carmela soprano’s lasagne
“Sweet sausage, in little pieces? And a layer of basil leaves right underneath the cheese? That’s Carmela’s lasagne.”
-Corrado “Uncle Junior” Soprano
I came to The Sopranos
And the food of the Sopranos is a thing unto itself. Whether’s it’s baked ziti, sfooyadell, cold cuts, Sunday gravy, moozadell, there’s barely a scene goes by without food being mentioned. I took the Sopranos bus tour while in New York, and ate onion rings at Holsten’s too 🙂
I also got given the Sopranos cookbooks
In truth all the recipes are written by prolific author and cookbook writer Michele Scicolone. I can only imagine how much fun she must have had coming up with ‘authentic’ food as eaten by Tony Soprano. She has written over 20 books, won all sorts of awards for recipes and also lives in New York area so was an obvious choice to co-author this book. Even if the Sopranos stuff isn’t for you, they are solid recipes.
Like many Italian-American dishes, it requires a ‘gravy’ which is not the meat juice we might expect. I’ve simplified it down, veal is a pain to get hold of here and Italian sausage… sort of isn’t a thing here. Not in the way Americans mean. But sausages seasoned with fennel, and pork and beef mince hint in the right direction. Here it’s a meaty, tomatoey sauce that forms the base of lasagne. This gravy is the base for a lot of dishes, such as this lasagne and baked ziti.
“What, no f*!#ing ziti now?”
-Anthony “AJ” Soprano Jr
This takes a good couple of hours so it’s not a dish you can just bash out on a whim, because after that you’ve got lots of layers and another 45 minutes in the oven to finish it off. But it does have lots of hands-off time while it cooks so it’s a good one for a weekend.
The gravy is superb though, rich and flavoursome. I’ve kept some back for something else another day. And every time I use a ricotta instead of a white sauce I forget how good it is in a lasagne. And without the faff of a bechamel! The basil was nice though, a pleasing herbal aroma that carries through and it’s tender from cooking. Uncle June was right.
carmela soprano's lasagne
Ingredients
For the gravy:
- 3 sausages if you can get them, Waitrose have incredible 'Italian' style sausages
- 400 g mince beef and pork
- 1 onion diced
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tablespoon tomato puree
- 700 ml litre passata
For the lasagne:
- Lasagne sheets
- A large bunch of basil
- 250 g ricotta
- 250 g mozzarella sliced
- 25 g parmesan grated
Instructions
- To make the gravy, fry the onion and garlic until soft in a large pan with a little oil.
- Skin the sausages and squish each into 3-4 hazelnut size pieces. Add these to the pan and brown a little on all sides over.
- Add the mince and continue to cook until browned.
- Add the puree and passata and bring to a simmer. Cook partially covered for 1½ - 2 hours until rich and thickened. At this point check for seasoning - plenty of pepper is welcome here.
- Beat the ricotta with the parmesan, adding salt and pepper to taste (you may want to add a couple of tablespoons of milk to loosen it, as you're going to spread it in a minute). Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- In a 6cm deep oven dish put a thin layer of meat sauce on the bottom. Cover with lasagne sheets, then another layer of meat sauce.
- Top this with ricotta and some parmesan, then a layer of basil leaves. Top this with mozzrella, then lasagne. Start the layering all over again until you reach the top of the dish.
- Make the top layer meat sauce, ricotta and mozzarella. Bung in the oven until you can push a knife through with little resistance, about 45 minutes - 1 hour. Cover with foil if it's starting to darken too quickly.
- Leave the lasagna out for five minutes to allow it all to meld together - this makes it easier to cut up.
Video
Notes
Layered with basil leaves… hmm.. Now that sounds pretty good! Is this fresh basil leaves or the dried leaves you get in the small spice containers. This is interesting, I have not heard of trying this. This is how my grandmother made lasagna and how I make it and is very hard to deviate because it’s the lasagna I grew up with. I think the Italian recipes you grow up with are always the best because of all the good times attached with them! Try this one if you have the time one day, I highly recommend, but then I am a bit bias since it’s my Italian family recipe 🙂
Anthony’s Lasagna Recipe
Of course one thing that people miss in regards to making a very good Lasagna and that is making good sauce to go with it. In my opinion a good lasagna should be made with a sauce that has been cooked with a lot of meat like Meatballs, Sausage and Braciole, that flavor gets into the Lasagna and makes it heavenly!
Happy cooking, happy times and share the LOVE!
Ciao, Anthony
Hey Anthony,
This is made with fresh basil. I don’t have a lot of time for dried basil, it smells weird!
I totally agree about the meat sauce, in the UK we don’t have a tradition of making a good “gravy” as you guys call it. But when you make it with good pork & beef and allow it to break down in the tomato sauce… heavenly!
Thanks for your grandmother’s version, I will give it a go.
Gary
Gary,
Yes, Heavenly is the perfect phrase to explain the experience 🙂 Right, Pork! I forgot to mention the pork. VERY important! I like to fry up salt pork for the pork fat/grease and brown my meatballs in that yummy stuff before adding to the sauce. Heavenly! I also brown some pork chops and throw those in the sauce as well.
YUM!
Wow! I’ve only just got into the Soprano’s (shameful, I know) after getting my boyfriend the boxset for Christmas. We’ve almost finished it, it’s so addictive. I was actually just searching for the Ricotta Pie, Carmela often makes then came across this lasagne. I will be making this tomorrow, thank you.
I was late to Sopranos too, don’t worry! Just enjoy the fact that you’re enjoying it now 🙂
Enjoy the recipe. I will go off looking for ricotta pie now…
You got the quote wrong. Junior actually said, “Sweet sausage along with the beef, and a layer of torn fresh basil leaves under the cheese?” and then says “That’s Carmela’s lasagna.”
Thanks for the correction! I’m getting too old, I must have a memory like Corrado’s 😉
Actually I think there are two separate quotes from Junior about Carmella’s lasagne in the series so you’re both right.
Hey, I have been searching for Carmela’s recipe! Just wondering how big the sausages are? I have never bought whole Italian sausage… is it meant to be the same sort of size as a British banger?
Hi Sara. A few years later these still aren’t very easy to find in the UK! But yes they are a similar size to a UK sausage.