Episode #43 - Lasagne Alla Bolognese
Today's recipe is a gem! Lasagne alla Bolognese (with meat sauce) is one of the most popular dishes of Emila-Romagna, in Italy. Because of the proximity with Tuscany, the dish is now a very well represented item in restaurants' menus throughout my region and many families have their own version of it: today we will introduce you to the traditional recipe... the one without Ricotta Cheese!!! Don't let the hours of work needed to cook this intimidate you, indeed this is a dish that can be prepared without braking a major sweat... no surprises here. The idea behind this episode is to show you how to cook something that can be prepared well in advance (it can be refrigerated or frozen), in case you are planning a party, an evening out at the theatre, a date, or maybe grandma is visiting tomorrow?! I shot this episode while Debi was doing the final episode of Dancing With The Stars; I was going to attend the show, which meant I did not have the time to cook in the evening, but I still wanted to throw a nice after show dinner for the wife and a few friends.... I spent the morning cooking, the afternoon on stage watching my lady dance, and I had a major feast ready to be served when I got back home! On top of that, Since I prepared two trays of Lasagne, I was able to freeze one for the upcoming Holidays. It goes without saying that the appropriate way of doing things would be to also prepare your own pasta and cut the fresh lasagne yourself; right... next time, maybe! Go shop for fresh ingredients, make sure your iPod is loaded with some good Bossanova, wash your hands and get to work.