean slice on it.
-Yeah.
We're gonna slice it now, but...
-Yeah, but if you don't want
to wait that long,
like, just cut it.
Transfer them to the dish.
I think we're gonna do, like,
a couple more in here today.
Now we're gonna go in the oven
for about like 10 minutes.
-Okay, so, after about 10,
15 minutes,
you can see it starts to bubble
and starting to
get brown on top.
What we do is one final step
where we take fresh
Robiola cheese.
It's basically like
Italian cream cheese.
So now we're gonna put it
in the oven.
♪♪
-Okay, so, we pulled the lasagna
out of the oven.
It was hot and bubbly.
The edges of the pasta
have all browned.
The Robiola cheese also is
starting to brown a little bit.
So, our last move here is just
to finish it with some chopped,
fresh parsley
and some olive oil.
♪♪
-Now we got to eat it.
♪♪
Well, you can see, like,
all the edges are really brown,
which is, like,
I think the best thing about it.
-Textural contrast between,
like,
the crunchy bits at the top
and sort of like the soft,
creamy cheese.
The Bolognese sauce is,
like, super rich.
And then, to counter that,
we have, like,
the bright acidity
of the tomato sauce.
-It cuts through, like,
any heaviness and really, like,
makes it come across as light.
-Mm-hmm.
For the recipe, click below,
and come see us sometime
at Don Angie.
♪♪
