Lamb Ragu Rotolo

Lasagne is a labour of love but this one is in a league of its own. It has more components, steps and ingredients, so it takes a lot longer to make that than a usual lasagne because the assembly is quite intricate. So if you’re going to make and try this recipe, be prepared to make this over two days to allow time for everything to come together. It is worth it but it’s also a lot of work, so save this for those moments where you’re celebrating something really special and have plenty of time to go all out on a dish.

Rotolo is a traditional Italian pasta, where sheets of lasagne are filled, rolled and cut before being nestled in sugo and baked in the oven as an open faced lasagne. There is more work involved than a typical lasagne, however what you get is a nice contrast of textures with the bottom half being soft and gooey from bubbling in the sugo and the top section being crunchy and golden. Plus the rosette shape of the rotolo makes it perfect as a single serve.

This dish is inspired by the famous pinwheel lasagne from New York restaurant, Don Angie. However, where they use a sausage bolognese, I thought I’d do a version using my popular Lamb Ragu recipe, which I think takes the rotolo to another level. I’ve also added a chunky basil oil for the garnish, which is a good way to use up any leftover or wilted basil you have from prepping the other components.

Serves: 10-12  

Ingredients: 20+

Skill Level: Medium

Cooking time: 8.5 hours total, components broken down below:

• Lamb Ragu 45 minutes prep time, 3.5hs slow cooking

• Beschiamella- 10 minutes

• Sugo- 15 minutes

• Lasagne sheets- 20 minutes

• Basil oil- 5 minutes

• Rotolo rolling- 30 minutes

• Rotolo fridge chilling- 2 hours

• Rotolo baking time- 45 minutes

Ingredients

Rotolo

• 8-10 (1kg) store bought fresh lasagne sheets

• 500g mozarella, shredded

• 1 cup parmesan, finely grated

• 4 cups of lamb ragu (recipe below)

• 1 cup of beschiamella (recipe below)

• 2 cups of tomato sugo (recipe below)

• ½ cup of a high melting cheese to top the rotolo with. I’ve used mozzarella, but you could also use fontina or taleggio. Don Angie uses a robiolina cheese in their recipe before quickly broiling it, but you may find that hard to come by.

• ⅓ cup of chunky basil oil or fresh basil leaves for garnishing (recipe below)

Lamb Ragu

• 1.5kgs of lamb meat with bones- ask for lamb off cuts from your local butcher, otherwise lamb chops, lamb shoulder or any other bone in lamb work well

• ½ cup of plain flour, to dust the lamb meat

• 2 red onions, finely chopped

• 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

• 1 stick of celery, finally chopped

• 1 carrot, finely chopped

• 3 tablespoons of tomato paste

• 1 bottle of red wine. You’re going to use half the bottle for the sauce and the other half to enjoy with your pasta once it’s done.

• Herbs of your choice- I used a mix of thyme, rosemary and oregano from my garden.

• 2 cans of tomatoes or passata

• 2 tablespoons of fish sauce and/or salt

• 4 bay leaves

• ½ a block of Parmigiano Reggiano or parmesan cheese. You’re going to use the rind for the sauce and grate the rest for serving.

• 1-2 cups of vegetable stock or water

• 1-2 sprigs basil, for the sauce 

• 3 tablespoons of olive oil

• Salt and pepper to taste

Beschiamella

• 1 shallot, finely chopped

• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

• 110g unsalted butter, cold from fridge is fine

• ½ cup plain flour

• 2 cups milk

• Generous pinch of salt

• Your choice of seasoning: pinch of grated nutmeg, bay leaves, pepper

Sugo

• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and flattened with a knife

• 1 bottle of passata

• 1-2 stalks of basil

Basil Oil

• 3-4 stalks of basil, leaves picked

• ¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil

• Generous pinch of salt

Method

Making the Lamb Ragu

Make this at least 1 day prior to assembling the rotolo and cooking it as you need time for the ragu to thicken and cool down before working with it. You could even make this well ahead of time and freeze portions if you wish.

1. Preheat your oven to 170 degrees celsius.

2. Place your lamb meat (1.5kgs) onto a tray and dust all sides of the meat with flour until fully coated.

3. Heat a large pot with some oil and once hot, begin to sear all sides of the lamb until golden brown. Cook only a couple of lamb pieces at a time in the pot and make sure to not overcrowd the pot otherwise you won’t get nice browning on the meat, as the oil will reduce in temperature and you’ll end up steaming your meat instead. Once golden brown, place onto a tray lined with a paper towel, whilst you prepare the sauce.

4. Heat the same pot you seared your lamb in with some oil and once hot, add the onion, garlic, carrot and celery and cook on medium for 5 minutes or until the ingredients have softened and sweated out. Add tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes until fully mixed through the sofrito and deep orange in colour.

5. Add half a bottle of red wine and cook for 2 minutes or until the alcohol has evaporated.

1. Add the canned tomatoes to the pot, stir and then nestle the lamb in the sauce, add your herbs, as well as your parmesan rind and bay leaves. If the lamb is not fully covered, add in some vegetable stock or water to fully cover.

2. Cover with a lid and place into your oven at 170 degrees or on the lowest hob on your stove and cook for approximately 3 hours or until the meat easily comes off the bones. Check in with the ragu every 30 minutes after the two hours as slow cooking times fluctuate from oven to oven. If you are cooking the ragu on your stove, give it a stir every 40 minutes to make sure the bottom of the pot doesn't burn.

