Mama Cirone’s Lasagna

Have you ever had an 18-layer lasagna? My good friend's mom makes THE BEST lasagna and she's shared her recipe! It's traditional Italian yumminess…see for yourself...!

Ingredients and instructions for the meat:

1 lb lean ground beef

1 lb lean ground pork 

4 eggs 

1 cup Pecorino Romano and Parmesan 

1 cup bread crumbs

1/2 cup parsley, chopped

2 tbsp garlic, minced 

1 tbsp salt 

1 tbsp ground pepper

Olive oil

1. Mix the above ingredients together, except for the olive oil in a large bowl. 

2. Add oil to large frying pan and cook ground meat mixture until fully cooked. Set aside.

Ingredients and instructions for the sauce:

1/2 lb veal ribs and/or spare ribs 

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp red wine 

1-2 bay leaf  

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 litre of passatta di pomodoro or canned tomatoes 

1 tsp salt  (adjust as needed)

1 tsp pepper (adjust as needed)

1 cup water

1. Brown the ribs on high heat on all sides, 1 min each side. Remove from the pot.

2. Sauté the onion in olive oil in a large pot until they're soft.

3. Place the ribs into the large pot, add the tomato paste, water, passatta di pomodoro/ canned tomatoes and mix. Add the bay leaf, red wine, some salt and pepper. 

4. Once the sauce comes to a boil, lower the heat to simmer the sauce for 2 hrs.

5. Discard the ribs.

Other ingredients:

Lasagna sheets or homemade pasta using semolina flour and eggs.

Mozzarella 

Parmesan cheese

Making thin homemade lasagna sheets yields the best results. I use the Philips pasta maker using 1 cup semolina flour and 1 egg + water as instructed by the pasta maker.

To assemble the lasagna:

1. Use a large oven-safe dish, deep enough for 8-10 layers of lasagna sheets!

2. Put together the lasagna with a layer of pasta, then a thin layer of ground meat, then sauce and a generous amount of Romano, Parmesan and mozzarella cheese. Repeat the process until there are 8-10 layers of pasta. The top layer ends with sauce and cheese (no meat).

3. Bake for 30 min.