First of the Month Recipe: Homemade Calabrian Lasagna

You know you are loved when you visit a home in Calabria and are served a generous helping of homemade lasagna. For many Calabrians, lasagna is a special meal and in the busy world we live in today-yes, even here in Calabria-it is hard to find time to prepare this dish the way you should.

I remember being served lasagna by just about every new in-law I met and while some were decidedly better than others-gulp … I’ve discussed this!-they all had that special je ne sais quoi that made them uniquely Calabrian.

Over the last few years, my husband and I have worked diligently to perfect our Calabrian lasagna recipe and we’re gonna share it with you today.

Ingredients
(serves six)

>> 1 pound lasagna
>> 4 cups of tomato sauce
>> 1 cup of grated Pecorino cheese
>> 1/2 cup of cubed Provola cheese
>> 4 eggs, hard-boiled
>> 1/2 pound, Proscuitto cotto (cooked ham)
>> Homemade besciamella
>> Bolognese sauce

Directions

1. Prepare the bolognese and besciamella sauces and boil the eggs.

2. Heat the tomato sauce and add salt, as needed to give it flavor.

3. Grease your baking pan with butter and add a layer of tomato sauce.

4. Add a layer of lasagna, cover with besciamella, then bolognese.

5. Cover with half of the Pecorino.

6. Add another layer of lasagna-in the opposite direction from the first layer-then cover with the provola, ham and eggs.

7. Add the final layer of lasagna and cover it with besciamella, tomato sauce and the remaining Pecorino.

8. Bake on 400° for 30 minutes.

Buon appetito!

Have you ever had Calabrian lasagna? What did you think?

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16 Responses
  1. I had not heard before of this version with eggs and ham in it!! It looks like a calory rich dish to me, but maybe very tasty…:)

    Oh yea, it is a “bumba!”

  2. Great new take on a classic, Cherrye. I think that would keep me going for weeks – that’s proper fill-your-boots food, that is.

    I did a Katja lasagne the other day. Not in the least traditional (so far as I know), but yummy nonetheless. The ‘ragù’ was made up of slowly sweated zucchini and mushrooms, with artichoke hearts, sour cream and basil pesto stirred in at the last minute. Because the ragù itself was quite creamy, I didn’t bother with béchamel (I had a classically French cookery training, and can’t get used to calling it besciamella!), and instead just sprinkled a generous layer of mozzarella over the top, before popping it into the oven for 45 mins or so. Delicious, if I do say so myself …

    Ooooh, sounds fabulous! I love vegetarian dishes like this. What did you use for sour cream?

    .-= Katja | Driving Like a Maniac´s last blog ..On littering and lion tamers =-.

  3. Judy Mancuso

    My husband “courted” me with his version of a baked macaroni that has hard boiled eggs, pepperoni, swiss cheese, rigatoni, Parmesan cheese, his homemade pasta sauce all layered and baked. When I was too full to eat it at his house in CA, he wrapped it in layers of foil and sent it with me on the plane back to Arizona and it was still warm when I arrived. That was before 9/11, but the security couldn’t believe I was so lucky and my then beau had to make a cut in the foil to prove what I was carrying. Yummm

    Ha! What a funny story. 🙂

  4. Hi Cherrye… had my share of Calabrian Lasagna the last couple of weeks. Yours looks delicious. I was pretty busy during my visit but will be back this summer, so maybe we can meet up for that drink then. Hope you and your family have a great Pasqua and Pasquetta!

    Thanks, Joe. I hope you enjoyed this fabulous weather when you were here. Unbelievable!

  5. Oh yum! This looks a lot like some of the home lasagna I’ve had here in Campania, but everyone has their special little touches. Do you eat lasagna down there throughout the year? Maybe it’s just my boyfriend’s family, but we only get to eat it leading up to Carnevale. I miss it the rest of the year!

    Yea, we eat it year-round, Laura. You can come down here and have some with us, if you want. 😉

    .-= Laura from Ciao Amalfi´s last blog ..A Magical Evening of Tango on the Amalfi Coast =-.

  6. Antoinette

    I made this lasagna tonight and WOW! It was the best I have ever made or tasted! The entire family just loved it! I know it will be my lasagna recipe from now on! Thanks for sharing 😉

  7. Kim

    My sister in-law made this years ago….instead of the ham she
    used mortadella…it was delicious….Thanks for bringing back the
    memory….

  8. Craig

    My father was from Calabria. He always used hard boiled eggs in his Lasagna as well but people here in the states always gave us a weird look when he told them he did that. I am glad to see this is really a traditional ingredient. Very similar to your recipe, he added home made sausage with a robust seasoning of fennel.

  9. Trudi

    My husband ordered Calabrian Lasagna when we were in Calabria a few years ago. He kept raving about it and asking me to try and make it for him. I hadn’t even tasted it so had no idea how to make it. We decided we would spend some time trying recipes to see if we could come close to what he had eaten. Yours was the first attempt. As soon as he took the first bite, he said you nailed it. This is exactly the way I remember it. Thanks for the wonderful recipe. A lot of work but well worth it.

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