Lasagne al Forno

This will be a traditional lasagna recipe-- that means no pasta with ruffles on it. And no ricotta cheese. Yes, that's right, no ricotta cheese. Repeat after me: Lasagna does not have ricotta cheese in it. The "white stuff" in lasagna is actually supposed to be bechamel sauce. You will also not have to boil any pasta. Here's you're shopping list:

ingredients for Ragu' (below)
Oven-ready Lasagna noodles
Ingredients for Bechamel sauce (below)
1 lb provolone cheese chunks

Bechamel (basic white sauce)
3 T butter
3 T flour
2 cups milk
salt & pepper
dash of nutmeg

Melt butter on medium heat, whisk in flour to form a paste. Cook for about a minute while stirring constantly--this will cook the flour so your sauce doesn't taste raw-- slowly add milk, making sure to whisk out any lumps. Don't freak out-- it will look gross and wrong until there is enough milk for it to smooth out. Remember that this sauce will not come to its full thickness until it boils. It may take you a few times to master this sauce, unfortunately it isn't hard to ruin. In Italy it is sold ready-made in boxes.

Make an assembly line for your lasagne. A deep casserole dish will work best. You will need the pasta, ragu', bechamel, cheese, and some salt. Layer the ingredients as follows:

1. Spread a thin layer of ragu' on the bottom of the pan.
2. make a single layer of lasagna sheets-feel free to break the pasta in half if needed. Sprinkle with salt. It will seem strange that you are using uncooked, hard pasta, but the moisture from the sauces will soak into the pasta and cook it in the oven.
3. Spoon an even layer of ragu' over the pasta.
4. Liberally drizzle the bechamel sauce over the ragu'.
5. Sprinkle an even layer of cheese over both sauces.

Repeat this process until all the ingredients are gone, ending with sauce and cheese. If you want a crust on your lasagna, top with a mixture of breadcrumbs and grated parmesan cheese (the real stuff, not that powdered crap in the green can). Bake at 400 degrees for a half hour or until pasta is tender and lasagna is piping hot all the way through. Tip for testing it-- pierce the very middle of the lasagne with a knife and let it sit for 10 seconds. Pull the knife out and touch it. If it's hot the lasagne are done.

Disclaimer: this is so good you will probably throw portion control out the window, so don't plan anything strenuous for afterwords.