Green Lasagna With Bolognese Sauce and Bechamel Recipe (2024)

Kale instead of spinach? Too strong a taste for this delicate dish. Also, cook the meat in the milk until it is mostly reduced to a few tablespoons. Makes the meat more tender. Then add the wine and reduce. I also use a whole can, 28 oz., San Marzano tomatoes and really cook that down until it is almost a fine paste. I also think there is too much mozzarella in this dish. The Béchamel and Parmigiano should give enough creaminess to the lasagna. Also, no plastic wrap.

I cook lasagna noodles about 50% to 60% done (you have to guess) They have to be flexible.
Then transfer them from the boiling water to a big container of cold water and just leave them in that container
When I am assembling the lasagna in the baking pan I just remove them 1 at a time, leaving them wet, actually dripping. I think this saves lots of work.
The noodles are less likely to break and there is no drying
step. Leaving them wet is important - they soak up the water as they cook

The plastic wrap will not melt in the oven if you cover it with foil. We did this a lot in culinary school.

I like to add 1/4 more to the bechamel sauce, just because I love it, and using fresh pasta from the refrigerated case of the supermarket is just fine. doesn't diminish firmness, but does make it less labor-intensive.

I agree, did NOT follow the instructions for use of plastic wrap and it came out just fine!

Has anyone tried this recipe with no-boil lasagne?

I think the point is to not have aluminum (foil) next to acidic foods like tomato, because the aluminum will react with the acid and end up in the food. This is true whatever the temperature; double wrap even for the freezer. Parchment paper would be better than plastic.

I always cover with baking paper and then tin foil. Keeps the acidic tomato sauce away from the foil. I can't imagine using plastic in the oven.

This is Marcella Hazen’s recipe. I have made it many times and it is divine! One thing. Hate about making lasagna is how the noodles tend to stick while boiling. Here’s a solution: assemble the lasagna a day in advance with extra sauce andbechamel to moisten the noodles. Let it sit fir a day and then just bake as instructed. Believe me thus works! Just make sure you add extra liquid.

This was an excellent Bolognese. I was concerned after adding so much liquid, and it did take a good 3.5 hours of simmering to get it reduced to a perfect texture, but it’s delicious. I used Barilla Oven-Ready Lasagne sheets, and it was excellent. The Beschamel, basil, and cheeses brought it all together beautifully!

I used the Bolognese sauce recipe from Amanda Hesser's "White Bolognese with Rigatoni" recipe (also NYT Cooking) but left out the heavy cream, then followed this recipe except purchased fresh pasta sheets -- got rave reviews and am considering adding layers of chopped spinach the next time I make it -- which will be soon!

I served this to a group of foodies, and several said it was the best lasagna they'd ever eaten. It was extremely labor intensive. The homemade noodles are the worst part- they fold up after being removed from the boiling water and are too hot to handle, then stick together as they cool. However, it was the homemade noodles that made the lasagna so amazing and special. Agree that the bolognese takes at least 3 hours to reach the right consistency, but this may depend on the size of your pan.

Quite labor intensive (even though I substituted store bought fresh pasta, omitted kale & sage), and not that much better than recipes on the back of parmesan cheese bags. If you attempt, DO NOT DOUBLE the recipe (like I did) unless you are cooking it in some gigantic clam bake pot. I used a large oval Dutch oven and there was no room left for the beef broth! Also note that this recipe calls for a 14" x 17" pan, instead of a standard 9" x 13" lasagna pan.

The best lasagna I've ever had that was well worth the time! I did not make my own pasta but did buy fresh.

Ed Giobbi's green lasagna with bolonese sauce from the 1970's got me started on making spinach (green) pasta. Absolutely the best lasagna recipe.

Any lasagna noodle can be no boil. Assemble the lasagne with uncooked dry pasta. Pour 1 C water around the edges. Cover with foil, and bake as directed. (I spray the foil with oil to prevent sticking.) Remove foil, and bake until nicely browned.

Replace one-third of the ground beef in the recipe with a pound of fresh pork-and-fennel sausage meat. You will thank me forever.

Looks like after 4 years no one has responded regarding the issue of using plastic wrap - and then foil- to cover something that needs to bake. It’s got to be a typo. Wouldn’t plastic wrap melt onto the lasagna? Simply spray foil with olive oil and then cover the lasagna tightly. It won’t stick to the noodles even if it touches. Also using a 3 inch deep pan helps to keep the foil off the lasagna.

No Italian grandma has ever put kale in green lasagna.

This was really good, but SO LABOR INTENSIVE! I think we’ll keep the bechamel (the best part in my opinion) and use store stuff for the rest next time.

I found that it was wayyyyyy too much liquid being used for the Bolognese sauce. 4 Cups of Milk, 4 Cups of Broth and a Cup of White wine is more liquid than a lot of soups even use. Even after hours of letting it cook, the liquid never fully evaporated to allow for a more typical Bolognese consistency. In the end, at least use a slotted spoon to remove your meat and construct your lasagna so that it's not a soupy mess. In general, still not even really a great flavor.

There’s no mozzarella in lasagna alla Bolognese, and there’s waaaay too much tomato in this recipe. Noodles, ragu Bolognese, besciamella, Parmigiano-Reggiano, that’s it.

How exciting to find this fabulous recipe when I searched for carrot cake. I love how I can substitute all the carrot cake ingredients for lasagna ingredients. Hooray NYT Cooking.

This is ok but I think it makes waaay more than 12 servings. It’s also really fatty which isn’t really my taste - I think it needs more tomatoes for some acidity to cut through all the creaminess.

This is my all time favorite bolognese sauce. Don’t change a thing! The beef broth (mine is homemade) and milk really make this sauce special. I haven’t tried making the green pasta in the past, but plan to try it today. I now use this as my recipe for spaghetti bolognese as well as lasagna. It’s excellent. My husband is in love - with me or the sauce? It’s hard to tell.

Spectacular but not worth doing again for my taste (7 hours!). I didn't realize the kale goes IN the pasta dough and had to work it in after chilling; it still came out well. I added the stock in 2 parts and sauce cooked in the time provided. I cooked 1 pint of mushrooms, finely chopped, in half the butter, made béchamel with the rest of the butter, then added the shrooms back in. Cheesy enough with the mozzarella and 1/3 c. shredded parm. Hardest part was not having a large enough dish!

Modified this for my 8 year old’s birthday dinner. First off, I halved the recipe and used a standard 9x13 casserole pan. Second, I used Bison instead of beef. Third, I used 3x the amount of tomato paste - I know my kids and if the sauce isn’t red, they won’t eat it :p In that vein, I also skipped the fried sage and basil. I found lovely no-bake lasagna sheets that worked very well for the recipe. This was one of the best Bolognese style lasagnas I’ve had. Worth the time to make the sauce!

Plastic wrap is so bad for food and for you - especially when in contact with fats. So strange that all cheese, meat etc is wrapped in this plastic in the US. In France and many other countries, food is wrapped in paper, then in plastic or foil.

Since the pasta dough must sit in the fridge for at least an hour, I prepared the dough first. While it came together in the fridge, I made the meat sauce. As the meat sauce simmered for an hour on the stove, I rolled out and cut the pasta.. then made the béchamel. Also, if you don't have a tremendously large pot, be prepared to sauté the beef in batches.