📋Southern Italian Lasagna Recipe (Lasagna di Carnevale)

This southern Italian lasagna recipe also called lasagna di Carnevale, is a classic dish from Naples served on Fat Tuesday (Martedi grasso). It is a lavish meal traditionally served the day before Lent begins. While the traditional lasagna recipe from Northern Italy is made with Bolognese sauce and white sauce bechamel, this Lasagna alla Napoletana is made with a tomato meat sauce ragu mixed with ricotta cheese and filled with small fried meatballs, mozzarella cheese and hard-boiled eggs.

Course Pasta

Cuisine Italian

Keyword Lasagna alla Napoletana, Lasagna di Carnevale, Southern lasagna

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 3

Total Time 3 30

Servings people

Calories 700kcal

Author Laura Tobin

Equipment

Ingredients

For the ragu

1 carrot diced
1 stalk of celery diced
1 onion diced
3.5 oz sausages
9 oz pork ribs
5 oz beef shank or Round or Chuck
½ cup red wine optional
3.3 lb homemade tomato sauce
2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Meatballs

6 oz lean minced beef
2 oz stale bread
1 cup milk
3 oz freshly grated Parmesan
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
vegetable oil for frying

Lasagna

9 oz fresh lasagna sheets
9 oz ricotta
7 oz mozzarella block
4 oz freshly grated Parmesan
2 boiled eggs

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Making the ragu

Dice the carrot, celery and onion
1 carrot diced, 1 stalk of celery diced, 1 onion diced
Stir fry with some extra virgin olive oil to make a soffritto
3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Add the pork rib, the sausage and the beef shank
3.5 oz sausages, 9 oz pork ribs, 5 oz beef shank
Stir with a wooden spoon until the meat is seared
Add some red wine and let it evaporate
½ cup red wine
Season with salt and add the tomato sauce
2 teaspoon salt, 3.3 lb homemade tomato sauce
Let the ragu cook for 35 minutes in the pressure cooker
If you don't have a pressure cooker, let it simmer at low heat for 2 hours
Remove the meat from the ragu
Pour the ragu into a large bowl and let it cool down at room temperature

Making the little meatballs

Soak the stale bread in milk for an hour
2 oz stale bread, 1 cup milk
Drain the excess milk
Add to the bread the minced meat, egg, Parmesan cheese and salt
6 oz lean minced beef, 3 oz freshly grated Parmesan, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon salt
Mix with your hand until they are combined
Roll in the palms of your hands a small piece of the mixture
Make small meatballs 0.5 in - 1 cm diameter
Lay the meatballs over a tray
Heat some vegetable oil for deep frying
vegetable oil for frying
Fry the meatballs
Remove from the oil
Place on a paper towel to drain the excess oil

Preparing the ingredients

Hard boil the eggs
2 boiled eggs
Remove the shell
Slice them very thinly with an egg slicer
Cut the mozzarella into thin slices, I use the egg slicer for the mozzarella as well
7 oz mozzarella block
In a bowl, add some ragu to the ricotta
9 oz ricotta
Work it with a fork to loosen it up

Composing the lasagna

Place all the ingredients around the lasagna baking dish
Start spreading some ragu at the base of the baking dish
Place the first layer of pasta (I do not boil lasagna noodles)
9 oz fresh lasagna sheets
With a spoon, spread some ricotta cheese mixture over the lasagna pasta sheets
Then spread the ragu sauce
Place some meatballs
In between the meatballs, place some slices of boiled egg and mozzarella cheese
Sprinkle some Parmesan cheese
4 oz freshly grated Parmesan
Cover with the next layer of lasagna sheets
Keep building the layers until all the pasta sheets are use
On the top layer, pour the remaining sauce and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese
Bake in a hot oven at 355 F - 180 C for 30 minutes
Serve warm

Video

Notes

This is a long recipe to make, you can prepare the ragu and the meatballs the day before

Remove the meat from the ragu and only use the sauce for the lasagna. You can eat the meat separately the next day

It is best not to freeze it. Do freeze it if you have leftovers, but only if the ingredients were not previously frozen

I use fresh lasagna sheets and do not boil them before making the lasagna. I use a large amount of tomato sauce, so the lasagna cooks in it

Nutrition