Lasagna is without any doubt my favorite dish! The best are the ones my Zia Livia makes with fresh asparagus or just with sugo di carne (just the thought of it makes want to eat them).But mine are also good :-).  I want to share a fancy lasagna recipe also known as ‘Vincisgrassi alla marchigiana’. A typical recipe from the’ Le Marche’ region. Why fancy, well because there are truffles in this lasagna (not the chocolate truffles).  For the sauce I would just buy truffle puree and if you feel like it buy 1 fresh truffle to scrape on top of the lasagna when serving it. (Buy the black one, this is cheaper than the white)

This is a very easy to make recipe with few ingredients and cheap (the truffle puree will only cost around 5EUR). Anyway, I hope you’ll enjoy it

Ingredients:

For the Crespelle:

• 60 g flour
• 6 eggs
• 150ml milk
• 30ml Vinocotto you can buy this in Italian deli shop (alternative balsamic syrup)
• Olive oil
• Salt (pepper)

Sauce/filling:

• 1,2l milk
• 150g lean minced beef
• 250g ham (try to buy good artisan ham)
• 90g butter
• 60g flour
• 50 truffle puree
• 1 truffle (optional)
• Salt and pepper

Other:

•  Parmesan cheese 60g – 100g

Get Started:

For the ‘crespelle’ or vincisgrassi’

• Put all the ingredients (except the Olive Oil) for the ‘crespelle’ in a bowl and give it a good stir until you get a nice fluid batter. (best first flour and milk – add eggs one by one)

• Bake the pancakes like you would bake normal pancakes (using the olive oil to grease your pan)

For the sauce/stuffing:

• Cute the ham in cubes and bake it together with the minced beef in the butter (yes, all the butter) for about 10 minutes.

• Add the flour (basically you are creating the Roux effect, once you add the milk you’ll be making béchamel) and let the meat become crispy ‘isch ( keep stirring)
• Add the milk and let is simmer on medium heat for at least 30 min  (you will see that the sauce starts to get thicker )

• Add the cream (as if it wasn’t rich enough on calories) and let it cook for 3 – 5 more minutes
• Add the Truffle puree and give a last good stir
• Grease your oven tray and start making your lasagna. Layer 1 are the pancakes, followed by the sauce (if wanted with some parmesan)

• Finish by spreading the parmesan over the top layer

• Put in a preheated oven  of 180°c (356°F)  for 20 min + 2 min to brown under grill

• Let it cool and reheat a minute before serving it  (Personally I prefer my lasagna to be tepid)

• If you want to make your lasagna even fancier, once you have given everybody a piece of lasagna, scrape some fresh truffles over it…. I’m sure everybody will like eat