How To Make Lasagna At Home In India?

Do you know lasagna is actually a type of pasta? There are more than 20 types of pasta, much more than that and lasagna happens to be one of them.

I have had lasagna twice (thrice now) at Hunger Station in Gurgoan. But now, I don’t live in Delhi and can’t drive to a place to have yummy lasagna. My only option was to cook it at home.

Here’s how I did it!

How To Make Lasagna?

Obviously, I am not a pro at cooking lasagna or anything Italian but I followed three recipes, picked up some tips and made a fairly good lasagna.

Here’s what you need for lasagna!

Tomato Puree

8 medium sized tomatoes

Tomato Sauce

1. Olive Oil – 1 tbsp
2. Chopped garlic – 1 tsp
3. 1/2 cup chopped onions
4. Dry oregano 1/2 tsp
5. Chilli Flakes 1 tsp
6. Tomato Ketchup 1 tbsp
7. Chilli powder 1 tsp
8. Sugar 1/2 tsp

Main Sauce

1. Olive oil 4 tbsp
2. Chopped onions 1
3. Celery – a little bit
4. Carrots – 1-2
5. Ground meat 250gm (for a vegetarian version, use broccoli, carrots or any veggies you want)
6. Mushrooms 100gm
7. Dry herbs – oregano, chilli flakes, basil, thyme – to taste

Other Main Ingredients

1. Lasagna sheets
2. Cheese – mozerella, processed cheese, parmesan (optional)

How To Make Lasagna at Home – The Process

The best part of cooking lasagna at home is the layering. It felt SO good to work for the different layers and then, finally lay them out in a dish.

Step 1 – Making the Tomato puree

First, you need to start with making your own tomato sauce. That needs tomato puree. You can buy it from a store but you can make it at home and have your lasagna taste even better.

You’ll need eight tomatoes and a pan of boiling water. Dip the tomatoes in the boiling water for half an hour. The heat of the stove should be off. Before you dip the tomatoes, put a cross on their tip. Putting a cross would help you peel the tomatoes in a much easier way.

After half an hour, take out the tomatoes from the water, and peel off the outer layer. Put these tomatoes in the blender and make the puree. Step 1 – Done.

Step 2 – Tomato Sauce

For that, put 1 tbsp of olive oil in a pan and heat it up.

Add 1 tsp of finely chopped garlic and saute.

Add 1/2 cup of finely chopped onions and saute for 2 minutes on a medium flame.

Then, add 1 and half cup of tomato puree you made. Eight tomatoes make that amount. So, just pour that in.

Add 1/2 tsp of dry oregano, 1 tsp chilli flakes, 2 tbsp tomato ketchup and 1 tsp of chilli powder. Let this sauce thicken.

When the sauce is thick, add 1/2 tsp of sugar and cook for one minute. Step 2 – Done.

Note – The thicker the sauce, the better. So, I had put the sauce on lowest flame and let it thicken until my step 3 work was ready. Multi-tasking!

Step 3 – Making The Main Sauce

This will make the best layer in the lasagna, so let’s start with that.

In a pan, add 4tbsp of olive oil.

Put onion, celery and carrot. I couldn’t find celery in my city, so I had skipped it.

Saute the ingredients until onions are brown.

Add the meat and cook. Meat should be at room temperature. For the veg version, add chopped vegetables.

Cook until meat is brown.

Add fried mushrooms to enhance the taste. I added them but without frying. #laziness

Now, add the delicious tomato sauce that was simmering to perfection until now.

Add basil and dry herbs and cook for one minute. Step 3 done!

Step 4 – Prepping Lasagna Sheets

In boiling water, add 1 tsp oil, 1 tsp salt and add the sheets. Let them be there until 5-7 mins. Honestly, my sheets weren’t nicely done. It takes some practice. I’m sure, next time I’ll do it better but do check if the sheets are totally done.

Also, put one sheet at a time, else they’ll stick and you’re going to have a hard time pulling them apart.

Step 5 – This is my favorite part!

Now, we make the layers. Wohoo!

In a baking dish, go for any shape you have, put the main sauce… a thin layer.

Put the sheets. Don’t overlap them.

Now, layer the main sauce again, evenly.

Grate the mozerella, abundantly. Sprinkle a bit of parmesan cheese and put sheets of processed sheets.

Now, add in the layer of pasta sheet again. Make sure they’re in same direction as the layer underneath is.

Put the main sauce again, then the cheese ritual and top it off with another layer of pasta sheets.

Now, put sauce again and more cheese.

Step 5 – Baking time!

Make sure your oven is pre-heated. I kept mine at 250degrees and on bake settings.

Now, cover your art with a foil an put it in the oven at 250 degrees for 10 minutes.

Then, take it out, remove foil and putit in for 10 more minutes and tadaa! your lasagna is ready.

I loved how it turned out and I loved making it at home. Do watch the three videos in the post, as I picked my recipe from these three videos. I loved how it turned out to be… for my Indian palate, it could have had more salt but I’m okay with it.

Now, it’s your turn to try it and send me pictures at @finixpost on instagram.

Recommended videos to watch

1. This one is THE best. Listen to everything he says.

2.

2. This one helps if you want to make lasagna sheets at home.

3. This is also cool… gives some nice tips.