Sperandina’s asparagus lasagna from Le Marche (lasagna con asparagi)

This lasagna is one Sperandina serves in spring when there is plenty of wild asparagus on her hillside.

Credit: Hardie Grant Books / Lizzie Mayson

• serves

  6-9

• prep

  45 minutes

• cook

  1 hour

• difficulty

  Mid

Sperandina lives at the foot of Monti Sibilini in Le Marche. Its most famous lasagna is ‘vincisgrassi’, which now has an official recipe; the meat ragù is enriched with chicken offal. But Sperandina refers to this dish as vincisgrassi because locally that is what all lasagna are called. This is the joy of pasta names! Call it what you want and do try it. You can use frozen asparagus instead of fresh, but bear in mind it’s more watery. If you would like the dish to be more green rather than khaki, add a few spinach leaves to the vegetables before pureeing them.

(See Sperandina making the dish here). 

Ingredients

For the pasta

• 300 g (2½ cups) 00 flour
• 165 g egg or 3 eggs

For the béchamel sauce

• 40 g unsalted butter
• 40 g 00 flour
• 750 ml (3 cups) full-fat milk
• nutmeg
• salt

For the filling

• 900 g trimmed fresh or frozen asparagus, sliced in widthways
• 800 ml (3½ cups) béchamel sauce (above)
• 300 g cow’s milk mozzarella (the block style is fine) cut into small cubes
• 100 g grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Resting time: 30 minutes. Cooling time: 15 minutes.

Instructions

1. To make the pasta dough, tip the flour onto a pasta board and make a generous well in the middle in which to pour your eggs. Crack the eggs into the well. Use a fork or your fingers to scramble them as if you are making an omelette; the liquid should not be clumpy with yolk and white but properly mixed together. Then, slowly draw in a bit of flour at a time, making sure there’s a consistently smooth mixture with no flour-bergs. Eventually you’ll end up with a bit of a shaggy mess which you should heap together; start working this dough into a ball. Use a light touch when the egg is still wet, so you do not get too much stuck to your hands.
2. When you have a ball of pasta dough and no flour left on the board, start kneading the dough. This is a soft massage where you use your body weight to lean in on the pasta and make a dent with the heel of your hand and push forward on the board. Flatten, push, then pull the pasta back over itself constantly for 10 minutes. Time it. You will end up with a smooth and bouncy ball of pasta. Leave it covered for a good 30 minutes.
3. Once rested, roll it out to a thickness of 1–2 mm and cut it to fit a 32 x 25 x 8 cm baking dish or roasting tin. You should be able to create 4 layers with this amount of dough.
4. Make the béchamel sauce. Melt the butter in a non-stick saucepan over a medium heat. Add the flour and use a wooden spoon to beat the two ingredients together and form a roux. Cook it for a couple of minutes then gradually pour in the milk, stirring all the while. Season with salt and plenty of freshly grated nutmeg.
5. Bring some salted water to the boil in a saucepan. Chuck in the asparagus bottom halves and simmer for 3 minutes then add the top halves, which don’t take as long to cook. Once tender (there should be no resistance when you stab a piece with a sharp pointed knife), drain and reserve the water. Blitz the asparagus with a stick blender, adding as much of the asparagus water as you need to form an easily spreadable puree. If using frozen asparagus, plunge them in boiling salted water and wait for the water to come back to a full rolling boil, then check frequently for doneness. They tend to be more watery so it will be easier to make a smooth puree without too much additional cooking water. Taste the puree and adjust its seasoning; not enough salt will make the lasagna taste a tad flat.
6. Have ready a large bowl of very cold salted water. Blanch the pasta rectangles one by one in a large pot of boiling salted water for 1 minute, then remove them with a spider strainer and plunge them into the water. Once cooled, place them on a perfume-free tea towel to remove the excess water.
7. Now assemble the dish. Start with a layer of béchamel, then pasta, a thin layer of béchamel, then puree of asparagus, a sprinkle of Parmigiano and mozzarella, then repeat until you have 4 layers of pasta. Aim to finish off all the asparagus at this stage.
8. Finish the top with a smoothing of béchamel, and plenty of Parmigiano and mozzarella.
9. Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes and, if the top is not browned and crusty, turn on the top grill and let it heat up before placing the lasagna under it. Leave it there for as long as it takes for the cheese to colour.
10. Remove from the oven and let the lasagna cool for around 15 minutes before serving.

 

Recipe and image from Pasta Grannies: Comfort Cooking by Vicky Bennison (Hardie Grant Books, RRP $45 AUD, available in-stores nationally). Photography: Lizzie Mayson.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

Sperandina lives at the foot of Monti Sibilini in Le Marche. Its most famous lasagna is ‘vincisgrassi’, which now has an official recipe; the meat ragù is enriched with chicken offal. But Sperandina refers to this dish as vincisgrassi because locally that is what all lasagna are called. This is the joy of pasta names! Call it what you want and do try it. You can use frozen asparagus instead of fresh, but bear in mind it’s more watery. If you would like the dish to be more green rather than khaki, add a few spinach leaves to the vegetables before pureeing them.

(See Sperandina making the dish here).