3. Once your ragu is cooked, it should be deep brown in colour. Remove from the oven/stove and allow to cool slightly for 10 minutes. Remove the lamb from the sauce onto a tray and remove any other items that you no longer want in your sauce such as: bay leaves, herb stalks and parmesan rind.

4. Remove the bones from the meat and shred the lamb meat with two forks. Once shredded, place the lamb meat back into the ragu and stir to combine. Set aside to fully cool down.

 

Making the Beschiamella

You can either make this the day before and keep chilled in the fridge or make on the day, but allow 1 hour for the beschiamella to cool down.

1. Place the butter into a pot and heat to fully melt. Add in the garlic, shallots, salt and any seasonings and cook on medium for 1 minute until fragrant and translucent.

2. Add the flour and stir well to make a paste, cook for a 2-3 minutes until golden brown.

3. Pour in the milk and stir well to combine. As the mixture heats and thickens, you will need to use a whisk to remove any clumps and make the beschiamella smooth. Add in more milk if it gets too thick, but it should be as thick as clag glue. 

4. Allow to fully cool before using in the rotolo.

 

Making the Sugo

You can either make this the day before and keep chilled in the fridge or make on the day about 30 minutes before you need to assemble the rotolo. Also, if you happen to be in a rush, just pour in a good quality passata straight into the baking tray and forgo the garlic and basil. I’ve tested doing this and feel there is so much flavour and richness in the lamb ragu that you don’t need to invest as much time in the sugo. Especially if you’re doing the basil oil too which will give you that beautiful flavour on top.

1. Heat a pot with olive oil and then add in the garlic cloves cooking for 1 minute until fragrant.

2. Pour in the passata, add in the basil stalks and season with salt if needed.

3. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes. 

4. Take off the heat and allow to cool down before using in the rotolo.

 

Making the Basil Oil

This is an optional garnish that I like to make to use up any leftover, wilting basil as the oil, preserves the flavour, plus adds a lovely finish to rich pastas like a lamb ragu.

1. Place basil, olive oil and salt into a food processor/blender and blend until smooth and bright green. The oil will be chunky because of the basil, but you can add extra oil to thin it out to the consistency you like. It should be thin enough to be able to be poured from a jug. Set aside for serving.

2. Keep any leftovers in the fridge and use within 3 days.

 

Cooking the lasagne sheets

1. Fill a large pot with water and a generous amount of salt and bring to the boil. Meanwhile, set up an ice bath in a large bowl or lipped tray. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper enough to cover your lasagne sheets.

2. Working with one sheet at a time, place a pasta sheet in the boiling water for 15 seconds, then immediately remove and chill in the ice bath for 15 seconds. Transfer to the lined sheet pan and pat dry with a paper towel. Cover with another layer of baking paper and repeat with the remaining pasta, creating a stack of sheets, each patted dry and each layer separated by baking paper.

Making the rotolo rolls

1. On a clean countertop or chopping board, lay out one lasagne sheet with a short side facing you (the sheet should look like a portrait shot) and keep the baking paper it was attached to still underneath. Spread ¼ cup of the besciamella in a thin layer evenly across the sheet. Sprinkle 1 cup of the mozzarella and ¼ cup of parmesan over the besciamella.

2. Place another sheet of pasta on top removing the baking paper. Spread 1 cup of the lamb ragu evenly across the second pasta sheet, leaving a 5cm border uncovered at the top short edge furthest away from you. Spoon 2 teaspoons of the besciamella onto the uncovered edge- this will become the “glue” to seal the roll closed.

3. Starting at the bottom (closest end to you), roll up the layered pasta into a thick log, pulling it away from the baking paper. Press down the seam to seal the roll and then place it back onto the baking paper and wrap so it is fully covered in baking paper. This will protect the roll from drying out and sticking to others in the fridge. Transfer to a sheet pan seam-side down. Place in the refrigerator to chill for at least 1 and up to 2 hours, which will firm it up and make it easier to slice.

4. Repeat the process with the remaining lasagne sheets to make a total of 4 rolls, transferring to the refrigerator as you finish each roll. The rolls can be tightly wrapped in plastic at this point and refrigerated for up to 2 days, or frozen for up to 3 months, before cooking. If frozen, thaw in the refrigerator before slicing.

 

Assembling and baking the rotolo

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees celsius.

2. Pour the sugo into a baking dish, the sugo should be about 3 cm deep.

3. Remove the rolls from the fridge and take one roll and remove it from the baking paper.

4. Slice into four equal pieces crossways, by slicing in half and half again (approx 5-6cm thick)

5. Arrange the lasagne pieces cut side up into the baking dish. The sugo should be halfway up the lasagne and the pieces should be almost touching each other, with some space to expand.

6. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

7. Pull out and add cubes of mozzarella between each lasagne roll on top of the sugo and return into the oven for another 15 minutes to melt and get extra golden.

8. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

9. Garnishing with either fresh basil leaves or the chunk basil oil on top.

 

Serving suggestions

I served this with a radicchio and orange salad (also added some shaved fennel and fennel fronds too) and some garlic bread.If you want to pair this dish with a wine, I’d pair it with a chianti classico, sangiovese or even a light nebbiolo.

 

Freezing notes

You can freeze any leftover rotolo logs for a meal in the future. The rolls can be tightly wrapped in plastic wrap (I’d also keep the baking paper intact) and frozen for up to 3 months, before cooking. If frozen, thaw in the refrigerator before slicing and baking.

You can also freeze any lamb ragu into a container into the freezer. Don't forget to always name and date anything you freeze. I simply use masking tape for the labels.

 

Watch the Process

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by JESSICA NGUYEN- COOK & CREATIVE (@jessica_nguyen_)