The most decadent three meat lasagna just in time for your big holiday dinner parties this year!
Now this isn’t just any lasagna… it’s the best lasagna I’ve ever made in my entire life. And here is why…. 3 kinds of meat plus a béchamel sauce and it uses no-cook noodles! (which are kind of the best invention of all times) It’s a little bit time consuming to make this, since the ragú sauce takes a bit of time to cook down, but trust me when I tell you that it’s absolutely worth it! It’s perfect for any dinner party that calls for a hearty meal!
Three Meat Lasagna
Ingredients
- 12-15 No-cook lasagna sheets
- ½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella
For the Béchamel
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 4 tablespoons flour
- 2 2/3 cups milk
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- Freshly grated nutmeg to taste
For the Ragu
- 2 ounces pancetta finely chopped
- 1 medium onion minced
- 1 medium stalk celery with leaves minced
- 1 small carrot minced
- 4 ounces boneless veal shoulder or round ground
- 4 ounces pork loin trimmed of fat, or 4 ounces, ground
- 8 ounces beef skirt steak ground
- 1 ounce thinly sliced Prosciutto di Parma chopped
- 2/3 cup dry red wine
- 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
- 2 cups milk
- 3 whole plum tomatoes from a can drained (you'll have some whole plum tomatoes left over that you can save for another use)
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
For the Béchamel:
- In a large saucepan melt the butter over medium high heat. Add the flour and cook, stirring with a whisk, for 3 minutes. Slowly add the milk, and whisk together. Add the grated nutmeg. Whisk and cook over medium heat for several minutes, until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and let cool.
For the Ragu:
- Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the pancetta and sauté, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, for 5 minutes until some of the fat renders. Add the onion, celery and carrot and continue to cook for 6-7 minutes until softened and fragrant. Add the ground and chopped meats and cook, stirring frequently until deep brown in color.
- Add the wine to the skillet, and reduce the heat to medium low. Stir occasionally until the wine has reduced by half, about 3 minutes.
- Stir ½ cup stock into the saucepan and let it bubble slowly, 10 minutes, or until totally evaporated. Repeat with another ½ cup stock. Stir in the last 1/2 cup stock along with the milk. Partially cover the pot, and cook for 1 hour, stirring frequently.
- Add the tomatoes, crushing them as they go into the pot. Cook uncovered, on medium low heat for another 45 minutes so the sauce resembles a thick, meaty stew. Season with salt and pepper.
- In a large baking dish, place a thin layer of your béchamel sauce. Add a layer of pasta and a layer of béchamel on the pasta and a layer of the ragu. Repeat until you have used all of your pasta. On the top layer of pasta, spread the béchamel sauce and top with Parmesan and mozzarella cheese. Cover with Reynolds Wrap and bake at 350 degrees for about 40-45 minutes. Remove the Reynolds Wrap and bake another 10 minutes until golden brown. Once cooked, remove this from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes before serving!
I love lasagna but have yet to make it with bechamel…thi weekend might be the time to change that!
One of my best friends, Ari at http://www.tastyretreat.com went to Italy last summer with her husband for their honeymoon and blogged about the places they went and the food that they ate! You should def check it out for Honeymoon-spiration 🙂
Oh yum….is there anything better than a big pan of lasagna? With Christmas Eve being so hectic, there are a lot of years when we have it for Christmas dinner! Easy, make-ahead and delicious!
If I was daydreaming about Italy, I would crave lasagna too! Or gnocchi!
That is heaven!!!
This is exactly what I’m craving on a cold Fall day like today! Looks delicious!
I make the same type of lasagne also and sometimes add 1/4 c. chopped Genoa salami and a few slices of minced pepperoni, not too much pepperoni or it will taste like pizza. True, takes more time, but well worth the extra effort.
I love all Italian food. Try making this with fresh noodles sometime. It is wonderful.
Italy would be amazing! And this also looks amazing, when I have a couple extra hours I will definitely have to try it!
My daughter doesn’t like ricotta in her lasagna–so this béchamel may be just the thing–thanks for bringing lasagna back onto the menu!
It is not yet noon, and my mouth is watering for dinner!
This sounds delish and I love all of the flavors that are in here like the red wine and the prosciutto. Ok, bechamel in lasagna is the bomb. My husband used to work at Wegmans way back when and that is how they made theirs. It was to die for…I will have to make this version next. It sounds absolutely perfect.
Absolutely wonderful dish to make! I love lasagna! Beautiful pics too!
I’ve always dreamed of eating my wy through Italy too! Well, just about every country really, but especially Italy!
This is the right way to make lasagne. I, too, make my lasagne with besciamella. I also make my own noodles and use non-alcoholic red wine or beef broth in place of wine (I don’t consume alcohol). Your lasagne look amazing!
I’ve never made lasagna before, but your pictures alone make me want to!
I love spending a few hours just cooking an amazing meal, so this sounds more than worth it to make. Can’t wait!
I loved this lasagna recipe – it really is much better than the one I have been making for years. I was afraid to try something that seemed very different, but took the plunge and very happy I did. My kids loved it and so did my husband, so I think this is going to be the one I make from now.
So glad you and your family loved it, Sophia!!! xoxo
I like to hear that when you break from Mexican food, it’s for Italian food as that’s my favorite food group out there!
honeymoon in Italy sounds perfect – you can watch all the romantic movies set there before you go whilst eating lasagna – not sure how large you’ll be when you get there!!!
That is an absolutely PERFECT lasagna. Keep up the great work! Pinned 🙂
After all the Thanksgiving meal prep, lasagna is my go to for Christmas dinner!! I will be trying this one for sure this year!
I would love to make this! Do you mean three cans of plum tomatoes, or three actual tomatoes, I don’t want to mess it up!
3 whole tomatoes from a can of plum tomatoes!
I had the same question. Wasn’t sure. Glad we know now.
I updated the recipe for future reference! xx
How would you freeze? Assemble then freeze uncooked? Or cook, then freeze and re-warm?
I made this and LOOOOVED it! crowd pleaser! I checked the prep/cook time and thought I would be good starting to cook around 5, but it really takes 3 hours to get it on the table when you include the time it takes to make the sauce. My fault for not reading through the steps more carefully before diving in, but worth noting!
Same here! Making it now- directions are a little misleading on the prep time. With all the simmering, it takes Longer and I should have added more time! But I am sure it will be great!
Should I just add more broth if I don’t want to use the wine?
just 1/2 cup!
Where is the recipe?? I can only see the picture of the lasagna, a paragraph, and the comments.
fixed!
Gaby, do you have any estimate as to how many people this lasagna dish will serve?
8+
I can’t find no bake lasagna sheets, can I just use regular lasagna noodles (in other recipes I have never parboiled the noodles, just put them in hard). Sounds like an amazing dish to spend the day cooking at the cabin on Mt Hood!
1000% yes
Hi Gaby
I’m excited to try this recipe for an upcoming holiday dinner party. The recipe calls for a large baking dish. What size works best? I’m hoping to serve 10.
Thanks!
9×13