Lasagna has endless versions, but if you want lasagna that’s rich, structured, and slices clean, this is the chef’s way: deeper flavour, lighter layers, and a crispy top that makes the whole dish.
In this video, we make a homemade lasagna recipe inspired by Massimo Bottura and his love of “the crispy part of lasagna”. We build a slow-cooked meat ragù using ox cheek, short rib, pancetta, and sausage, start with a proper sofrito (plus optional bone marrow for depth), and use a better tomato method, roast, then pulse, for a cleaner, sweeter sauce that won’t turn watery.
For the layers, we go Northern-Italy style with spinach (green) pasta sheets and a classic béchamel (white sauce) finished with parmesan and nutmeg. We bake it low and slow for structure, then finish under the grill for that golden, caramelised, crispy lasagna top.
INGREDIENTS
50g Bone Marrow
2 Onion
2 Carrot
2 Celery Stalks
200g Pancetta
300g Sausage Meat
600g Short Rib
600g Beef Cheek
200g Cherry Tomatoes
200g White Wine
1L Chicken Stock
1 Bay Leaf
1 Sprig Rosemary
Left over Parmesan rind
Gastrique
50g Red Wine Vinegar
50g sugar
Pasta
2 eggs
6 yolks
400g pasta flour
200g spinach
1 tbsp Olive Oil
Bechamel
1.2L Milk
Bay Leaf
A few sprigs of Thyme
Black peppercorns
120g butter
120g plain flour
150g Parmesan (+ 30g for topping)
Nutmeg
RECIPE
1. Finely dice onion, celery and peeled carrot.
2. Melt bone marrow in a deep casserole on medium-low. Add veg and sweat until onion is translucent. Remove and set aside.
3. Halve cherry tomatoes, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt, roast at 180C for ~15 mins until blistered, then blitz smooth.
4. Trim excess fat from short ribs. Cut ribs and beef cheeks into medium chunks.
5. Add a little oil and brown rib and cheek on medium-high until deep golden on all sides. Remove and set aside.
6. Slice pancetta and fry with sausage meat, breaking it up, until golden.
7. Drain on paper towel. Pour off any excess fat from the pan.
8. Return pan to high heat and deglaze with white wine, reducing until almost dry
9. Return vegetables and meat to the pan. Stir through the tomato sauce. Add rosemary, bay leaf, parmesan rind and chicken stock.
10. Bring to a simmer, cover with a cartouche and lid, and braise at 140C for ~2 hours until the meat starts to pull apart.
PASTA
1. Blanch spinach in boiling water for 1 minute and refresh in ice water.
2. Squeeze out as much liquid as possible, then blitz with the egg yolks until smooth. Pass through a sieve.
3. Mix whole eggs and olive oil into the spinach mixture, then gradually add flour until a dough forms.
4. Knead until firm. Wrap and chill for 1 hour.
5. Divide into 4 and roll into rectangles about as thick as a 5p piece, dusting as needed or using a pasta machine.
6. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Trim sheets to fit your lasagne dish, blanch each sheet for 1 minute, transfer to ice water, then drain and pat dry.
BECHAMEL
1. Bring milk, bay leaf, thyme and black peppercorns to a simmer. Remove from the heat and leave to infuse.
2. In a separate pan, melt butter on medium heat, add flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring continuously, until it smells biscuity.
3. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the infused milk.
4. Return to the heat and whisk for a few minutes until thickened.
5. When you see volcanic bubbles, remove from the heat and whisk in parmesan. Season with salt and nutmeg and set aside.
RAGU CONTINUED
1. Spoon off any fat that’s risen to the top.
2. If there’s excess liquid, strain into a clean pan and reduce on high until it coats the back of a spoon.
3. Pull the meat apart so you have a mix of shredded and small chunks.
4. Mix the ragu with the reduced liquid and season with salt and black pepper.
5. To make the gastrique, simmer vinegar and sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
6. Finish the ragu with gastrique to taste.
ASSEMBLY
1. Set the oven to 140C Fan.
2. Spread a thin layer of bechamel on the bottom of a casserole dish, then add a layer of ragu.
3. Add a single layer of pasta, cover with a thin layer of bechamel, then spread another layer of ragu on top.
4. Repeat until you’ve used everything up, finishing with pasta topped with a very thin layer of bechamel.
5. Top with grated parmesan and bake for ~30 mins or until the edges bubble.
6. Finish by turning the oven up to 200C for the last few minutes, or flash under a hot grill for a crispy top.
Chapters;
00:00 – Intro
00:30 – Soffrito
2:11 – Secret Ingredient
2:33 – Cooking the soffrito
3:25 – Tomatoes
4:21 – Preparing the Meat
5:58 – Browning the meat
7:16 – Tomato sauce
8:08 – Browning sausage and panchetta
8:24 – Deglazing
8:43 – Assembling the Ragu
10:41 – Pasta Dough
12:11 – Bechamel
13:42 – Rolling Pasta
14:27 – Finishing the Ragu
15:46 – Buling the Lasagne
17:32 – Baking The Lasagne
17:54 – Making it Crispy
18:42 – Tasting
34 Comments
@fallowchefs ive always wonder. Are the videos you make just you making staff food because if it is then you truly are some of the greatest chefs to work under?
I have a question. Wouldn't it be better to first sear the meat and then make the soffrito in the fond?
Crazy video at the fallow restaurant.
https://youtu.be/DPtaE7tQeqA?si=mzQ_5MyyY-fcxeKW
My 6 year old granddaughter had lasagne at a restaurant, waitress took her cleared plate away and said oooh was that nice, she said no my daddy ate it my nanny's is the best 😘 😂
>Spinach
>No Ricotta cheese
You just ruined the entire dish, I'd rather eat the fucking cartouche.
