Get ready for a twist on the classic lasagna! In this video, Chef John shows you how to make his Handkerchief Lasagna—delicate layers of handkerchief pasta, tangy tomato sauce, creamy ricotta, and melted mozzarella. This light, yet satisfying dish takes the richness of traditional lasagna and adds a fresh, elegant touch.
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00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with handkerchief lasagna.
00:08That's right, I'm going to show you how to make handkerchief pasta,
00:11and then how to turn it into one of the best versions of lasagna ever,
00:15which I believe is how lasagna used to be enjoyed,
00:18before us Italian Americans turned it into a giant cheese casserole.
00:22But anyway, to get started, we're going to need one batch of our pasta dough
00:25that we just showed you how to do in the annulati video,
00:28and we'll include the ingredients and procedure in the written recipe.
00:32And after dividing that in half, we will shape that into a rectangle,
00:37and then roll this out very, very thinly.
00:39And by the way, I'm being pretty generous with the flour here.
00:42Okay, as I started to work with this dough, it seemed a little bit on the soft side,
00:46which is actually great for what we're doing here.
00:49And while it might be easier to cut this up and roll out two or four pieces instead,
00:54I think it saves time if we could just do one giant piece.
00:56Plus, it's more fun.
00:59And the key here is to get this as thin as humanly possible,
01:02while trying to maintain something close to a rectangular shape.
01:06And if you end up with a few small holes here and there,
01:08or a few creases, or an irregular edge, don't worry about it.
01:13As long as we end up with something we can pretty much see our hand through,
01:16we did a good job.
01:17And as you'll see in the final product, all flaws will be invisible.
01:22And once we're happy with the size and the thickness,
01:24we'll go ahead and flip that over to make sure it's not sticking.
01:27And we'll dust and rub a little bit of flour on the top
01:29before we take a cutter and divide this right down the middle
01:33into two nice long strips.
01:36And we could, if we want, divide this into four before we boil it.
01:39But personally, I think it's easier to fish in two long pieces out of the water
01:42than four smaller ones.
01:45So that's what I'm going to do.
01:47And as I pick this up to head to my boiling salted water,
01:50I'll give you one more look at how thin this should be.
01:53And that's it.
01:54We'll head to the stove,
01:55where we will very slowly and very deliberately
01:58lower this into our boiling water.
02:01And by transferring in our pasta like this,
02:03that boiling water is going to seal the surface.
02:06And once the entire piece is in,
02:08it will not stick to itself or any other pieces.
02:11So we'll do that with both strips.
02:14And then once it's in there,
02:15we'll cook this exactly for one and a half minutes,
02:18during which time we'll constantly poke it down with our tongs
02:21to make sure none of our pasta is staying above the water and not cooking.
02:26And that's it.
02:26After boiling for one minute and 30 seconds,
02:29we will carefully remove our two strips of pasta to a bowl of cold water,
02:33which of course is going to stop the cooking process.
02:37Oh, and if you do happen to get a few tears while you do this,
02:39please don't worry.
02:41Like I said, once you're eating this after it's baked,
02:43you will never know.
02:45And yes, it does look very fabric-like at this point,
02:48which is where this pasta gets its name.
02:50But anyway, what we'll do is fish that out of the water
02:53and we'll place that on our work surface,
02:56at which point we'll divide these in half
02:57to get four rectangles.
02:59Oh, and by the way, it's totally fine
03:01if a little bit of water comes with the pasta
03:02when you pull it out of the bowl.
03:04That will keep it nice and hydrated
03:06and prevent it from sticking.
03:08And then to start assembling our lasagna,
03:11we will take our cheese filling,
03:13which is the exact same cheese filling
03:14we used for the annulati video.
03:17And just like the pasta,
03:18we will include the ingredients
03:19and the steps in the written recipe.
03:21And what we want to do is dollop
03:23and then spread that evenly
03:25over our four handkerchiefs.
03:27But, and this is very important,
03:29I want you to reserve about half a cup of the filling
03:31and set that aside,
03:33since we're going to use that between our layers
03:34when we build this.
03:36Okay, so other than that amount,
03:38we'll divide the rest evenly over our four pieces.
03:41And once that's been roughly spread out as shown,
03:44we will top it next with our tomato sauce.
03:47And for that, we will use a pretty light hand.
03:50Okay, making this style of lasagna
03:51is kind of similar to making a good pizza,
03:54where we want to be very careful
03:55not to use too much sauce
03:57or load it down with too many toppings.
03:59So I don't think we want to spoon on any more than this.
04:03And then next up, if you have it,
04:04I'm going to tear up and place over
04:06some nice fresh basil leaves,
04:07which could also be some fresh spinach
04:09that you blanched and squeezed dry.
04:11Or really any kind of seasonal vegetable
04:13that's been cooked and sliced thin
04:15so there are a lot of different directions
04:17you can go with the filling.
04:19I mean, you are, after all, the caliph
04:21of your stuffed handkerchief.
