neapolitan lasagna recipe

Neapolitan Lasagna is a rich and succulent baked dish, typical of the traditional Neapolitan sunday lunch. Neapolitan Lasagna is made with layers of durum wheat semolina noodles, stuffed with meat sauce (Neapolitan pork ragu), fried meatballs, ricotta, mozzarella and hard-boiled eggs.Like any traditional recipe, there are several variations of Neapolitan Lasagna, depending on the area or the habits of the Italian families. However this here is the authentic Neapolitan Lasagna recipe, the one they usually make in Southern Italy.

Neapolitan Lasagna Authentic Recipe

pork ribs

250 g (8,8 oz) of sausage

pork neck

100 ml of red wine

white onion

1,5 liter of tomato passata

extra virgin olive oil

salt

parsley

eggs

300 g (10,5 oz) grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

bread crumbs

500 g (1,1 lb) of ricotta cheese

400 g (14 oz) of hard mozzarella cheese

lasagna noodles

Cut the meat

Take the pork neck and the ribs and cut them into small pieces. Leave some meat on the bone, it will make the sauce tastier. Then remove the sausage skin. Put the meats and the sausage aside for the moment.

Make a soffritto

peel the onion and slice it finely. Sautè it in a large pan with the extra virgin olive oil for a few minutes. Then add the sausage and the meats. Cook for 3 or 4 minutes on medium heat, sometime stirring.

Add wine and tomato passata

pour the red wine, let it evaporate and then add the tomato passata. Add salt to taste, stir and cover with a lid.

Cook two hours

Let simmer over low heat for at least two hours. The sauce should not be too thick. If it seems to dry out too much during cooking, add a ladle or two of water. The sauce must be a little liquid to facilitate the cooking of the lasagna noodles afterwards. When ready, turn off the heat and let the pork meat sauce cool.

Make the meatballs

a slotted spoon, take about 400 g (about 0,90 / 1 lb) of meat from the sauce, draining it very well from the tomato sauce. Place it in a bowl and add the grated Parmigiano, chopped parsley, 100 g (3,5 oz) of bread crumbs, two whole eggs.

Mince

Transfer the mixture in a food processor and finely mince, until homogeneous. With the mixture make small meatballs, no bigger than a hazelnut and bread them quickly in bread crumbs.

Fry the meatballs

Fry the meatballs in plenty of oil. With a slotted spoon, remove the meatballs from the oil, drain well the excess oil, then put them on a plate and set aside.

Cut eggs and mozzarella

Boil 4 eggs for 10 minutes. Remove the shells while they are still hot. Let them cool then cut into thin slices. Set aside. Cut the hard mozzarella cheese into thin slices as well and set aside.

Make ricotta cream

place the ricotta in a bowl. Add two or three tablespoons of meat sauce and mix everything until you get a homogeneous reddish-cream.

Make the layers

Take a lasagna pan measuring about 13×9 inches and spread a little meat sauce on the bottom. Then place the first layer of lasagna noodles. Cover the pasta sheets with the ricotta cream. Then place a few slices of hard-boiled egg, some fried meatballs and some slices of mozzarella. Finally spread the meat sauce and sprinkle with the grated Parmigiano cheese. Cover with another layer of lasagna sheets.

Bake and serve

Keep going with the layers until you run out of ingredients, taking care to make the final layer with only the sauce, mozzarella and grated Parmigiano. Cover the pan with aluminum foil so that the top does not dry out too much. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 ° C (390 F) for about 25 minutes. Then remove the aluminum foil and keep cooking for another  5/10 minutes, depending on whether you like the surface more or less crunchy. Then take out the lasagna and let it rest for 10 minutes before serving.

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