Is this even Lasagna?
Ah, the gastrique, you also could simply use orange juice which also has a sweet and sour flavour profile. At least if you get a good Italian, Greek or Austrian orange juice (sorry can't really talk about any other countries OJ) but the bull crap I got in the UK would certainly not do, it had an unpleasant chemical flavour, sorry, but I can't recall the brand. So, according to my experience you could use store bought OJ instead of gastrique in the countries I mentioned (all other countries that border the Mediterranean Sea probably would also be fine) or you press fresh, ripe oranges yourself.
These over hyped cooks
The POV videos are what made me find you guys and now they are usually “members only” what a scam
What is it with this fake chef and his ring …..chef code no rings or shit in your kitchen
Without Garfield, Lasagna wouldn't be so popular
You are the most charismatic person on YouTube I've been watching you for years and lasagna is my favourite dish, I'm gonna take a trip to my butchers and make this exact one to the letter I'll tag you on Instagram, hope someday I can fly over to fallow and try out the amazing food!! Also my heart sank when you pretended to toss the lasagna in the air phewwww you caught it haha Sean-dublin
Restaurant lasagna tastes like crap! Are you kidding me?
Well, I suppose English people think Restaurant lasagna tastes better than theirs, because English people can't fcking cook!
The entire masterpiece of a video wasn't completely and utterly ruined at the very end when I heard his teeth scrape the fork sound.
For my personal taste, I have two critiques. I prefer my lasagna with a bigger sauce to pasta ratio and I prefer to have one layer pasta, one layer ragù, one layer pasta, one layer béchamel, one layer pasta, one layer ragù etc, so my perfect lasagna would be a ragù similar to this, I think I could use one or two tweaks to improve it, and a béchamel slightly tweaked as well, no cheese, more pepper and nutmeg maybe a bit of cream, and that layered as follows: first layer depending on your dish either a thin layer of béchamel or pasta, after the pasta, one thick layer of ragù, one layer of pasta, one thin layer of béchamel rinse and repeat three or four times cover the last layer of béchamel with Parmigiano Reggiano, put into the oven and enjoy. That's how I build my ideal lagsagna.
restaurant lasagna doesnt taste NEARLY as good as my homemade lasagna.
Bro your hair looks incredible. Amazing dish! Well done
White wine is actually the more traditional wine to use, at least if you’re following the original recipe. Most places will tell you that you can easily use red or white, but Lasagna bolognese did typically favor white to begin with.
Always fun to see how a core recipe can swap out certain ingredients but still honor the spirit of the original 😄
Gents, I love your channel but the multiple disruptions by midroll ads is a bit of a downer. Not interested in hearing about the latest AI Slop training course while trying to enjoy your content.
OK, now that I have seen the whole video, I'm confident that this certainly is not the best lasagna on planet earth. It may have great ragù, it may have great pasta, it has a decent béchamel, but the combination of the elements is not great in my opinion. Yes, I love "saucy" lasagnas, but with the caveat of a rather dry ragù and thin layers of béchamel with a bloody line of pasta between the sauces. Therefore, pasta, ragù, pasta, béchamel, rinse and repeat three or four times.
Well, now I have posted two very similar comments. One before watching the whole video and this one after. Should be good for the algorithm.
PS. My father's ragù's beat almost any restaurant where I've ever eaten ragù. I can recall just two restaurants that have beaten him at ragù, one was in South Tyrol and one was in the hills surrounding Lake Garda.
PPS. I have never eaten any lasagna that beat my father's in a restaurant.
Who can afford to make this? Probably cheaper to go to an Italian restaurant and order lasagna.
You do realize, you're cooking for housewives and the occasional cook?
“Green, pink purple” I don’t think your Italian fans will appreciate giving people THAT particular green light! 😂 no pun intended
Where’s the recipe?
i would of added some garlic gloves to the tomatoes so it gets nice and roasted in the oven
Really – our laaagne has lengendaey status – while I’m sure yours is equally as nice I certainly wouldn’t call restaurants better than home cooking.
I love when i see high level chefs cut onions once side ways before they dice. Just goes to show the lack of thinking. Its an onion. Its already in layers. Why are you cutting it side ways to make more layers, the thing IS layers.
Try it for your self, cut one half normal and one half with a side cut or cuts. Notice how there is no difference to the dice.
ALL THE SUPPOSED BEST LASAGNA HOUSES OVERCHARGE FOR THIS VERY SIMPLE DISH, MANY PREFREEZE THE PORTIONS AND JUST REHEAT….Now we all know lasagna often tastes better the second day…but TOO EXPENSIVE and the portions are always GARBAGE!!! I MAKE A DA BEST LASAGNA PERIOD AND I ALWAYS BAKE IT IN A HUGE CAST IRON
call me a bitter person, but show me a restaurant where they cook lasagna like this. (and it should not cost 30+/portion….)
Sadly every time over the past months / years i visited Italy. I have gotten cold Lasagna even from TOP restaurants around the entire country. I refuse re heat and stopped ordering Lasagna when out. I make it homemade ALWAYS
I've never had lasagna from a restaurant that was better than homemade
Too much effort for not enough reward.
Wales are about to play Italy in the 6 nations. My wife and myself have made veery good laaagnaasgne. Watching how you layered is, I hope, a game changer. We went too big on layering. Too much leak. I watched this for your layering.
It´s decent…
Lmao you changed the title of the video because a bunch of people bitched in the comments?