Emilia Romagna is the true home of lasagne. So what better way to celebrate Easter in Emilia Romagna than with this Easter lamb lasagne. Instead of minced beef and pork, you make the bolognese ragu from minced lamb. And for an extra taste of Easter, layer the lasagne with spinach pasta sheets.
Essential Ingredients for Easter Lamb Lasagne
The Lamb
If you are lucky enough to be able to source a whole lamb for Easter, then you will have probably used the lamb legs for abbacchio all romana or rout o furn. And you will be saving the lamb fillet for something really special. But it is surprising how much meat you can still get from the rest of the lamb, and the good news is that what is left can be some of the fattier meat, which is just what you want for this Easter lamb lasagne. But otherwise any lamb mince will do.
The Pasta
I have been making home made pasta for years. My first pasta machine was a Christmas gift over 20 years ago. And I’ve always enjoyed it, not just for the satisfaction of making my own pasta from scratch. But also because it is a lot of fun. It’s like adult play dough. That you can eat! But if I am honest, I’ve only really made ‘normal’ egg pasta. I always felt coloured pasta was something I would try when I had truly mastered ‘normal’ pasta.
But this year, I couldn’t resist making spinach pasta for this Easter lamb lasagne. Spinach is well and truly in season at the moment. And Emilia Romagna is renowned for its sheets of spinach lasagne. So it seemed the right thing to do to have a go. The spinach pasta recipe is not mine. It seems to be a fairly repeated recipe online. And who am I to argue.
The spinach pasta was actually really easy to make. Just blitz everything in a food processor. Then bring together in a bowl. And then pop in the fridge till you’re ready to roll.
The Ragu
The ragu (or meat sauce) for a lasagne is the same as for spaghetti bolognese. At least I am yet to find anyone who can tell me different. And so the recipe for the Easter lamb lasagne is basically my Bolognese recipe, with the beef and pork substituted for minced lamb. I’ve been using this recipe for almost 30 years and it has only ever been brilliant.
And I am pleased to say, using lamb works very well indeed. The sauce was smooth, soft and had that lovely lamb tang that just screamed Easter. I can’t tell you how much I wanted to add some mint, It would have worked really well with mint! But I can’t risk the ire of Emilia Romagna so I played it safe! (Spoiler alert! – I will add mint next time! And you can too!).
Assembling there Easter Lamb Lasagne
Assembly any lasagne is, in principle, an easy and fun affair. But as with any dish assembled in repeated layers, the challenge is to choose the right baking dish. too big, and you run out of ingredients. Too small and you run out of ingredients. I’ve given up trying to work it out scientifically.
But a good rule of thumb, at least for me, is to work out the rough weight of your ingredients. And then work out the rough volume of your baking tray. So in this case, we have 800 grams of lamb mince, with other ingredients, let’s call that 1kg. So if you’re baking dish is about a litre in volume or just a little bit more, it should be about the right size. Measure the volume of the baking dish by filling it with water from a measuring jug.
As for the actual assembly, just add a layer of meat sauce to the bottom of the baking tray. Add an even layer of spinach lasagne sheets, then an even layer of béchamel sauce. And then another layer spinach lasagne. Repeat until you run out of ingredients then cover it with a good layer of grated parmesan cheese.
Moisture
There is no right or wrong to the consistency of a lasagne. In fact a runny, sloppy lasagne will taste just the same as a tightly formed specimen with perfect layers. In fact, run is sometimes better. There is always a willing hand with some crusty bread to mop up a meat sauce. But you should always make sure your ragu is not too runny. You dont really want the lasagne to collapse on the plate. here are 3 tips to avoid a soggy lasagne:
- Make the Ragu the Day Before: the ragu will not only intensify in flavour overnight, it will also absorb any moisture from the sauce back into the meat.
- Allow the Lasagne to Rest: the baking step loosens up all the juices in the meat, and the béchamel sauce. Give the lasagne some time to set after baking before serving.
