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Lasagna is one of those dishes with almost limitless possible variations. You can have eggplant lasagna, cheese lasagna, white lasagna, the list goes on and on. This recipe is, what I personally consider, basic, default, lasagna. Any other lasagna recipe that I may post in the future will require some other word to describe it, as illustrated previously, but when I think of simply “lasagna”, this is it. While just about any style of lasagna can be absolutely delicious, this recipe is my favourite version. This lasagna tastes like home.

This, like so many of my other recipes, is a variation of my mother’s recipe. The main differences with my version, all of which are optional, are that I make my own lasagna pasta, I use Bison meat instead of ground beef, and I often mix some soft unripened goat cheese in with the ricotta cheese, though I did not do so for this tutorial, since it is not that important and I think that most people will not choose to add it. You can buy your lasagna noodles and use ground beef or turkey or whatever your heart desires, and you will still have a great lasagna! I urge you, however, if you have the time and can access all of the ingredients necessary, try making it my way. While substitutions in this kind of recipe are totally acceptable and don’t necessarily ruin the dish, there is a reason why I made the choices that I have made. Short of discovering new ingredients, this recipe, in my opinion is as good as it gets, and when I am forced to compromise it due to time restrictions or lack of a certain ingredient, I find that it is just slightly less than perfect.

This recipe will yield about 8 servings of lasagna.

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This is a recipe for a very simple, all purpose pasta dough. The resulting pasta is easy to cook, typically only taking a few seconds in the water, unlike dried pasta that can take 10 minutes or more. It has just the right mouth feel, perfectly al dente. It only takes about 30 minutes to prepare the dough, and most of that time is spent resting the dough.

Currently, I have no pasta maker, no machine to help me shape noodles. That is OK! They aren’t necessary. I cannot make macaroni or ziti, or other tubular pastas yet, but there are many shapes of pasta that you can make with only your hands, or a knife, or cookie cutters. Without a pasta machine, the pasta is usually a bit rustic looking, but that only adds charm to the dish. I will provide you with instructions on how to cut and form various pasta/noodle shapes.

As I have already said, this recipe is simple, but it can be jazzed up in countless ways. Add a splash of white wine, or some cooked spinach, or tomatoes. You can even play around with the flour. For this basic pasta, a half and half mix of Semolina flour and white all-purpose flour creates what, to me is, a perfect texture. But there are times when I want a slightly softer pasta. For instance when I make ravioli or tortellini, I think that a softer noodle works best and I, therefor, substitute a second cup of all-purpose flour for the Semolina. You can also try using whole wheat flour. Making your own pasta is really a lot of fun and will allow you to be very creative with your cooking. In future recipes I will provide details on some of these and other mods, so keep an eye out for those if you want to try them and think you need more directions.

This recipe will yield enough dough for approximately six to eight servings of pasta. This serving estimation may vary greatly depending on the kind of pasta you are making.