04:23And that's it.
04:24We'll finish the filling up
04:25with some shredded mozzarella.
04:27Again, being careful not to overdo it.
04:30And then once we've transferred everything on
04:31we're going to include,
04:32we will simply fold these in half.
04:35And once we've done that to all four,
04:37we can transfer some sauce
04:38into the bottom of a baking dish
04:40or a pan like this.
04:42And once that's been accomplished,
04:44we will lay the first of our four stuffed handkerchiefs down.
04:47And then remember when I told you
04:49to save some of the cheese filling?
04:51What we'll do is take a third of that
04:52and dollop it over the top,
04:54followed by a little bit of sauce
04:56and then a little bit of mozzarella.
04:59And we're doing that
05:00so we don't have any bare pasta-on-pasta contact.
05:04And when we cut into this,
05:05we want to make sure there's filling between each layer.
05:08And that's it.
05:09We'll place our second stuffed handkerchief over the top
05:11and we'll repeat the exact same steps,
05:14topping that with our cheese mixture
05:16and our sauce and our mozzarella.
05:18And then our third handkerchief,
05:21which I grew up pronouncing handkerchief.
05:23And by the way, as I'm doing this,
05:25as you can see,
05:26we're kind of offsetting them a little bit
05:27just to possibly make things
05:29a little more visually interesting.
05:30And then once we have our fourth
05:33and final piece placed over,
05:35I like to sauce the entire surface
05:37before topping with some more mozzarella.
05:40But if you want this to look more handkerchief-y,
05:42you can not do this
05:44and just bake it like that
05:45so you can actually see the layers
05:47of the handkerchief pasta.
05:49And then you would serve a little more sauce
05:50on the side if you needed.
05:52But as you can see,
05:53I'm going to smother the whole top with sauce.
05:56And then as I said,
05:57top this with mozzarella.
05:58But no matter which way you go,
06:00it's going to look amazing once it's baked.
06:03And once my sauce and mozzarella are applied,
06:05I'm going to go ahead and dust the top
06:06with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
06:09And obviously we're using the real stuff,
06:11Parmigiano-Reggiano.
06:13And then for a final touch,
06:15we'll do a nice drizzle of olive oil.
06:17At which point this is ready to transfer
06:19into the center of a 450 degree oven
06:22for about 30 minutes
06:24or until it's piping hot
06:25and beautifully browned.
06:27And it hopefully looks like this.
06:30Oh yeah, that is a beauty.
06:32Oh, and by the way,
06:33don't forget to leave your towels
06:34or potholders right on the handles
06:35so everybody in the kitchen knows it's hot.
06:39And then I hate to be the bearer of bad news,
06:41but you got to let this sit and cool
06:42and set up for at least 10 to 15 minutes.
06:44I mean, you don't have to, but you should.
06:47And while we're waiting,
06:48we can chiffon out some basil to use as a garnish,
06:51which I think looks really beautiful
06:53scattered over the top.
06:54Not to mention the taste
06:56and amazing fragrance it adds.
06:58And that's it.
06:59Once our lasagna has rested for a little while,
07:01we'll go ahead and cut out a portion,
07:03which is going to be one quarter of this.
07:06And as I lifted that up and out
07:08and plaited it up,
07:09I could not have been happier
07:10with how that came out.
07:12Right, this really is a beautiful lasagna
07:14inside and out.
07:16And I couldn't wait to grab a fork
07:18and go in for the official taste.
07:20And that, my friends,
07:21if you like regular cheese lasagna,
07:23you are going to lose your minds over this.
07:26Okay, while the ingredients are going to be similar,
07:28there's a shocking difference
07:29between like four layers of thicker pasta
07:32and eight layers of this really thin homemade pasta.
07:35And I feel like this is what lasagna should be
07:38and what it used to be.
07:39All right, I'm not sure how or when it happened,
07:42but at some point,
07:43lasagna turned into this super thick,
07:45super cheesy casserole.
07:47And it got away from the original dish,
07:49which is supposed to be a pasta dish
07:50with a little bit of filling between each layer.
07:53And as I touched on earlier,
07:55those layers of filling can be anything.
07:57Oh, and if you're not into making lasagna,
07:59just do the handkerchief pasta part.
08:02And then once it's cooked and cooled,
08:04just cut it up into a bunch of smaller squares
08:06and just heat your favorite pasta sauce in a pan
08:09and toss it in.
08:10And that's actually the original, I believe,
08:13and the first version I ever had of handkerchief pasta.
08:15In fact, it was done with a creamy pesto sauce.
08:18And I've been in love with this edible fabric ever since.
08:21But whether you make this exactly as shown
08:24or tailor it,
08:26yes, tailor it to your own taste,
08:29I think you're going to love this as much as I do.
08:31And I really do hope you give it a try soon.
08:34So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts,
08:37a printable written recipe,
08:39and much for info as usual.
08:41And as always,
08:43enjoy.
08:44Enjoy.
08:44Enjoy.