Lasagne al Pesto (recipe from Mamma Assunta 69 years old - Genova)

Lasagna with pesto are a special recipe in which two great loves of our cuisine come together harmoniously in a dish that evokes the flavors of tradition. Layers of layers of pasta, made by hand, alternating with a tasty pesto sauce and decided to prepare with the first leaves of basil that the season offers us. Inevitable in this preparation the béchamel sauce, which gives it a velvety touch, creamy and makes the sheets. Lasagna with pesto are a concentration of preparations to do at home, although apparently require a bit 'of time, you will pay in taste and satisfaction











Ingredients:

 Ingredients for fresh pasta

flour 00 200 gr
 Eggs (2 medium)

for 120 gr of  pesto Genovese

Garlic half a clove
Coarse salt 2 pinches
 extra virgin olive oil 200 gr
 basil leaves 100 gr
 grated pecorino cheese 60 gr
 grated Parmesan cheese 140 gr
 pine nuts 30 gr

 for besciamella

Butter 100 gr
 Salt to taste
nutmeg,
hard q.s
 Flour type 00 100 gr
 fresh whole milk 1 l

Method


To prepare lasagna with pesto start from the preparation of pesto
First clean the basil leaves with a clean cloth, you should not wash with water. Then take a mortar and a peeled garlic with a pinch of salt when you obtain a creamy mixture add the basil leaves by adding a pinch of coarse salt.
Crushed basil rotating pestle and mortar in the opposite direction. Add pine nuts and grated cheeses while continuing to beat. Finally add the oil in a thin little by little while continuing to mix the ingredients well with a pestle until a smooth sauce. Alternatively you can achieve the pesto with the mixer, taking care to cool the blades in the refrigerator and blend for the shortest possible time so as to avoid the oxidation of basil.Lasagna with pestoKeep the pesto aside .Now proceed with the preparation of fresh pasta. Pour the flour into a bowl Add the eggs. Mix the ingredients with a fork. Then work the dough with your hands for at least 10 minutes until mixture is smooth and homogeneous. Make a ball , wrap with plastic wrap and let rest in a cool, dry place for about 30 minutes. 

Besciamella

Place in a saucepan to heat the milk, except in another saucepan, melt the butter over low heat, then turn off the heat and add the flour a little at a time, stirring constantly with a whisk to avoid the formation of lumps. Then put it back on low heat the mixture of butter and flour and stir until get light browned.
Flavored milk with nutmeg and salt, then pour a little at a time into the mixture of butter and flour , stir energetically with a whisk . Cook 5-6 minutes on low heat, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens and begins to boil. Your sauce is ready, transfer it to a bowl and let cool .Lasagna with pestoMeanwhile retrieved fresh pasta, resume the dough, sprinkle with a little flour 00, then divide it into two portions;  roll out the dough by hand with a rolling pin or crushed the loaf of dough and pass it through the rollers of the machine, passing from the widest level to the thinner gradually to obtain a thickness layer of about 2 mm. Sheets obtained from 22 large 10x15 cm rectangles to be cut with a smooth wheel cutter or a knife.

Put a little pot full of salted water to boil and when shall start scalded the sheets for 1 minute, drain and place them on a tray with a little oil anointing prevent them from sticking. You can also quickly switch the sheets of pasta in a bowl with cold water to stop the cooking. Once cooked the pasta, take a baking dish from 30x20 cm, grease with a little oil on the bottom.
Roll out with a spoon a layer of white sauce ) and then one of pesto  lying above 3 sheets of dough  overlapping them slightly, then cover with the sauce  and the pesto making sure to evenly distribute the sauces with the spoon, sprinkle with grated cheese  and resume again the composition of the layers with sheets of egg pasta , until all the ingredients you'll have to get 6 layers of pasta from 3 layers each.
Finally finished the last layer with 4 sheets of pasta arranged horizontally, then spread over the sauce and pesto, mix well the sauces to get a more homogeneous cream  terminated with a layer of grated cheese.

 Now cook the lasagna with pesto in a preheated oven at 180 ° static for 15 minutes and then continued for another 5 minutes in grill mode (if you like a softer surface, you can avoid passing under the grill. Baked lasagna with pesto, let cool slightly and then bring them to the table!