- ricotta cheese
- shredded mozzarella cheese
- shredded Italian four-cheese blend
- Italian seasoning
- fresh chopped basil for garnish
- Italian seasoning
- unsalted butter
- all-purpose flour
- grated Parmesan cheese
- lemon zest
- lemon juice
- uncooked ziti
- olive oil
- chopped yellow squash
- chopped zucchini
- chopped onion
- chopped tomato
- chopped fresh basil
- chopped fresh oregano
- crushed red pepper
- Cooking spray
Serves 8 to 10
It’s important not to overbake the lasagna. Once the sauce starts bubbling around the edges, turn the oven to broil. If your lasagna pan is not broiler-safe, brown the lasagna at 500 degrees for about 10 minutes. Whole milk is best in the sauce, but skim and low-fat milk also work. Supermarket-brand cheeses work fine in this recipe. The Gorgonzola may be omitted, but the flavor of the lasagna won’t be as complex. The test kitchen prefers the flavor and texture of Barilla no-boil noodles, but this recipe will work with most brands. One box of Barilla will yield enough noodles for this recipe; you may need two boxes of other brands.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
For the best flavor in our four-cheese lasagna recipe, we settled on a combination of fontina, Parmesan, Gorgonzola, and Gruyère. But the real secret to a great four-cheese lasagna recipe proved to be a fifth cheese. While ricotta didn’t add much flavor, it gave the lasagna body without making the dish heavy and starchy.
- part-skim ricotta cheese
- ground black pepper
- minced fresh parsley leaves plus an additional 2 teaspoons
- unsalted butter
- all-purpose flour
- whole milk
- low-sodium chicken broth
- table salt
- bay leaf
- cayenne pepper
- no-boil lasagna noodles
Serves 8 to 10
It’s important not to overbake the lasagna. Once the sauce starts bubbling around the edges, turn the oven to broil. If your lasagna pan is not broiler-safe, brown the lasagna at 500 degrees for about 10 minutes. Whole milk is best in the sauce, but skim and low-fat milk also work. Supermarket-brand cheeses work fine in this recipe. The Gorgonzola may be omitted, but the flavor of the lasagna won’t be as complex. The test kitchen prefers the flavor and texture of Barilla no-boil noodles, but this recipe will work with most brands. One box of Barilla will yield enough noodles for this recipe; you may need two boxes of other brands.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
For the best flavor in our four-cheese lasagna recipe, we settled on a combination of fontina, Parmesan, Gorgonzola, and Gruyère. But the real secret to a great four-cheese lasagna recipe proved to be a fifth cheese. While ricotta didn’t add much flavor, it gave the lasagna body without making the dish heavy and starchy.
- part-skim ricotta cheese
- ground black pepper
- minced fresh parsley leaves plus an additional 2 teaspoons
- whole milk
- low-sodium chicken broth
- bay leaf
- cayenne pepper
- no-boil lasagna noodles
- uncooked ziti
- olive oil
- chopped yellow squash
- chopped zucchini
- chopped onion
- chopped tomato
- chopped fresh basil
- chopped fresh oregano
- crushed red pepper
- Cooking spray
Serves 2 to 3 as a main dish, or 4 to 6 as an appetizer
For the most accurate measurements, weigh the potatoes and flour. After processing, you may have slightly more than the 3 cups (16 ounces) of potatoes recquired for this recipe. Discard any extra or set aside for another use. Besides the browned butter sauce, try our Gorgonzola Cream Sauce, Parmesan Sauce with Pancetta and Walnuts, and Porcini Mushroom Broth (related).
- Gnocchi:
- russet potatoes
- salt
- Sauce:
- minced fresh sage
- lemon juice
- salt
Makes 1 pound; serves 4 to 6
If using a high-protein all-purpose flour like King Arthur brand, increase the amount of egg yolks to seven. The longer the dough rests in step 2 the easier it will be to roll out. When rolling out the dough, avoid adding too much flour, which may result in excessive snapback.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
For a pasta dough that could be easily rolled out by hand (but still cook up into delicate, springy noodles), we added six extra egg yolks and a couple tablespoons of olive oil. In addition, we incorporated an extended resting period to allow the gluten network to relax and developed a simple, effective rolling technique.
- large eggs plus 6 large yolks
- olive oil
- salt
- Fine-grained sea salt
- whole-wheat orzo
- broccoli florets and thinly sliced stems
- freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
- extra-virgin olive oil
- creme fraiche
- whole peeled tomatoes
- olive oil
- rigatoni
- red onion sliced
- ricotta
Total Time: 45 minutes
Preparation Time: 0 minutes
Active Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 1 pound fresh pasta
Make Ahead: Pasta can be kept at room temperature for several hours
Difficulty: Intermediate
Fresh pasta is surprisingly easy to make at home. Yes, you will need a hand-cranked pasta machine, but the ingredient list could not be shorter (just eggs and flour) and the results are much better than anything you can buy.
You will be making 1 pound of Fresh Egg Pasta. We will be cutting the pasta into fettuccine that you should use for the Fettuccine Alfredo recipe in this lesson.
While we suggest using a pasta machine to cut fettuccine, you can cut fresh sheets of pasta by hand. Simply fold each sheet crosswise into thirds or quarters. Use a sharp chef’s knife and cut perpendicular to folds to form noodles of desired width. This technique comes in handy when you want to make wider shapes, like pappardelle or tagliatelle.
Here are the guidelines for cutting fresh by hand:
Pappardelle: 3/4 to 1 inch wide
Tagliatelle: 1/4 to 3/8 inch wide
Fettuccine: 1/8 to 1/4 inch wide
- We like Italian-made hand-operated manual pasta machines. We’ve tested the Imperia and Atlas pasta machines—the two major brands in Italy and widely available in cookware shops around the world—and found them equally good.
- Large eggs