Bologna: Lasagna

Serves 4

For the pastry:
350 g 00 flour
2 eggs
200 g boiled and chopped spinach

For the filling
500 g Bolognese sauce
200 gr Parmesan cheese
350 gr béchamel
100 gr butter
Salt, pepper, nutmeg to taste

Bologna: Lasagne. Original recipe deposited at the Accademia della Cucina Italiana. Prepare the dough by mixing eggs, flour and boiled, well squeezed and finely chopped spinach. Roll out the pastry not too thin, which will be light green in colour. Bring salted water to the boil in a large pot and cook the pastry cut into rectangles of fifteen by ten centimetres. The pasta will be cooked as soon as it comes to the surface. Soak the freshly drained pasta in cold water for a few moments and let it dry on a white cotton cloth. Grease the bottom of a baking tin with butter, spread a few spoonfuls of meat sauce and béchamel sauce and plenty of Parmesan cheese, and place rectangles of pastry on top of the layer. Repeat the operation for at least six layers, taking care that no air bubbles are created inside the layers. Finish with a layer of pasta on top of which spread a little meat sauce mixed with a little béchamel sauce, a few knobs of butter and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. Bake the lasagne in a preheated oven at 180° C for about 30 minutes. For a light gratin finish by turning on the grill for no more than two minutes. Allow to rest five minutes before serving, accompanied by a glass of Lambrusco. There are many variations of the original lasagne recipe: with pesto, in bianco, with vegetables, with fish, without béchamel sauce, with egg pasta, with pumpkin, and so on and so forth. The fact remains, however, that lasagne Bolognese must be unequivocally prepared according to the original recipe.