Lazania sto Fourno (Oven-baked Cypriot Lasagne) is a traditional Cypriot recipe for a classic lasagne of home-made milk pasta sheets layered with a meat sauce and a cream sauce that's oven baked to cook. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Cypriot version of: Oven-baked Cypriot Lasagne (Lazania sto Fourno).
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Ingredients:
For the Cream Sauce:
750ml fresh milk (hot)
4 tbsp oil
4 tbsp plain flour
4 egg yolks
100g grated cheese
1/4 tsp freshly-grated nutmeg
salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
For the Meat Sauce:
1 tbsp onion, finely chopped
100g ripe tomatoes, finely chopped
1 tsp tomato purée
120ml corn oil
1kg minced meat
50g parsley, finely chopped
120ml dry white wine
salt and freshly-ground black pepper to taste
For the Dough:
550g plain flour
4 eggs
250ml fresh milk
1 tsp salt
Method:
Begin with the dough. Sift together the flour and salt into a bowl. Gradually add the eggs and milk, mixing them into the flour until the dough becomes quite stiff. Cover with a cloth and set aside to rest for 45 minutes.
After this time, cut the dough into small pieces and pass these through a pasta machine to shape into long strips about 14cm wide. Dust with flour and stack 3 of these strips together. Straighten the edges then cut the strips until you have squares about 7cm wide.
Spread these out on your work surface and sprinkle with flour.
For the cream sauce: Heat the oil in a small pan and gradually work in the flour, stirring constantly. Beat in the milk a little at a time. When all the milk has been added and the mixture has thickened take the pan off the heat and then beat in the egg yolks, grated cheese, nutmeg, salt and black pepper. Set aside.
For the meat sauce: Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the onions and fry until lightly browned (about 6 minutes). Add the meat and fry until browned then add the wine and bring to a boil. Cook for 2 minutes then add the parsley, chopped tomatoes and tomato purée. Reduce the heat and cook for 30 minutes.
To assemble the lasagne, bring a pan of water to a boil. Add the pasta sheets and cook for about 6 minutes, or until tender. Drain the pasta. Butter a pie dish and arrange a layer of the pasta sheets in the base. Cover with 1/4 of the cream sauce and then with 1/3 the meat sauce. Scatter over some of the cheese then repeat the layering twice more.
Top the final layer of past with the cream sauce and sprinkle over the remaining grated cheese. Drizzle over a few drops of oil then transfer the pie dish to an oven pre-heated to 180°C and bake for 30 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown.
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