Football Saturday Béchamel Lasagna

I love making this lasagna on a rainy fall weekend while college football is on in the background, the fire is burning, and I’ve got a good glass of wine in hand. What’s great about this recipe is that it’s modular, meaning you can swap in some store-bought components, like good jarred pasta sauce and oven-ready noodles, or go all out and do most of it from scratch.

The Noodles

The recipe calls for oven-ready noodles you can get at the store. However, I don’t make this often, so when I do, I break out my KitchenAid mixer and its pasta making attachments. I typically go with a ratio of 3/4 cup flour for every large egg, drizzling a little olive oil and a sprinkle of salt at the beginning of the kneading process. If you opt to go this route, make the pasta dough first and let it rest while you work on the meat and béchamel sauces. Then run them through the sheet pressing attachment, going up to #6 on the dial. This creates a relatively thin sheet that does not require any par boiling.

If you don’t have the tools and/or don’t want to invest the time in making the pasta, you can check Whole Foods and other specialty markets in your area for fresh pasta sheets, get the oven-ready ones at the supermarket, or swap in your basic curly-edged lasagna noodles.

The Sauce

The sauce is such an integral part of lasagna, and this is an area I suggest taking the time to make from scratch if you can. Choose a good red wine since it’s the flavor that’s left behind after burning off the alcohol. Plus, you should pour a glass while you’re cooking!

I learned a trick from Rachael Ray many years ago, which is to let the garlic and crushed red pepper flakes simmer in the olive oil while you’re prepping the other ingredients. Just make sure the garlic doesn’t burn so you need a low setting. The simmering releases the oils and compounds from the garlic and pepper flakes and intensifies their flavors. I do this in a lot of my recipes.

Otherwise, splurge for good quality jarred sauce, such as RAOs (my personal favorite jarred sauce), and doctor it up with the dried herbs in the sauce recipe on this page. You can also get creative and include any add-ins you want, like mushrooms, zucchini, carrots, celery, etc.

The Cheeses

I’m simply not a fan of ricotta cheese, which many lasagna recipes use. The gritty texture turns me off, so instead, I use a béchamel sauce, which has proven to be a big hit whenever I serve this recipe. I love how the creamy béchamel combines with the mozzarella and parmesan cheeses to create a richer and more velvety texture than ricotta. But, if you’re okay with ricotta, you can sub that in for the béchamel. But trust me, once you go the béchamel route, you won’t go back!

This recipe calls for fresh mozzarella, but you can use shredded instead. It’s just so hard to beat the gooey and melty nature of the fresh stuff. Plus, it allows you to be more strategic with how it’s placed. Just remember that it spreads out while it bakes, so you don’t need this layer of the lasagna to be side-to-side pieces. While the recipe calls for slices, you can cut the slices in half, or tear them in pieces, to get more smaller pieces across the lasagna.

For the parmesan, I like the shaved version. You can either buy a wedge of parmesan and use a veggie peeler to make shavings, or buy a container of the shaved cheese.

Football Saturday Béchamel Lasagna

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 2 hours hrs

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Resting time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 3 hours hrs

Servings: 12

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients Equipment Method

Ingredients

  

Meat Sauce

• 1 1/2 lb ground beef
• 1 1/2 lb mild or spicy Italian sausage
• 3-4 tbsp olive oil
• 6 garlic cloves peeled and minced
• 1/2 tsp red chili flakes can add more for spicier sauce
• 2 cups diced onion about 2 medium
• 1 cup good, dry red wine
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes in puree
• 1 14.5 oz can petite diced tomatoes drained
• 2 tsp dried basil rub between palms to release more flavor
• 2 tsp dried oregano rub between palms to release more flavor
• 1 tsp dried thyme rub between palms to release more flavor

Béchamel Sauce

• 4 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 cups whole milk warmed
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg I use a microplaner
• 1 Pinch of pepper
• 8 oz package of spinach thawed and completely dry (use a cheesecloth or flour sack towel to squeeze out liquid)
• 1 large carrot grated
• 1 egg beaten

For the other layers

• 1 lb oven-ready lasagna sheets parboiled 1 min (until just pliable)
• 16 oz fresh mozzarella sliced thin (I buy the presliced log)
• 8 oz shaved parmesan use a veggie peeler on a parmesan wedge, or buy a container

Equipment

• 1 9x13x3 pan
• 1 Large dutch oven
• 1 Medium saucepan

Method

 

Meat Sauce

1. In a large dutch oven brown the beef and sausage over medium-high heat until cooked through (may need to do this in two batches).
2. Transfer cooked meat to a bowl.
3. In the same dutch oven, add enough olive oil to fully coat the bottom of the pan.
4. Add garlic and red pepper flakes and simmer on low to combine the flavors.
5. While oil simmers, dice onion and add to pan. Saute until onion is soft, about 5 minutes.
6. Add 1 cup dry red wine and increase heat to high, reducing the wine down by half.
7. Add tomato paste, canned tomatoes, and dried herbs.
8. Return the meat to the pot, stir, and simmer over medium low heat while preparing the Bechamel Sauce.
You can make the sauce up to 3 days in advance andrefrigerate. Then warm slightly before assembling the lasagna.

Béchamel Sauce

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
2. Whisk in the flour and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly. Do not let it brown.
3. Slowly whisk in the warm milk, a little at a time, until smooth.
4. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently, until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
5. Stir in the salt, nutmeg, and pepper.
6. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes.
7. Add spinach, carrot, and beaten egg to remaining mixture.
8. Set aside 1 cup of the sauce for the top of the lasagna.

Assembly

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Coat a 9x13x3 casserole pan with non-stick spray (or if you want easy clean up, pick up a foil one at Dollar Tree)
3. Pour 1/2 cup béchamel on the bottom (it will be just enough to coat the pan)
4. Next, you will create layers in the following order until pasta sheets are used up: pasta sheets, béchamel, meat sauce (it's okay if it mixes with the béchamel), mozzarella (if using sliced, use about 6 slices per layer), shaved parmesan
5. At the very end, drizzle the 1 cup of béchamel and any other cheese you may have left.
6. Bake lasagna uncovered until hot, bubbly, and browned, about 40 minutes.
7. Let lasagna rest about 20 minutes before cutting and serving.