How to Make Giada's Classic Italian Lasagna | Everyday Italian | Food Network

There are many different components in lasagnas, but you don't have to be afraid of it. They're quick and they're easy. Just have to prepare ahead of time and make all your separate ingredients before you start to layer the lasagna. So that's where we're going to start. I'm going to take a pound of ground beef, I'm going to heat up my sauté pan, and add a little bit of olive oil. I'm going to break up the meat with my spatula. It's easier to break up meat when it's raw like this than it is when it's half cooked. We're going to add a little bit of salt, just to wake up the flavors in the beef. This is going to take about 4-5 minutes to cook, and in the meantime I'm going to prepare my ricotta. Before I empty it out, I'm going to beat 3 eggs. Now I'm going to need about a pound and a half of ricotta, and I've got 2 pounds here. I love it for breakfast or for afternoon snack, even for dessert, with sugar, honey, and berries. I can't tell you how delicious it is. Perfect. I'll save the rest for later. That's all incorporated. Let me check on my meat. That looks ready. I'm going to set it in my bowl and let it cool off, and then I'll use this later while I'm layering my lasagna. I'm going to lower the heat to make my bechamel sauce, which is a sauce made out of butter, flour, and milk. We need 5 tablespoons of butter, so about there. I'm going to melt my butter before I add my flour. Make sure that it's nice and melted. I'll break it down a little bit. Ready to add our flour. I'm going to add half a cup, and I quickly want to start stirring. I want to get a nice, creamy sauce, and I don't want any lumps. I'm melting the flour, basically cooking it, and cooking all that gritty, raw flour taste out of it. Okay. It's yellow. It's creamy. I'm ready for my milk. Now, I'm using whole milk. I like whole milk for this dish. You're looking for a very creamy, thick sauce. Now, I've put in all of my milk. I'm going to stir it, and then I'm going to let it thicken. A lot of recipes will ask you to heat the milk. I just like to take it out about an hour or so before I'm going to need it, and it comes down to room temperature, and it works perfectly. A little bit of salt, and some ground white pepper. Now, I like to use white pepper in this dish. It has a milder flavor than black pepper, so just a couple pinches of that, and some wonderful nutmeg. It's unbelievable how it complements a cream sauce. I'm going to use a grater. I'm just going to grate a little bit. A little goes a long way with nutmeg. This is going to take some time to cook, so I'm going to stir it every once in a while, and keep a close eye on it, but in the meantime, I'm going to get my bowl ready, and add my tomato sauce to it. Now, my tomato sauce, I put whole tomatoes, basil, and garlic, and extra virgin olive oil. We're going to need about one and a half cups, so I'm going to measure it out. That's one and a half. Okay. I'm going to save this for later. Let's check on our bechamel. You know it's ready when it coats the back of the spoon. I'm going to show you what that means. You just want to stick your finger, ooh, that's hot, in the back, and see how it stays separated? It doesn't come back together, so you know it's thick enough. Wow, look how thick. That looks fantastic. Let me whisk it together. Look at how it's turning pink. It's so beautiful. Now, I need one more component. I'm using some frozen chopped spinach, and you know, you can find regular spinach, and you can cook them, but it's going to take a lot more spinach for this dish if you use fresh spinach. I don't want a lot of extra water, because it's going to make my lasagna soggy and drown out all those flavors. It's kind of fun. It's like being a kid. We're ready to start layering our lasagna. These are the lasagna sheets I'm going to use today. You don't need to boil them or cook them, you're just going to put them in raw, and they're going to cook in the oven. Add a third of a cup of this creamy pink bechamel, and we want to do that to add a layer for the pasta to start soaking up some liquid. That's how it's going to cook. And then we'll start adding our layers of pasta. Our next layer is our ricotta cheese mixed with egg. This is going to be delicious. Another special cheesy topping, grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Okay, now, a little bit of butter. The butter will melt and help get that nice golden brown color, so you just want a little bit dolloped on top. You don't even need the knife really, it's so soft. Just use my fingers. Alright, now, it's ready to go in the oven, so I've preheated my oven 375 degrees, and it's going to bake for 45 minutes. Wait until you see the final product.