Learn How to Make Nonna Ernestina’s Traditional Lasagna

83-year-old Ernestina lives in Castel Bonanese near Ravenna. We filmed Ernestina make cannelloni a few years ago and we returned to see her. She's retired but continues to make pasta for friends and family as well as keep a vegetable garden with plenty of tomatoes. Before we watch Ernestina share her recipe for lasagna, please support our work by becoming a member of Pasta Grannies. I'm Ernestina from Castel Bonanese. For her pasta, Ernestina uses 500 grams of 00 flour. She makes a well in it and adds five eggs. This is the classic ratio for egg dough, one egg for every 100 grams of flour. She scrambles the eggs and draws in some flour before mixing it all together and forming a dough. Because she's using a pasta machine, the dough doesn't need as much kneading but it still benefits from a rest. Next, Ernestina makes the ragu. She sautés a sofrito of diced carrots, onion and celery in olive oil. This is a 500 gram mixture of pork loin and sausage meat, which the butcher minced for Ernestina. She pours in half a bottle of passata and then around 150 ml of water. She seasons it with salt. Ernestina makes a white sauce using 80 grams of butter, 80 grams of white flour and half a litre of full fat milk. She wants a heavy or double cream pouring consistency. Ernestina was a single working mum and is very proud of her now grown children. Ernestina likes to add some red wine towards the end of cooking. She says it evaporates more easily. Since Ernestina has trouble with her shoulder, she enjoys the efficiency of an electric pasta machine. She passes the pasta through the rollers several times on the widest settings to work the dough. On thinner settings, it's only once. She doesn't want ultra-thin sheets for her lasagna. She cuts the pasta strips into rectangles. Ernestina blanches them in simmering salted water for a minute, then scoops them into a bowl of cold water to make them easier to handle. She spreads them out on tea towels to dry. To assemble her lasagna, Ernestina spreads a mixture of ragu and bechamel over the base of her baking tray. This is so the pasta won't stick. She adds this next, cutting it to size. Ernestina likes to vary her layers, sometimes adding ragu, others not. She likes the visual differences. She makes five pasta layers and finishes with some ragu, white sauce and grated parmigiano. The tray goes into a 200-degree Celsius oven for 30 minutes. Ernestina's cat is her constant companion. And Ernestina is our taste tester today. And come back next week when Laura from Puglia makes pitta, a baked mashed potato dish.