I have made fresh pasta several times recently and thought it would be a good idea to make lasagna with fresh pasta sheets. Looking through my library I found a recipe using fresh pasta in Carrabba’s Italian Grill: Recipes from Around Our Family Table by Johnny Carrabba and Damian Mandola. It is a pretty straightforward recipe which turned out very well. It makes 9 servings in a 9 x 13 baking dish and takes about 2 hours. A key step is having all the ingredients lined up to assemble the lasagna.
If you don’t want to make the pasta from scratch, you could substitute 5 fresh pasta sheets, or 15 dried lasagna noodles.
For the fresh pasta
400 g. semolina flour
¼ tsp. salt
4 large eggs
Water (as needed, if any)
For the lasagna
1-1/2 lbs. Italian sausage
7 cups marinara sauce (I used Rao’s roasted garlic) – includes sauce to add to finished lasagna when serving
8 oz. (2 cups) freshly grated Parmesan (plus more for serving) – separate out ½ cup for the topping
1 lb. shredded low-moisture part-skim mozzarella
1-1/2 lbs. whole milk ricotta
Olive oil (for greasing pan and noodles)
Begin by making the fresh pasta dough. In the bowl of a stand mixer put the semolina flour and salt. Using the paddle, mix them briefly. With the paddle running on low, mix in the eggs one at a time until absorbed by the flour. Check the consistency, and if necessary, add water 1 teaspoon at a time until a workable (not crumbly dough) is made. (I used about 4 tsp.) Switch to the dough hook and knead the dough until smooth. Divide the dough into 4 balls (about 155 g. each). Wrap them in plastic and rest them in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. (The dough can be made ahead.)
Remove the Italian sausage from the casing and cook it in a large skillet, breaking it up into small pieces. When cooked drain on paper towels.
Heat a large pot of salted water. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Assemble all the filling ingredients in a row on the kitchen counter. Grease a 13 x 9-inch baking dish with 1 Tbs. of olive oil.
Make the pasta sheets: Flatten and flour each ball and run them through the pasta machine (I used an Atlas 150) from the widest to the number 4 setting. Cut each of the long sheets in half. When the water is boiling, boil the sheets for 2 minutes, and then drain them, rinse them in cold water, and dry them with paper towels. Coat them with 2 Tbs. of olive oil to prevent them from sticking. You will have 8 sheets of pasta, which with trimming will make 5 layers.
Now you are ready to assemble the lasagna. Here are the layers:
Sauce ¾ cup
Pasta sheets – trimmed to make one layer
Mozzarella, Parmesan, Italian sausage, ricotta – ¼ of each
Sauce ¾ cup
Pasta sheets – trimmed to make one layer
Mozzarella, Parmesan, Italian sausage, ricotta – ¼ of each
Sauce ¾ cup
Pasta sheets – trimmed to make one layer
Mozzarella, Parmesan, Italian sausage, ricotta – ¼ of each
Sauce ¾ cup
Pasta sheets – trimmed to make one layer
Mozzarella, Parmesan, Italian sausage, ricotta – ¼ of each
Sauce ¾ cup
Pasta sheets – trimmed pieces from previous layers
Sauce 1 cup
Parmesan ½ cup
Put the assembled dish on a half sheet pan, cover it tightly with aluminum foil and put it in the oven. Bake covered for 45 minutes.
Remove the aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes until nice and bubbly.
Allow to rest 15 minutes before cutting into 9 servings. Serve each portion with hot marinara and grated Parmesan.