This recipe comes to us from the Faella family, with a strong nod of approval from the Pesto King Roberto Panizza. It’s really something you can sink your teeth into: Pasta Faella’s thick lasagna sheets maintain their structure and bite all while absorbing plenty of flavor from a Vacche Rosse cheese-infused bechamel and Roberto’s award-winning Pesto Genovese.
Parboil the pasta beforehand and finish the lasagna in the oven at a super low temperature. Cooked so gently, the pesto maintains all its aromas. We add a layer of pine nuts in the center and sprinkled over the top, to give the dish a crunchy textural contrast. Oh, and no need to salt the pasta water or the bechamel sauce. Roberto’s shelf-stable pesto has all the saltiness this dish needs!
Ingredients
TIME: 1h 15 mins
SERVES: 6
- Butter, 4 tbsp / 60g
- Maiorca flour, 4 tbsp / 60g
- Whole milk, 4 cups
- Vacche Rosse cheese, finely grated, 160g / 5.6oz, divided
- Pasta Faella Lasagna, 1/2 packet (500g / 17.6oz)
- Shelf-stable Pesto Genovese, 2 large jars (340g / 12oz)
- Pine nuts, 1 packet (50g / 1.7oz)
Preparation
- First, make the Vacche Rosse bechamel. Melt the butter over medium heat, then add the flour. Stir together to a smooth paste, and cook for 2-3 minutes. Gradually add the whole milk, stirring constantly until fully incorporated. Cook the sauce for 10 minutes or so, until thickened. Turn off the heat and stir in the 100g grated Vacche Rosse cheese. Cover with cling film to prevent a skin from forming, and set aside.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Working in batches, cook the lasagna sheets for 7 minutes, removing with tongs and setting each sheet aside on pieces of parchment paper or clean dish towels as you work.
- Preheat the oven to 250°F/120°C.
- When you’re ready to assemble the lasagna, stir the pesto into the bechamel until it’s fully incorporated. In a 9×13 inch pan or similar, start with a layer of bechamel + pesto sauce, then lasagna, then bechamel + pesto sauce, until you use up all the ingredients. Scatter half the pine nuts over the second layer of pasta, and the other half over the final layer. You should have five layers total. Cover with the remaining 60g grated Vacche Rosse cheese, and cover tightly with foil.
- Bake in the center of the oven for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and turn on the broiler. Place the lasagna on the top rack and crisp the final lasagna layer for 2-3 minutes, then allow to cool for at least 15-20 minutes before slicing and serving.
