When you make your lasagne - what cheese do you top it with.
I made one yesterday and used Extra Strong Mature Cheese and it was too strong for me. But my visitors thought it lovely - next time I make it I want to get a milder cheese. Would it be morrezzla(sp)
I bet the Italian friend didn't use a tub of bought so-called "fresh" sauce which is full of additives, stabilisers etc etc. If you've got a microwave, a plastic or Pyrex jug and a whisk you can make bechamel much better than any ready-made sauce.
You just add smoked pancetta to the ragu whilst cooking Jenny. I even once experimented with smoked cheese in the Béchamel but it was not an improvement.
I think a lasagne is what you want it to be. I think we could quibble all day about the authenticity. What I cook is what I like the taste of. I don't really mind if it's not the real McCoy. We like it, so that's fine.
Tilly....absolutely agree. Ask 10 Italians to make a lasagne and you'll get ten different versions - same as moussaka and the Greeks and Scouse and Liverpudlians!
Just another little fact. I am pretty sure that originally the Italians used sago flour to make the Béchamel, but corn flour suits me. Sago flour is harder to source for a sauce.
Ditto Danny.^^ It was the Americans(who else) that substituted the Béchamel with Ricotta cheese. Why would you do that? //
According to wiki, there are many regional variations. This I discovered when comparing the Naples version made by my mum, with the totally different version an Italian friend made. She told me that it was originally a celebratory meal with many variations. Obviously the neopolitan version became the "American lasagne" because most Italian immigrants were from the south.
Tilly - microwave bechamel. Heaped desertspoonful flour in jug, whisk in milk, add big knob of butter + salt and pepper. Heat, whisk, heat, whisk until desired consistency (add more milk if too thick). Child's play. Same method to make cheese sauce, parsley sauce etc etc.