Here's my lasagna recipe (I have 4 different recipes and this is my gourmet one.).
This takes a lot of preperation so when I make this I'll start early in the morning on a saturday with the idea of having it for dinner that night or lunch on Sunday.
First step. Meat Sauce;
You'll need about 3 to 4# of veal shanks (beef shanks will do or a mix of veal/beef/lamb shanks). Bread shanks in flour, season with salt and pepper then brown in large pot until well browned. Removed. Add 2 cups diced onion, 1 cup diced carrot, 1 cup diced celery and sweat on low temp till tender, add 1 tbs minced garlic and saute till fragrant. Turn heat up and deglaze with 1 cup red wine. Let wine reduce by about half. Return shanks and add 2 large (28 oz) cans of italian plum tomatos (or dice about 3# of fresh romas), add 1 6 oz can of tomato paste, 1 x 14 oz can beef broth, 1 tbs salt, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp cracked red pepper, 1 tbs basil, 1 tbs oregano, a few sprigs thyme, 2 bay leaves. Give a good stir and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce to simmer till meat is fall of the bone tender (about 2 to 3 hours). Remove lid, and pull meat from bones, remove any bone marrow from bones with a skewer if needed (there's a ton of flavor in that marrow!). Give a good stir and turn heat up to medium to medium low and let sauce reduce till desired thickness (by the way this braised meat is really good on garlic mashed potatoes). Set aside.
Make a beschemel sauce by adding 2 tbs olive oil with 2 tbs butter, melt and add 1/4 cup flour. Stir under medium high heat till roux is cooked then add about 3 to 4 cups of milk. Stir under heat till sauce thickens then add 1 cup of parmesean cheese. stir cheese into sauce then set aside.
Now take a tub of ricotta cheese, empty into a mixing bowl and add two eggs and 1 heaping tbs of fresh chopped parsley and mix together.
You'll also need about 1# of buffalo mozzarella cheese cut into thin slices
Assembly;
Add a layer of meat sauce to bottom of pan. add a layer of cooked lasagna noodles, add sauce, a layer of mozzarella and then pour some cheese sauce (not to much), add another layer of noodles, meat sauce, then ricotta mix (about 6 tbs per layer), more cheese sauce. Alternate in this fashion until the lasagna is assembled. For top layer add meat sauce, mozzarella, the last of the cheese sauce and grate some parm on top.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Remove foil and turn heat up to 425 and bake for 20 more minutes until lasagna is bubbly hot and cheese is browned. Remove from oven and let cool for about 15 minutes before slicing and serving.
