How to Make the Ultimate Lasagna

Tyler's ultimate lasagna is great for a big family meal -- and leftovers.

We’re making Lasagna for a hungry family and also some left over for there too. So, what we’re going to do first, we’re going to take these guys, I'm going to put into the pan here. We’re going to add a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and we want to crank it up until its nice and warm. There is a little bit of smoke come up the oil because we really want to sear the meat, and caramelize the meat. Color equals flavor alright. If it’s gray and bubbly, it’s not going to taste like anything. If it’s reach and caramelized, it’s going to have a delicious flavor too. So, we’re going to take these guys. We’re going to cut them open. Just like this and we’re going to drop them right into the bottom of the pan. Okay, we’re getting a little smoke already and we’re in great shape. And we’re going to dropping in alright. Some really great sweet Italian pork sausage right here and then also some ground beef. When these guys starts to see in the bottom of pan and what we’re going to do is we’re going to take our spoon and we’re going to chunk it up. It’s not going to be super fun. I want some texture in there, alright. So, we’re going to take spoon and smash it up in pieces. We’ll going to have some good contact in the bottom of the pan. And we’re going to have little bit salt and pepper. We’re going to season it up just like that. Lots of chunky black pepper added to beef and the pork and its going to do its thing. Now, like by itself, it would taste okay but were going to do is add some really interesting character to our sauce. So, I got a lot of grate veggies in here too. All right, we got some celery, we’ve got some onions, we’ve got some garlic. I’ve also got a couple of this bugs bunny character here. And we’re going to do is going to wrap chop everything and then put into a food processor and put down with basil and parsley and oregano. And I’m going to put it right on top of the beef until it’s really smooth and just kind of let all these great flavors start to come together and that’s the base for perfect bowl nice sauce. Alright a guy, what we’re going to do is take all of those vegetables pulp, alright. We don’t want to leave anything behind. We’re going to drop it into the pot, right on top of the beef and pork and really let it start soak in. it’s going to smell delicious in about two seconds flat, alright. And we’re going to do stir everything down and make sure it heats the bottom of the pan which really going to matter the most. You know, we also got the big pot of water here. We’re going to cook up some Lasagna and noodles. Okay, so you want to make season the water after it comes to a boil, just like that. And we’re going to take this and drop them in. These guys are going to do their thing. I’m not going to cook them all the way through. We just want to cook them pliable because we’re going to cook them again once we start the stock all these stuff up and we got lots of great moisture for the pasta to start absorb. So, we’re just going to cook it until start to become kind of bendy and soft. What were going to do with this, we’re going t take it and tied it just a little bit of flour. The flour is going to help thicken and suspend the sauce. We got a good amount here. We got some good volume we’re talking about. And so I'm going to take a spoon here. It’s going to heat probably about two big tablespoons and just going to stir in. And also, what’s we heat it with the red wine and with the tomatoes and starts to cook down, it’s going to have a really beautiful shine, so it’s really nice. So, stir it in, stir. Let’s talk about ricotta cheese. We got two quarts and I’m going to take two eggs crack these guys in with my one hand. Parmigiano Reggiano and then we’re going to give it a good stir. Salt, some fresh crack pepper. So we give this a stir, send it back here and we are good to go. And when we’re ready to layer, so is our Ricotta, alright boom. And then we’re going to add some liquid to our sauce, start to brown up, smells delicious. And what we’re going to do is we’re going to heat this with some red wine and also two cans of crushed San Marzano tomatoes. We want this pretty soft, okay. So, if you’ve got whole tomatoes, just put them into a bowl, crush them a little bit and then double mince. We’re going to add some red wine. About two cups will do the trick. It’s going to be delicious once to start to cook down. So, it we get a kind of hardy texture and it’s really, really nice. So we’ve got that, we’ve got our beautiful San Marzano tomatoes. So I’ve got a little bit of heavy cream, alright. And also, little bit of cinnamon. Now I know it sounds kind of crazy to put a sweet spice into a pasta sauce but it’s a very traditional and it’s also a lovely kind of back note, it kind of soften the whole thing up. And also, with the cream, there is a lot of different translation of sauce. Nutritionally, it uses lots of whole milk, but I think it’s a little splashy cream, you use less and you get a bigger flavor out of it. So, we’re going to add some heavy cream, it’s going to give a stir. Also, it’s a little dab of some cinnamon, just touch, like a teaspoon, just kind of sprinkle in and just like that and just kind of give it one big serve. I smell sensational. Alright, so we’re going to take a little bit of olive oil, I'm going to put down in the bottom. Alright, so our bottom layer pasta doesn’t stick. Alright, we’re going to smear it around from end to end and make sure you are also get the edges, okay. Some people put pasta sauce down first. I think it’s a mistake. I want a really solid dry layer down the bottom. So, when I scoop it out, I’ve got something to scoop and sauce is not something to scoop. And we got three layers alright, across the bottom and you want to make sure shingle them, so they’re nice and tight. Then with these sorts of spaces at the very end, we’re going to take one more sheet and we’re going to tear it right in half and then we’re just going to layer up the top pieces. We got one piece here, one piece at the very end. And there we are going to heat it with our home ricotta cheese. So, we’ve got nice big bowl. Once these two quarts of ricotta cheese blend with two eggs, alright, we’ve got a little bit salt and pepper and that’s it. Alright, a couple nice big scoops, okay. And then we’re going to take spatula and this one kind of smooth it up. So you got one big beautiful area and then we’re going to put some eggs in this. So when this cooks and cools, it’s going to set up almost like a little fillet. Make sure we go from end to end with all of these. And we’ve got our ladle here and we’re going to start ladling in all these and we’re going to sprinkle it around and we get a nice creamy layer but not too much because remember we got four layers, alright. So a little goes a long way and just take our ladle and just kind of smooch it in and make sure we get from edge to edge, so every bite really counts. Then, we’re going to heat up with some cheese. I’ve got some beautiful cheese in here. I’ve got some low moisture organic mozzarella cheese and I make sure we get a nice even layer all across, alright. And that’s just it. It’s exactly what’s supposed to look like from layer to layer. We’re going to toast it into the oven, I got to preset and at 350 degrees, this go into the oven for about an hour until everything starts to bake up. It’s nice and solid, the egg is going to get really tight in ricotta and it’s going to be as bubbly and golden brown and absolutely delicious. Alright, we’re going to put this on the oven and say goodbye to my little friend Mr. Lasagna. Boom! You guys are going to love this. If you are fun of Lasagna, this is the Lasagna of the whole different level. Look at that. Isn’t that .impressive or what?