- Eat the Next Day: OK – so lasagne straight from the oven tastes amazing. But if you bake your lasagne and then reheat it in the oven the next day, you will get those perfect lasagne squares.
Related Recipes
If you enjoyed this recipe, you might also like these other Regional Italian Easter recipes. My favourites include:
Pesto di Fave – a delicious fava bean pesto that you can add to pasta or spread on bruschetta.
Lamb Stracotto with Orange and Olives – a zesty lamb dish for a more southern Italian taste.
O Ruot’ ‘O Furn – a delicious Easter lamb dish from Naples
Buona Pasqua e buon appetito! 🇮🇹
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Easter Lamb Lasagne
Equipment
- Chef Knife
- Chopping Board
- Cast Iron Pan
- Food Processor
- Pasta Machine
- Baking Dish
- Grater
Ingredients
Ragu
- 50 grams unsalted butter
- 100 ml extra virgin olive oil
- 2 medium onions (finely chopped)
- 3 cloves of garlic (crushed)
- 2 sticks of celery (finely chopped)
- 2 carrots (finely chopped)
- 800 grams minced lamb
- 300 ml red wine
- 250 ml milk (preferably full fat)
- 400 grams tinned tomatoes
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 tbsp thyme leaves
- sea salt
- black pepper (freshly ground)
Spinach Lasagne
- 150 grams spinach leaves (after removing stems.)
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 250 grams 00 Pasta Flour
- large pinch of salt
Bechamel Sauce
- 50 grams butter
- 50 grams plain flour
- 500 ml whole milk
- pinch of grated nutmeg
Instructions
Lamb Ragu
- Put the butter and oil in a large heavy bottomed pan and heat over medium heat until the butter has almost melted.
- Add the onions and sauté for 10 minutes.
- Add the garlic, celery and carrots and cook for further 5 minutes or until the carrots and celery have softened.
- Add the minced lamb to the pan, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon and stirring until all the meat has browned.
- Season with sea salt and black pepper
- Add the wine and cook until it has mostly reduced.
- Add the milk, and cook until it has mostly reduced.
- Add the tinned tomatoes, bay leaves and thyme.
- Cook for on a low heat until the lamb has become very tender (about 2 hours) gently stirring every 20 minutes. Do not let it boil – the heat should be just low enough to allow very gentle bubbles to rise to the surface.
Spinach Pasta
- *You can mix by hand, but I always use a processor to mix the dough as it's easier and quicker.
- Add the flour to the food processor, then add the other ingredients. Then pulse then ingredients until the ingredients form a consistent crumble, almost like breadcrumbs.
- Tip the ingredients into a large bowl and using your hands, bring everything together into a smooth dough.
- Wrap in clingfilm and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
- Cut the dough in half, and flatten out by hand, and using a pasta machine, roll out pasta sheets to your preferred thickness.
- Cut the pasta sheets so that they fit your baking dish
Bechamel Sauce
- Melt the butter in a pan then add the flour. Mix quickly until a paste forms.
- Cook for a minute or two on a low heat, stirring constantly to make sure the roux doesn't stick or burn.
- Add a little milk, then whisk continuously until the milk is absorbed. Repeat until half of the milk has been whisked into the mixture.
- Add the remaining half of the milk, whisking continuously to avoid lumps.
- Cook the sauce on a gentle heat for 4-5 minutes. It's important to stir the sauce regularly, ideally with a whisk to stop the sauce catching or burning.
Assembly
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
- Add a layer of the ragu on the base of the baking dish.
- Then add a layer of spinach lasagne sheets, followed by a layer of béchamel sauce.
- Repeat until you have used up all the ragu, pasta and béchamel sauce, or until you have filled your baking dish, making sure you finish with a layer of spinach lasagne.
- Add a generous layer of grated parmesan cheese, season with ground black pepper then put the baking dish in the oven for 40-45 minutes. The lasagne is ready when the parmesan has melted and browned evenly.
