LASAGNE AL RAGU
we're back, and we're breaking down a classic.
Hello,
Welcome back to How I Cook+. Thanks for bearing with me the past few weeks, it’s been pretty hectic with the book being published and all that comes as part of that exciting package. BUT, I am pleased to announce that we are very kuch back in business. I’m excited to get stuck into YEAR 3 of this newsletter.
I’m writing this on Monday 8th, I’m outside my local coffee shop and there is a noticeable chill in the air. We’re in the nether-zone of summer and autumn, a zone I do love, and it’s time to shift the narrative a little. My friend Joel made a ragu over the weekend and it reminded me that I haven’t made a ragu all summer. Not only did this issue scratch that itch, but I wanted to come back to this newsletter with a recipe you can really chew on, and this offers plenty of good technique wrapped up in a proper lasagne, and we’re getting into it. This is a bumper issue, a weekend project, there’s a lot to digest, so dig in.
Making an almost arrogantly savoury, rich ragu is job number one. Next, a classic bechamel laced with nutmeg and finally, fresh pasta. Yes, fresh pasta. The juice is worth the squeeze. If you want to use dried, you can of course use dried. It’s a seriously good bit of cooking this, if I do say so myself.
Keep reading past the recipe for a very good album alongside a thought-provoking book on how we eat and consume food content and the media machine that drives it from Tandoh.
This year will be a whopper for How I Cook the newsletter - there’s a mind blowing 70k of you now reading my food thoughts, so please, let me know what you’d like to see over the next year, no project is too big!!!
Enjoy,
B x
LASAGNE AL RAGU
When I joined Mob in 2022, lasagna was very much in vogue. That’s not to say that it isn’t now or wasn’t before, but it felt like all people wanted to ogle on their discover feed were big sloppy slabs of the stuff. The Mob machine was thundering along, belching out smoke and gochujang bechamel, producing a different potentially-viral riff on the classic every month. There are currently 30+ recipes on their site for lasagna (I can personally attest to the fact that circa 10 of them are excellent IRL), a couple of which came from my hands. The “Ultimate Lasagna” was a project assigned to me and one that I dove head first into. The task was to create a lasagna that was semi-faithful to the original Bolognese recipe, a big, bold ragu, silky bechamel and even silkier pasta. I visited Bologna in 2023 and ate the slab of lasagna you see pictured above. A treasured food memory and still an untouchably delicious plate. That lasagna was and is my north star. It’s good to have goals, even if you know the likelihood of hitting them is near enough zero. Today I’m sharing an evolved, much improved, version of that recipe. Notice how the slab pictured above isn’t sagging onto the plate or creating a puddle of ragu. This is where so many lasagna recipes fall down for me. It should be able to support it’s own weight and be the perfect ratio of pasta to ragu to bechamel. Right, are you ready? Let’s get stuck in.
NOTES ON RAGU
If I were to rank the elements of a lasagna in order of importance, the top dog is the of course the ragu. But what is a ragu? Derived from the French word, ragoût, typically, in the Italian kitchen, a ragu is a sauce of meat, slow-cooked in liquid with a few vegetables. That liquid could be wine, tomatoes, stock, milk - you name it. The veg? Dealer’s choice. I’ve made hundreds of ragùs in my time, most of my favourites have been at Italian restaurants, and almost all of them have been served with a carb like