Grandma's Tomato Lasagna with Meatballs
17/11/2023Certainly! Grandma’s tomato lasagna with meatballs is a hearty and rich dish, perfect for a family lunch. Here is how to prepare this delicious dish:
Ingredients
- 500 g of fresh lasagna sheets
- 700 g of tomato pulp or tomato puree
- 300 g of ground beef
- 100 g of ground pork
- 1 egg
- 50 g of grated Parmesan cheese
- 50 g of stale bread
- Milk, as needed to soften the bread
- 1 small onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- A bunch of fresh basil
- 100 g of mozzarella or fiordilatte
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- Nutmeg, to taste
- Butter, as needed for the baking dish
Preparation
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Start by preparing the meatballs. Soak the stale bread in milk until it becomes soft. Squeeze it out and mix it in a bowl with the ground beef and pork, the egg, a pinch of salt, pepper, nutmeg, and half of the grated Parmesan. Form small meatballs and set them aside.
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Cut the mozzarella into cubes and finely chop the onion and garlic.
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In a large skillet, sauté the chopped onion and garlic in extra virgin olive oil until they become translucent. Add the meatballs and brown them evenly.
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Pour the tomato pulp into the skillet with the meatballs, add salt and pepper and cook over medium-low heat for about 20-30 minutes, until the sauce thickens and the meatballs are cooked. At the end of cooking, add some hand-torn basil leaves.
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Prepare a buttered baking dish and start assembling the lasagna. Put a first layer of sauce and meatballs on the bottom, then cover with a layer of lasagna sheets and sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan.
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Repeat the layers (sauce with meatballs, lasagna sheets, mozzarella, Parmesan) until you run out of ingredients, finishing with a layer of sauce and a generous sprinkle of Parmesan.
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Bake in a preheated oven at 180 °C for about 30-40 minutes or until the lasagna surface is golden and crispy.
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Remove from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes before serving.
Curiosity
Lasagna is a very ancient dish, whose origins are lost in the mists of time. The version with meatballs is a rather substantial variant that combines the classic Italian comfort food of lasagna with the dish loved by both adults and kids, which are meatballs.
Enjoy your meal!